That Satellite Shootdown stuff…

Okay, I’ve been meaning to comment on this since I heard about it last week.

You may have heard any of the ongoing series of stories about how our military wants to shoot down this failing satellite of ours.  Here

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23240631

is one of today’s updates on msnbc.

Okay, the spin on this is that this thing is dangerous, and the Dept of Defense (DoD) is "protecting" us.

Ahem.  Well, let me talk about another spin.

In the battles for supremacy in space (yes, it’s going on, all the space-capable countries are involved, it’s just low-key), there are some funky things.  Most of us think of satellites as either being used for communications (DirecTV) or surveillance (weather or spy satellites) or navigation (GPS and your navigation gizmo). 

The other part of all of this is, well, the offensive side.  If your enemy has surveillance satellites watching you, and you don’t like it, what do you do?  You shoot the suckers down.  Most of the big countries have run experiments on missiles that launch from the ground and go up and kill a satellite up there.  You can find articles about these events in the open newspapers.  China did one a while back, Russia has them, we do, not sure who else.  Or you blind surveillance satellites with big honking laser beams.  No, it’s not James Bond make believe, it can be done.  Has been done.

Now, this whole malarky about us "protecting" people is, I suspect strongly, a bunch of malarky.  Hm, seems redundant.  Anywho, to me, it seems a lot more like Bush and the other warmongers just showing off their toys, in  case someone like China or Russia starts getting too snotty.   "hey, leave our satellites alone, or we’ll take yours our too"  or "dont screw with us or we’ll take yours out just cause we can".   Note that our missile is being launched from an Aegis cruiser – an ocean going US Navy warship.  It can do that from anywhere, including the middle of the ocean.   I think the US is the only folks with an ocean-launch capability like that, which is worth bragging about and waving that in other folks’ face.  naany naany boo boo stick your head in poo poo

I am so tired of this warmongering, a**hole Administration activities.  It’s like they’re the big bullies and they’re just wandering around LOOKING for a fight.  There is still the running suspicion that if they can start another war, they can declare martial law and postpone or cancel the elections.  Wouldn’t that just be the sh*ts?