KARL GROSSMAN, kgrossman at hamptons.com
Professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College at Old Westbury, Grossman is author of The Wrong Stuff: The Space’s Program’s Nuclear Threat to Our Planet.His new piece “Turning Space Into a War Zone” was just published by Counterpunch.
Grossman writes: “The Trump administration is pushing hard on its scheme to create a Space Force. Last week Vice President Pence, chairman of a newly reconstituted National Space Council, in a speech at the Pentagon declared: ‘The time has come to write the next great chapter in the history of our armed forces, to prepare for the next battlefield.’
“Pence claimed — falsely: ‘Our adversaries have transformed space into a warfighting domain already and the United States will not shrink from the challenge.’ …
“Beyond the intent of the Outer Space Treaty and its setting space aside as a global commons, neither Russia nor China have been interested in bringing war into space for economic reasons. I’ve been researching — writing books and articles and doing television programs — on the space warfare issue for more than 30 years and have made numerous trips to Russia and gone to China, too.” See 2008 piece from Reuters: “China, Russia to offer treaty to ban arms in space.”
Grossman continued: “Fielding space weaponry would be hugely expensive. It is no comparison to, let’s say, the tank-like Bradley Fighting Vehicle costing $3.1 million. Billions and billions would need to be expended. But the situation changes if the U.S. deploys weaponry in space with a Space Force and with the intention of dominating the Earth from this high ground.”
Grossman notes that the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space is planning protests in October. The group just put out a video on the Space Force.
Also see Grossman’s “Star Wars Returns” video from 2008, which features Craig Eisendrath, who had been a U.S. State Department official handling outer space relations and would go on to co-author the 2007 book War in Heaven: Stopping an Arms Race in Outer Space Before It Is Too Late.
