Rev. Erudite Redneck, B.S., B.S., M.A., M.Div.

The USA needs to move forward in developing the space weapons program. Unfortunatly space weapons will be a reality by someone and our only choice is to play catch up with the science or to lead the way.
 

I think we are so far ahead of the rest, we can let it slide for a generation or more.
 

I reserve the right to revise and extend my remarks.

Actually, I think we are so far ahead that what we ought to be doing is declaring to the world that the USA will not only not militarize space itself, but that we will consider it an act of national defense to keep anyone else from doing so. If that means shooting down others' rockets and shuttles, from the ground, which we can probably do now, fine. We can draw a line in the sand, or in this case, the atmosphere! ... This plays directly into my theory that serious conservatives can't even run the military right; they really don't like government, so they do everything half-assed -- even the things that the government, by all accounts, is truly responsible for.
 

Old-time "realpolitik" conservatives always subscribed to the power vacuum doctrine: I.e., if one power dominates, minor powers will combine to counter it. Given that the US of A is in total control of the world -- and reaching for the stars with corporate-friendly Star Wars programs aimed at nonexistent space and earth threats -- what powers do you think will combine to counter our unilateral arrogance? Radical Republicans, who love war but rarely fight them (Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Limbaugh, etc.) think it's going to be Europe-Asia. Man, wouldn't that be an idiotic armchair general's dream for the culture of death?
 

I think China is the gorilla in the living room. Punch-drunk-on-godless-capitalism -- oh, wait, "socialism with Chinese characteristics" -- China.

Europe, in the immortant words of Col. Andy Tanner (Powers Boothe), will wind up "sitting this one out." ("Red Dawn," 1984, go here for a rundown on "Red Dawn": http://www.answers.com/topic/red-dawn
 

While discussing the demise of Pragmatism as a viable philosophy in the world of Academic Philosphers with my two resident academic philosphers, it was pointed out to me that the Cold War was the event that killed off Pragmatism as a scholarly pursuit.
It was gradual, and not formal, but occured none-the-less. The Cold War was a war of ideologies. In such a war, it is even more important to have good and evil well defined. Thus Pagmatism was not a viable activity.
That, at that time, may have been a good thing actually. General Curtis LeMay was an ardent pragmatist in action and personel philosophy and was in charge of the Strategic Air Command early on it its evolution. General LeMay sensing the fact that the Soviets were going for the atomic bomb, made strong request to the powers of the U.S. that we go ahead and bomb the hell out of the Soviets "now" while we had the strategic advantange and thus take over the world. (Dr. Strange Love paid Homage to Curtis)
So we are so far ahead of everybody else we can now arm space and own it. We can keep anyone and everyone contained on earth any way we see it. ( I am especially fond of the God Rods)
Who better to control space than America? Shall we give it over to the U.N.? Shall we allow China to establish a base in space or on the moon?
We could control space, and probably do a decent job of it(if we keep the LeMays in check).
But we won't. We won't because pragmatism is dead. We can't comprimise? We can't allow anything but what we belive to be correct to exist, much less let anything compete with us.
We are so dichotomized, that we do not see the flat earth evolving around us, much less reach out and take space as our own for the good of mankind.
Taking over space is pragmatic, not one American in our current government knows what that means.
 

One can hope.
 

I think I could agree with your 1st or should I say 2nd comment above about drawing a line in the sand..atmosphere.. works for me. Then divert some of our national resources to areas of what should be of greater concern.. The list is long...