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March 2000
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When one is trying to understand modern weapons it is important to keep in mind the concept of “weapon system” as opposed to focusing on only one aspect of the whole. The thing which explodes and the thing which fires and the thing which aims and the thing which selects a target are all functioning parts of an overall system designed to maim and kill and destroy. Things have evolved a long way since that first human punched another in the face with his clenched fist or set fire to another’s house or possessions. Part of the challenge of the modern warrior is to try to keep the situation as confusing as possible to the inquiring public so that they will think war is something different from the up close and personal experience that it is for its victims. War planning becomes war gaming. Wars are called “operation just cause” or “operation desert storm” . Sanitizing the concept of war by using clean sounding words is much easier when all the dying and suffering is relegated to one side in the conflict. War then becomes something you watch on CNN, not something you endure with your life constantly on the line. Offensive and defensive systems are virtually impossible to separate. That has been the case from the time of that first fist fight. It depends on who is writing the history or doing or arguing their cause. For example an anti-ballistic-missile system is a great offensive tool if it is paired with a large array of nuclear missiles just like the ones which are being targeted on the other side. One can enhance one’s own power by diminishing the effectiveness of the arsenal of the other side. Offense or defense? Depends on whether you are the Americans, the Chinese or the Russians. At the current moment, the U.S. does not have a weapon whose muzzle is located in space, but it has many weapons whose sighting and aiming mechanisms and guidance systems are located in space. One of the ways for an adversary to disable such a system would be to take out the space based part of the weapon system. It could also jam or confuse the computer system at its heart. Conversely when and if the U.S. or any other country stations the equivalent of a gun barrel(laser platform) in space one of the ways to attack it would be to destroy the links to the decision makers back on earth by jamming the system or blowing up its terminal building. As you might imagine there are even systems within the system. For example, there are three versions of the kind of high powered laser that could potentially shoot down short range, medium range, or long range missiles. The Army is in charge of developing one that is based on the ground and shoots up at missiles. The Air Force is in charge of one that would be based in a large airplane capable of flyig to various regional conflicts. It would fire up, down or sideways to knock down medium range missiles. The third in the series is being developed by the U.S. Space Command, the unified command of all the space divisions of the army, navy and air force. This joint laser project would be located aboard a fleet of 20 orbiting space battle platforms and be designed to shoot sideways and down trying to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles. The wordsmiths doing publicity for laser weapons have adopted the motto “Peace through Light”. The key element of all of these systems is the computer. All of the components of a high tech system flow in and out of a computer terminal somewhere. For this reason it is only logical that the U.S. Space Command has been assigned to conduct both offensive and defensive “information warfare”. As you might have guessed one of the ways to disable or destroy a high tech system is to destroy its cyber roots. And if you want to stop others from interfering with your system you either build a good cyber defense or you blow up the location from which someone is conducting their cyber war operations against you. The point is, cyber war or information war is just one more addition to the quiver of war arrows . The same kinds of catastrophes that can be caused by computer breakdowns or computer hackers can be caused by deliberate actions by cyber warriors. As new weapons such as these are added nothing ever gets left behind. There are still nukes. There are still conventional bombs. There are still artillery pieces and mortars and short range, medium range and long range missiles and chemical weapons and biological weapons and economic embargoes etc , etc.. And there are arms races within the arms race as counter measures spring up as new weapon concepts spring up. An on and on it goes. Sometimes it seems almost impossible to explain U.S. military power in space without eliciting a big yawn from the listener. And many times the person who takes the time to grasp some of the major developments has no major objections to the policy as it is unfolding. “Sounds like progress to me.” “Okay so what’s wrong with that?” There is no doubt that satellites and computers have revolutionized many aspects of warfare. It is also true that no other country has seemingly benefitted more from this revolution than the U.S. A closer look reveals that the benefits are not all they’re cracked up to be. It is true that America has fought two major wars in the 90’s with very few combat fatalities of its own while raining down death and destruction on an overmatched opponent. It is also true that serious problems remain in both those instances. And this huge high tech advantage has produced a backlash against American power that is as fierce as anything we have faced before. People with opposing viewpoints don’t just lay down and die; they look for ways to get even. The “evil empire” gives way to rogue states and terrorist groups. That translates into fear of “terrorism” on the part of many Americans. Thus we have reason number one that there is stilla problem. Reason number two is that thousands of nuclear weapons form a key component of U.S. power projections in the world. Our country has never renounced even first use of these doomsday weapons and remains committed to “winning” a nuclear war if one should break out. This utterly irrational and immoral policy remains in place and is indeed being perfected and expanded as the years roll by. Satellite technology and computer technology were first used to develop the nuclear arsenal and the nuclear war plan that goes with it. They continue to have a central function in continuing the threat to the planet’s survival that these weapons represent. Needless to say in this context the U.S. finds it’s own calls for nonproliferation of nuclear weapons greeted with cries of hypocrisy. Reason number three is that the U.S. Space Command’s stated goal of space domination and control has made a mockery of the purpose of the Outer Space Treaty(1967) with its twin goals of peaceful uses of space and space as the common heritage of all humankind . The world is a much more dangerous place because the U.S. refuses to undertake cooperative efforts under the umbrella of the United Nations to renew the aims outlined in the original treaty and is blocking the current efforts to update and strengthen this milestone document. Last, but not least, it is not a just cause to be projecting American political and military power in a world where the gap between haves and have-nots continues to grow. The theology of social justice rightly identifies this grossly unjust world economic system as representing systemic violence. (There’s that word system again) If one’s system of “defense is propping up and expanding that kind of system it is engaged in oppression, not peacekeeping. In centuries past when countries like Spain and England did this it was branded colonialism or imperialism. Now the U.S. word for it is globalization and it is supposedly ok or inevitable. In summary we would argue that the current policy is not working and even if it were it would still be wrong because it is fundamentally unjust. We hope you will find this departure from our usual newsletter format informative. If you are receiving a copy of this by email, we will also be sending an email copy of the latest newsletter from the Global Network against Weapons & Nuclear power in Space which contains the latest news on space/military matters. If you want us to mail you a copy of that newsletter please let us know. In the immediate future we will be doing our usual protest at the U.S. Space Foundation’s annual symposium in early April. We’ll also be encouraging local folks to attend the open session of this event which amounts to an “arms bazaar” for high tech warfare proponents. And in mid-April we will take part in the Global Network conference and lobbying session in Washington D.C. And we are continuing our efforts with others to try to bring an end to the economic embargo and endless bombing campaign against Iraq. We need your continuing financial support to carry on our work. We welcome invitations to speak or share information in other ways. Please be in touch. Bill Sulzman |
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