U.S. Announces New Space Security Policy

hey! writes "The Bush administration has announced a new space security policy, which includes the statement that 'Consistent with this policy, the United States will preserve its rights, capabilities and freedom of action in space ... and deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests.'" More from the article: "Eisendrath, co-author of a forthcoming book, 'War in Heaven: Stopping an Arms Race in Outer Space Before It Is Too Late,' says the United States is wasting its time. 'Defense Secretary Rumsfeld says we need to protect against a 'space Pearl Harbor,'' he says. 'But we're still the dominant power there.'"

Pfft

[voice_of_all_reason]

International treaties are just goddamned pieces of paper.

Space Pearl Harbor

[Anonymous Coward]

Space Pearl Harbor will be the best Ben Affleck movie ever

Bush says to the galaxy...

[x-vere]

All your base are belong to us!

Whee HA!

[mgabrys_sf]

Sounds like we have a Death Star gap in the making!

Time to get busy constructing and training of personel. I got dibs on the planet destruction button.

Jupiter - you're going to be SO pwned!

Re:Not that I think this is a good idea but...

[SteveAyre]

A: "I own this"
B: "Own what? There's nothing there!"

Re:A Prediction

[phalse phace]

My sincere hope - my challenge - is that those 90 percent will, in hopes of foiling my prediction, actually /read/ the text of the statement,.... Read the text, consider it, /then/ reply.

Heh heh, you're funny.... Read the text....

You do realize you're on Slashdot, right?

So much for the Iranian space program...

[b-l4ke]

I guess the Iranian/N.Korean/Venezualan space station's gonna be put on hold for a while.

Space isn't new to the Bush admin

[LM741N]

Asked about how the United States could own a vacuum, the Bush administration spokesman said that "the President had been associated with a vacuum for many years."

Re:A Prediction

[Anonymous Coward]

Please don't add to the signal-to-noise ratio of the internet.

You can't add to a ratio. You can only add to one side or the other of a ratio.

This post does neither, because while the previous paragraph added to the signal side of the signal-to-noise ratio, in this one I'm simply calling you a knob. You knob.

Re:And that means ... what?

[AKAImBatman]

So .... if China tries to establish a moon base ... we'll attack it?

if(chineseMoonBase.isArmed() && chineseMoonBase.getWeapons().getTarget() == "US")
{
    blowThemToHellAndBack(chineseMoonBase);
}
else
    {
    monitorForHostileActivities(chineseMoonBase);
    media.initTalkingHeads(chineseMoonBase, media.IS_IT_GOOD_OR_IS_IT_WHACK);
    media.broadcast();
}

Re:Whee HA!

[Duhavid]

Of course I am kidding you.

I did tell google they spelled their name
wrong, I think that lead to the listing of
"google" in the dictionary, to prove me
"wrong". Ha, I said to them. Revisionists.

Re:nghnghnghngh

[inviolet]

But can [the space-based laser] scratch your butt from space?

And more importantly, can it pop a military-sized tin of jiffypop?

Re:Old News

[aardvarkjoe]

That is all I am saying - if we are able to be knocked out of space, then we are very venerable.

Like I've always said, old people don't belong in space.

Re:A Prediction

[0xdeadbeef]

90 percent of the replies to this posting will be ignorant anti-Bush rhetoric regarding his plans to weaponize space

90% of the people who have uttered the phrase "anti-Bush rhetoric" are fat balding guys who think feminism is the reason they can't get laid.

Are you a fat balding undersexed Republican? How can you not be? Then why should I listen to anything you say?

I'll get -1 Troll for this, but I haven't "framed" this "debate" any less than you have. Then content of your post is nothing more than "All criticism of Bush is uninformed, emotional, and therefore, wrong."

Please don't add to the signal-to-noise ratio of the internet.

Got it. Up with noise! Down with signal!

You don't even need to read the headline or understand anything about this to criticize. Every right asserted by Bush to militarize space becomes available to Russia and China. This is either impotent posturing (remember when he said we were going to Mars?) or preparation for a conflict.

And on that note, ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE.