Iran has been getting pointers on rocket design, from that noted space power, North Korea.
Good luck with that. Not.
Dinesh D’Souza
…is taken to school by Jamie Glazov, who by far has the best of the argument.
D’Souza comes off, to me as either extremely naive, or disingenuous, or both.
Dinesh D’Souza
…is taken to school by Jamie Glazov, who by far has the best of the argument.
D’Souza comes off, to me as either extremely naive, or disingenuous, or both.
Dinesh D’Souza
…is taken to school by Jamie Glazov, who by far has the best of the argument.
D’Souza comes off, to me as either extremely naive, or disingenuous, or both.
The Arab-Persian War
That’s largely not being covered by the press.
The Saudis are even, secretly, cooperating with the Israelis. Iran has always been seen as a greater danger to Israel than the surrounding Sunni Arab nations. Hizbollah, which is a Lebanese Shia organization, made a name for itself during its disastrous attack on Israel last Summer. Although Hizbollah lost by every measure, they won in the arena of public opinion. Both the Israelis and Saudi Arabs (and Sunni Arabs in general) hated that.
Growing Consensus?
It looks like a lot of people are starting to agree with me that we need more responsive military space systems:
Peter Hays, a Science Applications International Corp. employee and senior policy analyst supporting the plans and programs division at the Defense Department’s National Space Security Office, said that small, distributive space-based systems could particularly benefit compared with larger satellites – speeding up a shift that already started. The new attention could even re-energize the U.S. aerospace industry, he said.
“It could be a fire under people that was lacking,” Hays said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if other things get energized.”
Of course, as I predicted (hardly a feat worthy of Kreskin) we have the usual foolishness from the usual suspects:
“American satellites are the soft underbelly of our national security, and it is urgent that President Bush move to guarantee their protection by initiating an international agreement to ban the development, testing, and deployment of space weapons and anti-satellite systems,” said Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), House telecommunications and Internet subcommittee chairman.
Yes, as I noted in my article, this is exactly what they’d like. If Congressman Markey (and others like him) actually were on the side of the Chinese, how would they behave differently?
[Update late afternoon]
Useful comments in the comments section. It seems to me is that what we want is not a treaty to ban ASATs, which is certainly impractical (and would be to our great disadvantage). A much better model is a convention, similar to Geneva, in which we stipulate the manner in which anti-satellite warfare is to be conducted, in order to eliminate, or at least minimize, collateral damage. I haven’t thought about it much further than that, but it’s what Theresa Hitchens et al have in mind, we’re probably on the same page. But I suspect that’s a different page than Rep. Markey.
Bad Losers
The Afghan people seem to be getting tired of the Taliban:
Another annoyance was the large number of the Taliban fighters who were from far away, mainly Pakistan. Al Qaeda also sent in some Arabs and Central Asians, and these guys were not very popular either. By the end of 2006, the Taliban tactics has terrorized many Afghans into compliance. But many others were actively resisting the Taliban, and providing information to NATO and Afghan troops. Over the Winter, the Taliban have continued to take a beating. This means the Taliban appear ready to enter this years Spring Offensive tagged as a bunch of vicious losers. The Taliban tactics have been more successful in generating fear, than recruits. Even across the border in Pakistan, it’s getting difficult to get smart young fellows to sign up. Those guys with half a brain noted that most of those who went off to fight last year, either didn’t come back, or came back wounded or ill.
How Howard Dean Got His Start?
And now for something completely different: a four-year-old boy who kills chickens by screaming:
A villager was quoted as saying the little boy bent over the henhouse window, screaming for a long time, after being scared by the dog.
“One neighbour told police that he had heard the boy’s crying that afternoon and another villager confirmed the boy screaming by the henhouse window,” the newspaper said.
A court ruled the boy’s screaming was “the only unexpected abnormal sound” and that 443 chickens trampled each other to death in fear.
A Head Scratcher
Here’s a piece by a Greg Autrey in the Baltimore Sun on space policy. It’s kind of a mess:
Why should we care about missiles threatening low Earth orbit? When the Chinese get on with reabsorbing Taiwan – the most likely trigger for a U.S.-China confrontation – U.S. drivers may find that the navigation systems in their SUVs (not to mention their ambulances) aren’t working. Low-flying U.S. military spy satellites are the first target of the new weapon, but the slightly higher GPS (global positioning system) satellites that guide our weapons systems are also attractive to Chinese war planners.
Or, what about when the censorship-savvy Chinese government decides it has had enough of Howard Stern corrupting the youth and takes out Sirius satellite radio?
GPS isn’t “slightly higher.” It’s thousands of miles higher. GEO, where satellite radio satellites reside is thousand of miles higher than that.
But the real problem is that the whole thing is incoherent. What does the “sands of the moon” have to do with ASATs? Just what is it that he’s recommending, policy-wise? More money for NASA? More encouragement of private enterprise? How?
You’d think that with all the knowledge out here on the web, newspapers could find better commentators on space than “a lecturer on business strategy and entrepreneurship.”
Blast From The Past
Keith Cowing has some amusing (and ironic) old space station propaganda.