" ...since work at the United Nations began in 1985
on a treaty seeking, as its title declares, the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer
Space, the U.S. has not supported it. Canada, Russia and China have
been leaders in urging passage of this PAROS treaty, and there has been
virtually universal backing from nations around the world. But by
balking, U.S. administration after administration has prevented its
passage. With the Trump administration, more than non-support of the PAROS
treaty is probable. A drive by the U.S. to weaponize space appears in
the offing." Counterpunch
China for years has been in the lead at the United
Nations in trying to establish treaties that would preserve space for
peaceful uses. The United States has blocked such efforts
unilaterally - it goes back to Clinton, incidentally, but intensified
substantially with Bush - increasing the likelihood of an arms race in
space, which very significantly increases the risk of even accidental
destruction. And it could mean terminal destruction. But the U.S.
government proceeds, knowing the risks and just not caring about them."
What We Say Goes Noam Chomsky
China and Russia have proposed drafts of treaties that would ostensibly ban weapons in space. Riederer quotes an American diplomat who has said both drafts are “fundamentally flawed.”
As a former British diplomat, I understand the administration’s skepticism. But these draft treaties, for all their weaknesses, could at least provide a starting point for further discussion. If it was possible to negotiate major arms-control treaties at the height of the Cold War, it ought to be possible to do so now. However difficult the process may be, failing to even try is dangerous and negligent.
David Barrie (Harpers January 2022)
the United States, the former Soviet Union and the United Kingdom put the Outer Space Treaty together, and it's been now supported by virtually all the countries of the world. For example, in Nukes in Space, I interviewed Craig Eisendrath, who was a young US State Department officer deeply involved in the creation of the Outer Space Treaty. And he says that what we were trying to do was to de-weaponize space before it got weaponized. And now, Trump with his Space Force, the sixth branch of the US Armed Forces,
he would just leave the Outer Space Treaty in tatters, and there’d be the arming of the heavens.
Karl Grossman
https://t.co/lg5n26DXzn TV program just out -- "Trump Space Force: Turning the Heavens Into a War Zone" Unless it’s stopped, Donald Trump will have opened space to war-- despite the Outer Space Treaty that designates space as a global commons to be used for peaceful purposes.
"...it turned out that the notion of a missile gap favoring
Soviets, or any large Soviet ICBM capability in the late fities or
early sixties, was as much of an illusion as the claims that Saddam
Hussein had WMDs in 2003. He Had nothing, and the Russians had four
ICBMs." Daniel
Ellsberg quoted in Loving This Planet, Helen Caldicott
The only concrete achievement of three decades of missile
defense research and development so far has been to make Russia
suspicious of U.S. intentions. Even now, rightly or not, Russia is
extremely concerned about the planned installation of U.S. missile
defenses in Europe that Washington insists will be focused on
future Iranian nuclear weapons. Moscow feels that they could just
as easily be turned on Russia.
William D. Hartung (7/8/2012)
"The Russians really have security problems. They were
practically destroyed a couple of times in the last century by
Germany alone. In 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev made the quite remarkable
concession of allowing the unification of Germany within the NATO
military alliance. So a country that had practically destroyed
Russia twice in that century was allowed to be part of a huge
hostile military alliance, always aimed at Russia, of course. It
was an incredible gesture by Gorbachev, but there was a quid pro
quo. The George Bush I administration had to pledge that NATO would
not expand eastward. That was the bargain. Clinton came in and
broke the bargain. He expanded NATO to the east. Now the United
States is planning to put an anti missile system in eastern Europe,
claiming it’s going to stop missiles from Iran. Just think it
through. Suppose Iran had nuclear weapons and missiles that could
reach Europe. Under what conditions would they ever use them? In a
first strike against Europe? Unless they’re determined to
commit suicide, Iran would never do that. Any possibility
however remote, of an Iranian missile aimed at Europe is a
deterrent against U.S. attack.
The Russians have every reason to regard an anti missile
system as part of a first-strike weapon against them. Suppose the Russians
were putting up an anti missile system in Canada. Do you think the
United State would cheer? We would go to war, because we understand
it to be a first-strike weapon. And so do they, and So do analysts
on all sides. Nevertheless we’re going ahead with it,
increasing the threat of destruction.
China for years has been in the lead at the United Nations
in trying to establish treaties that would preserve space for peaceful
uses. The United States has blocked such efforts
unilaterally—it goes back to Clinton, incidentally, but
intensified substantially with Bush— increasing the
likelihood of an arms race in space, which very significantly
increases the risk of even accidental destruction. And it could
mean terminal destruction. But the U.S. government proceeds,
knowing the risks and just not caring about them." Noam Chomsky: What We Say Goes
"The militarization of space means, in effect, placing
the entire world at risk of instant annihilation with no warning. What
do Steinbruner
and Gallagher [Daedalus] suggest as a remedy ? They hope that a
coalition of peace-loving states led by China will coalesce to counter
U.S. militarism and aggressiveness. That's the only hope they see for the
future. One of the interesting aspects of this argument is the despair
or contempt - I don't know what the right word is - for U.S. democracy:
the United States can't be changed internally, so let's hope China will rescue us. It is
unprecedented to hear this kind of thinking at the heart of the establishment. What I wrote in Hegemony or
Survival is mild in comparison."
Noam Chomsky: Imperial Ambitions pg 168
In 1983 ... there was a major war
scare. This was in part due to what George Kennan, the eminent
diplomat, at the time called “the unfailing characteristics of the
march towards war – that, and nothing else.” It was initiated by
programs the Reagan administration undertook as soon as Reagan came
into office. They were interested in probing Russian defences, so they
simulated air and naval attacks on Russia.
This was a time of great tension. US Pershing missiles had been
installed in Western Europe, with a flight time of about five to ten
minutes to Moscow. Reagan also announced his ‘Star Wars’ program,
understood by strategists on both sides to be a first strike weapon. In
1983, Operation Able Archer included a practice that “took Nato forces
through a full-scale simulated release of nuclear weapons.” The KGB, we
have learnt from recent archival material, concluded that armed
American forces had been placed on alert, and might even have begun the
countdown to war. Noam
Chomsky
BMD
(Ballistic Missile Defense) is a boondoggle. Its failure
can best be seen when the US votes
alone at the UN on weaponizing space. It will continue to fail
in performance also. David Parnas
wrote extensively for the ACM about the software impossibility of
such a project, but there are other, probably greater,
difficulties. Ted Postal of MIT detailed a few. Hear this streaming
audio.
"Blessed are the peacemakers." (Matthew 5:9)
"Love one another as I have loved you." (John 15:12)
"LOVE YOUR ENEMIES, pray for those who persecute you." (Matthew
5:44)