War Commentary

Good News From Fallujah

The enemy is starting to turn on themselves.

…residents said the U.S-led offensive opened strains between the local insurgents and the foreigners. When a senior Zarqawi commander was found dead of a bullet to the head during the battle, many interpreted his death as the result of an insurgent execution.

Besides the commander’s death, the bodies of 20 foreign fighters also were found shot to death execution-style, military officials said.

Space

Sorry, Barsoomophiles

There’s apparently a lot of public support for going back to the moon, but not much for going to Mars.

While I agree with that sentiment, I found this part a little less encouraging:

Out of 5 options, Americans ranked “International participation and cost-sharing” as their #1 choice for funding the Vision — with certain conditions.

That’s a failure of public education, to my mind (or a success of propaganda, depending on your point of view…). They don’t realize that “cost sharing” tends to increase costs to the point that we end up spending more than we would if we simply did it on our own.

And here’s some more propaganda that people seem to have absorbed:

Americans understand and appreciate the benefits of the space program (“spin-offs,” science, and the impact of space-based technology developments to daily lives).

My concern with this is not just that it’s probably not true (spinoff is highly overrated as a net benefit of space programs), but that if the purpose of having a space program is international cooperation and spinoff, it becomes possible to have a program that achieves those goals with no discernable progress in actually doing something in space. See the ISS for a sterling example.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!