The new U.S. National Space Policy from the Bush administration was released late last week, interestingly on the last day of our annual Keep Space for Peace Week. The new policy makes several policy departures from past space doctrines. They are:
* Calling for the deployment of offensive weapons systems in space to "deter" and "deny" others the "use of space". This is a very provocative notion and will give the Pentagon the green light to put anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons in space that would be able to knock other countries satellites out of orbit.
* Saying the U.S. will "oppose the development of new legal regimes or other restrictions that seek to prohibit or limit U.S. access to or use of space." This means that the U.S. is now on record as being totally opposed to the development of an international treaty at the U.N. that would ban all weapons in space. The treaty, annually promoted at the U.N. by Russia, China and Canada seeks to close the door to the barn before the horse gets out. The U.S. and Israel have been blocking such a treaty since during the Clinton administration.
A key reason for America's desire to kill such treaty negotiations is that the military industrial complex views space as a new market. The weapons corporations have been saying for years that Star Wars will be the largest industrial project in the history of the planet Earth. Both Democrats and Republicans get the message and understand that their corporate paymasters want them to leave the door open to a new costly and destabilizing arms race in space.
One last key element of the new Bush space policy is the expanded use of nuclear power systems to "enable or significantly enhance space exploration or operational capabilities." What this means in English is that the aerospace industry wants to establish mining colonies on the Moon, Mars and other planetary bodies and they want to power these bases with nuclear reactors. The military has also long been saying they need nuclear reactors in space to provide power for space weapons systems. So the nuclear industry also plans to get in on using space as a new market for increasing corporate profits.
I did a radio interview with a Florida talk show early this morning about Bush's new national space policy. There were quite a few callers and every one of them understood the dangers involved with this new space policy. So it is clear, once again to me, that the public does not support this idea of the nuclearization and weaponization of space.
The problem though is what to do about it. How can we change public policy when the Democrats and Republicans are holding the door to Congress open only for the weapons corporations who now control national policy?
My answer is the same as always. Talk about the money wasted on programs like these and you will find that the public increasingly will listen to us as they begin to see how their tax dollars are wasted on endless war. Cutbacks in education and health care are having an impact on their children's future.
We've also got to begin to run candidates for local office that will speak out directly on these issues and call for conversion of the military industrial complex. We are finding that here in Maine the conversion issue is resonating quite well and now have a Green candidate for Governor and an Independent Congressional House candidate speaking regularly about the idea. They are saying we could create good jobs in our employment strapped state by converting military production facilities into building rail systems, solar systems and windmills.
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