US imperialism to outsource lunar invasion

Bill Weinberg

Citing budgetary constraints, President Barack Obama has cancelled the US project designed to take humans back to the Moon. The Constellation program envisaged a new crew ship called Orion to put astronauts on the lunar surface by 2020. But in his 2011 budget request issued Feb. 1, Obama said the project is too costly, “behind schedule, and lacking in innovation.” The president said he plans to turn to the private sector for launch services. “While we’re cancelling Constellation, we’re not cancelling our ambitions,” said Jim Kohlenberger, chief of staff at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). (BBC News, Feb. 1)

It is unclear if Obama is actually anticipating a private sector role for lunar colonization. We are heartened—especially in the wake of October’s lunar bombardment (MSNBC, Oct. 9)—that the Moon may be safe from imperialist aggression for a few more decades, at least.

Unfortunately, the anti-war left, which vigorously opposes the US bombing of foreign countries on Earth, has been blithely unconcerned with this unprovoked aggression against the Moon. (No, we aren’t being sarcastic.) Worse yet, the few voices that have been raised in opposition to this reckless adventurism are from certified wackjobs who are only discrediting the case against lunar bombardments and colonization. For instance, this commentary by Alfred Lambremont Webre from last June 19 on Examiner.com legitimately points out that the planned lunar bombardment violated the 1967 Outer Space Treaty and the 1979 Moon Treaty—and then shoots itself in the foot with sheer wackjobbery about how the bombardment “may cause conflict with lunar ET/UFO civilizations.”

And we anticipate that if there are any responses to this post, it is either going to be geekish space-boosters baiting us as reactionary luddites or paranoid wack-jobs baiting us as tools of the government conspiracy to cover up the existence of extra-terrestrial civilizations on the Moon. Oh well, bring it on…

See our last post on the struggle for outer space.

  2. “unprovoked aggression against the Moon”?
    Shouldn’t you have held this one up until April 1st?
    (I’ll take the “geekish space-boosters” option, please).

  3. Secret spacecraft launched
    From the Daily Mail, April 23:

    A top secret space plane developed by the US military has blasted off from Cape Canaveral on its maiden voyage.

    Billed as a small shuttle, the unmanned X-37B heralds the next generation of space exploration. It will be the first craft to carry out an autonomous re-entry in the history of the US programme.

    But its mission—and its cost—remain shrouded in secrecy. The Air Force said the launch was a success but would give no further details.

    However, experts have said the spacecraft was intended to speed up development of combat-support systems and weapons systems.

  4. Generals, bureaucrats go UFO-happy
    File under “Huh?” From PR Newswire, Sept. 15:

    U.S. Nuclear Weapons Have Been Compromised by Unidentified Aerial Objects
    WASHINGTON — Witness testimony from more than 120 former or retired military personnel points to an ongoing and alarming intervention by unidentified aerial objects at nuclear weapons sites, as recently as 2003. In some cases, several nuclear missiles simultaneously and inexplicably malfunctioned while a disc-shaped object silently hovered nearby. Six former U.S. Air Force officers and one former enlisted man will break their silence about these events at the National Press Club and urge the government to publicly confirm their reality.

    One of them, ICBM launch officer Captain Robert Salas, was on duty during one missile disruption incident at Malmstrom Air Force Base and was ordered to never discuss it. Another participant, retired Col. Charles Halt, observed a disc-shaped object directing beams of light down into the RAF Bentwaters airbase in England and heard on the radio that they landed in the nuclear weapons storage area. Both men will provide stunning details about these events, and reveal how the U.S. military responded.

    Captain Salas notes, “The U.S. Air Force is lying about the national security implications of unidentified aerial objects at nuclear bases and we can prove it.” Col. Halt adds, “I believe that the security services of both the United States and the United Kingdom have attempted—both then and now—to subvert the significance of what occurred at RAF Bentwaters by the use of well-practiced methods of disinformation.”

    The group of witnesses and a leading researcher, who has brought them together for the first time, will discuss the national security implications of these and other alarmingly similar incidents and will urge the government to reveal all information about them. This is a public-awareness issue.

    Declassified U.S. government documents, to be distributed at the event, now substantiate the reality of UFO activity at nuclear weapons sites extending back to 1948. The press conference will also address present-day concerns about the abuse of government secrecy as well as the ongoing threat of nuclear weapons.

    Oh? Then how come no mainstream news sources seem to have covered the press conference? (Oh right, they must have been intimidated by the Men In Black.) Now this, from the technology review site CNet:

    UN’s newest ambassador will reach out to ETs
    The United Nations is set to appoint an ambassador to greet extraterrestrials if and when they contact humanity.

    According to numerous reports, 58-year-old Malaysian astrophysicist Mazlan Othman, head of the U.N.’s Office for Outer Space Affairs–which is charged with “promoting international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space”–will be given the role, provided U.N. scientific advisory committees and the General Assembly give the thumbs-up.

    Othman, who led Malaysia’s national space agency before heading to the U.N., and helped train that country’s first astronaut, is scheduled to speak next week at a Royal Society event devoted to the implications of alien contact and the need for necessary political processes to be in place should that contact occur.

    “The continued search for extraterrestrial communication…sustains the hope that someday humankind will receive signals from extraterrestrials,” publication The Australian quoted Othman as saying. “When we do, we should have in place a coordinated response that takes into account all the sensitivities related to the subject. The U.N. is a ready-made mechanism for such coordination.”

    There is not a word about this alien contact loopiness on the website of the Office for Outer Space Affairs. Does the UN usually do things in secret?

    Hmmm, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to close with a question…