Update: Full Spectrum Dominance - Must consider

[Rob Conn]

Are you prepared for the coming resulf of our present circumstance? I can't claim to know what it will be exactly, but it just can't be too many more years before something breaks down. And not one hundred years but more like ten or twenty. I might fancy myself paranoid if I hadn't recognized the intentions and tactics of those in power. And a few big things that are changing. But one thing looms largest for me. Maybe you'd agree.

"Space dominance" is our last fleeting vision of a 'manifest destiny'. The coming dominance of space by a network of spy and weapons satellites will allow the U.S. military to accomplish things that we likely haven't ever considered possible. Well, most of us. Much of the science fiction has been prophetic. I submit here only what they have indicated.

Full Specrum Dominance will be achieved when orbital space is conquered by the United States, and provides our military with the full range of military options in perfectly coordinated operation. They now have space based lasers. You can forget all the other nifty PR missle tests, and computer graphics. Space lasers networked to spy telescopes. A death grid hanging over our heads, able to defend itself from attack, and strike targets on the surface. Fewer soldiers = lower cost + better PR. Here comes remote control orbital warfare. Wave of the future. According to Rumsfeld at least. They couldn't be more than a few years from full deployment. 2020, lets say? And I doubt any Democrat is likely to run against the new military paradigm. They seem eager to look hawkish these days. Left or Right, the plan will be funded. And soon many of our old concepts of war will be swept away suddenly in a grand loss of innocence about the security that we've been paying for. A sole world super-power. Jefferson knew this day would come. Industry has overtaken this experiment. Don't you feel the fragility of everyone's comfort. Don't you see the cost of our complacency? Don't you see what we might become if we do not demand rationality? Aren't we all marching slowly into the showers? What do you think about Full Spectrum Dominance? What do you think about a weapons grid surrounding the planet? And what can we do about it?

You may have some education or insight that provides you with comfort about how unlikely all this is, but don't get too cocky. The "Vision for 2020", "National Security Stategy of The U.S.", "The Defence Planning Guidance", and "Rebuilding America's Defences", all make clear that world military dominance is the plan, and that dominance of space is essential. Under Clinton, while this was all being cooked up, and before we had decided to nullify our signing of a treaty preventing the deployment of weapons in space, the government was only claiming to want military sattelites that could protect themselves. We were admitting at the time that remote coordination and remote control would be important element of future warfare.

Now, just last week, Rumsfeld comes out and makes it clear to the world that we are putting weapons in space for offensive use. End of treaty. Now relate this capacity to our doctrine of preemptive strike, and you see why I'm getting nervous. The implimentation of this technology will constitute a 'revolution in military affairs', not in replacing the old system, but by fundamentally changing how it is used with the introduction of orbital space dominance. The infrastructure won't be 'swept aside', it will be the old modes of tactical thinking that are now incomplete.

Consider the plausable options. We will be able to track individuals from space, and voporize them instantly, assassinate errant heads of state, destroy any boat, destroy most buildings and utilities, or kill the generals behind an advancing army. Without ever missing. Well maybe occasionally.

I'm no expert on military tactics, but I can guarantee that this opens pandoras box real wide. This is new stuff. Don't apply all of the old assumptions. History may shed some light on the nature of this venture, but the outcome will certainly be unprecedented. - R.C.

[autorank]

1. Rob Conn, Welcome to DU!!!

Thanks,I'll sleep on this, or perhaps have nightmares.

I put nothing past this band of megalomaniacs! I've read about this and the "Full Spectrum" concept. What a bunch of clowns. Don't they know we'll be broke at the end of Iraq and need a yard sale just to keep our currency solvent.

There are only two things that will save us: a rapid evolution of consciousness on a mass scale, kind of like Sweden had when they stopped terrorizing Europe and adopted narcissistic neutrality; or a visit by evolved species from another part of the universe.

Short of that, who knows! WELCOME

[burrowowl]

2. Welcome to DU!

And yes this is chilling, not as feasible as said, but will give our militaro-corporatists HUGH SUMS OF TA-TA MIDDLE-CLASS AND LOWER TAXPAYER MONEY AND LIVES.

[last1standing]

3. Locking.

Do not spam the message boards with the same post. Also this does not belong in GD: P. I have left the same thread in the PNAC forum open.