THE BEST DEFENSE IS A GOOD OFFENSE :

Former Astronaut Warns Against Weapons In Space (PAUL MARKS, June 5, 2002, Hartford Courant)

The United States should not let heightened concern over national security since Sept. 11 accelerate the drive to base weapons in space, former astronaut Sally Ride said Tuesday.

That includes the space-based antimissile defense sought by the Bush administration as a shield against nuclear attack, Ride said during an interview after speaking at a conference of engineers at the Hartford Civic Center.

"You run the risk of creating more harm than good," she said. [...]

Although scores of nations have satellites in orbit, Ride said none has placed a weapon in space. But military strategists envision a new breed of weaponry that might someday use space-based lasers or particle beams against satellites or targets on Earth. In a just-released study for the Air Force, the nonprofit RAND Corp. think tank mentions possible development of space lasers, kinetic-energy weapons fired from space and space-based conventional weapons that would let an attacking nation strike more quickly and accurately.

The RAND study cautions that smaller nations might develop space weapons as a challenge to U.S. military strength.

This actually seems like an area where we should go ahead and develop offensive weapons, then announce that we are unilaterally imposing a non-proliferation regime--that is, if anyone else tries putting weapons in space we'll take them down. It may be that a Star Wars missile defense shield is unworkable, the problems associated with shooting down multiple moving targets and decoys insurmountable (though I don't understand why), but it shouldn't be that hard to knock out enemy satellites and space-based weapons, which would essentially be sitting ducks for our vastly superior technology. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 5, 2002 8:57 AM