Another Cold War?
An Expense Our Nation Cannot Afford.

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Web Extra By: Victoria Samson, CDI Research Analyst

As the U.S. economy descends into crisis the Bush administration continues to waste tax payer dollars on aggressive military posturing reminiscent of the Regan era Space Wars. Then, Peace Action was part of a nationwide coalition against nuclear weapons and interstellar missiles which halted Regan’s newest Cold War plans before the program was fully implemented. Today, we must again unite our efforts to combat a new space war with the potential to spur another major U.S. recession.

The Bush administration is less obvious than its predecessor about their intentions to dominate the orbit around Earth. On January of 2007 China successfully destroyed one of their communication satellites with a ground missile in an operation the Bush administration called “hostel.” A little more than one year later the U.S. Navy announced they too would destroy an orbiting satellite with a ground missile.

The satellite, USA-193, was unresponsive to earth based controls and U.S. officials insisted, despite scientific testimony to the contrary, that destroying it was necessary for global safety. The complacency of the mainstream media was apparent in the days leading up to the $100 million shot into space. None of the experts who disagreed with the Administration’s plan to destroy the satellite were given appropriate coverage.

In that same month Russia and China tabled a draft treaty banning space weapons at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. The treaty, at most, is weak and unresponsive to the potential threat of a new space war; hundreds of thousands of scattered debris in our orbit, newer and more deadly missiles, and a high potential to bring the space wars out of orbit and into our terrestrial boarders.

These three Goliath States will continue to assert their dominance in space until the global community speaks out again. We’ve started that conversation by sending our Executive Director to participate in a citizen diplomatic delegation. We’ll have updates for you when he returns. Get involved today by joining Peace Action’s campaigns against new nuclear and interstellar weapons at the Peace Action website.