U.S. generals planning for a space war they see as all but inevitable
A ship in the Pacific Ocean carrying a high-power laser takes aim at a U.S. spy satellite, blinding its sensors and denying the United States critical eyes in the sky.
This is one scenario that military officials and civilian leaders fear could lead to escalation and wider conflict as rival nations like China and Russia step up development and deployments of anti-satellite weapons.
If a satellite came under attack, depending on the circumstances, "the appropriate measures can be taken," said Lt. Gen. John Shaw, deputy commander of U.S. Space Command. The space battlefield is not science fiction and anti-satellite weapons are going to be a reality in future armed conflicts, Shaw said at the recent 36th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.
[...] The U.S. military's space weapons that presumably would deter China from firing the first shot against a satellite are classified. In a rare disclosure, the Space Force last year said it deployed an advanced ground-based communications jammer made by L3Harris that could be used as an "offensive weapon" to disrupt enemies' satellite transmissions.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by aristarchus on Sunday September 19 2021, @08:02AM (3 children)
Same guys who planned both the invasion, and the retreat from, Afghanistan, with extra collateral damage. Did I ever tell you about the CIA guy, at Mazar-al_Sharif? No? Well look it up.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday September 19 2021, @10:15AM (2 children)
The invasion you refer to was 20 years ago. The guys who planned it are all retired now. This is a whole new crop of inept bunglers who failed to plan the withdrawal.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday September 20 2021, @02:14PM (1 child)
Perhaps, but as one president said "the buck stops here".
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/trivia/buck-stops-here-sign [trumanlibrary.gov]
The President of the United States of America is the Command in Chief of the Military of the United States of America. The entire botched job of pulling out of Afghanistan can easily be laid at his feet. In the event that he didn't have the expertise, then he should have made sure someone who did was making sure things didn't go pear shaped. He didn't. I mean we spent how many trillions of dollars there, Yet, we couldn't make sure we spent a few million more to make sure everyone got out that we needed/wanted out? Then again, maybe we did, but that's a lot more pessimistic point of view.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 20 2021, @04:01PM
That's Pear Shaped Joe you're talking about.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday September 19 2021, @08:09AM (7 children)
all problems look like nails.
Of course the US thinks there's gonna be a war in space: the US specializes in waging war [medium.com]. Their biggest industry is the military-industrial complex. They wouldn't know a peaceful solution if it put on a red tutu and danced around them singing "I'm a peaceful solution".
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday September 19 2021, @08:45AM
In case we all get nuked because of a handful of busted satellites, preemptive RIP.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 19 2021, @11:08AM (2 children)
Regality theory [regality.info] suggests that war is a consequence of hierarchy attempting to preserve itself. In essence, the entire point of government is to wage war.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 19 2021, @02:45PM (1 child)
Um.... please check data against theory. Thx.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 19 2021, @06:36PM
There is a link. I know reading is difficult for those like you, but if you don't make an effort, you will be laughed at even more than already happens.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday September 19 2021, @11:17PM
Red is very harsh. Use something more mellow
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 20 2021, @04:17PM (1 child)
In fairness, if anything put on a red tutu and danced around ME singing "I'm a peaceful solution," my first reaction would also be "?".
Just like if somebody ran past me crouched under a cardboard box.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday September 20 2021, @09:22PM
Our Chief Weapons are . . . [goodreads.com]
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Opportunist on Sunday September 19 2021, @09:51AM (1 child)
In other words, "I wouldn't be General for long if I can't find an idiot to fund this bullshit".
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 20 2021, @12:29AM
It's like the death bots, they're only inevitable because all the generals assume every other power is developing them of we'd just stop promoting psychos to positions of power it wouldn't be inevitable.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 19 2021, @10:06AM (24 children)
1. Find an Afghan civilian spacecraft
2. Nuke it with a space drone
3. Withdraw
(Score: 2, Troll) by isostatic on Sunday September 19 2021, @10:41AM (23 children)
20 years of that failure, Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden all contributed to america's latest defeat.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Opportunist on Sunday September 19 2021, @11:08AM (18 children)
You can't "win" Afghanistan. Of the 4, only one of them actually managed to get that.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 19 2021, @12:02PM (2 children)
You mean Trump?
Once the shit hit the fan, Biden was eager to point out that it was Trump who signed the deal.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Opportunist on Sunday September 19 2021, @01:27PM (1 child)
I frankly don't know, and even less care, who decided to shut that bullshit down. I'm just glad one of them did.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 19 2021, @01:56PM
It's rare to see someone proudly boasting of their ignorance.
It's extremely common, however, to see such a display of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 19 2021, @12:04PM (14 children)
It takes a special kind of stupid to do it as badly as Biden did.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Opportunist on Sunday September 19 2021, @01:29PM (1 child)
Nah, that's not even worth mentioning compared to how we handled Iraq. Removing a dictator that kept the islamists at bay because he couldn't use them either, then leaving and handing the whole shit over to the islamists, you really can't beat that.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 19 2021, @02:59PM
Ah Donny Rumsfeld. Who could have known about the unknown knowns and the known unknowns. Everybody, you say? Naaaah, Rummy was a humble student of epistemology.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 19 2021, @04:15PM (11 children)
I guess you're still too wet behind the ears to remember Vietnam.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by isostatic on Sunday September 19 2021, @04:44PM (2 children)
Nixon was hardly a genius, but Vietnam was American's first proper defeat in the modern era, so he gets a bit of a pass. I think Bush II going into Afghanistan, and even worse Iraq, was the dumbest move in modern American foreign policy, more than Biden's incompetent withdrawal
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday September 19 2021, @11:55PM
"defeat"? Please! It was a mere delay [archetype-group.com]. Let's see how long the Taliban can resist.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday September 20 2021, @02:26PM
You think Congress, who can't tie their own shoe laces in less than 5 business days, just whipped out the Patriot Act in a couple months? Maybe. Then again, it reads like a wish list from the FBI/CIA/NSA/Police. Freedoms come at a price, too bad we're too afraid to pay that price.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 19 2021, @04:52PM (7 children)
Vietnam, as bad as that was, was nowhere near as bad as what Biden has done in Afghanistan.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 19 2021, @05:50PM (1 child)
>> Vietnam, as bad as that was, was nowhere near as bad as what Biden has done in Afghanistan.
Yeah, like that time Biden ordered a drone strike on civilians because he thought the seven children playing in the courtyard were jihadis.
(Score: 3, Informative) by pipedwho on Monday September 20 2021, @03:14AM
You mean because his generals, who were frothing at the mouth in anticipation of an open killing field, convinced him that they were "Big Bad Boogeymen".
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 19 2021, @07:09PM (4 children)
Translation:
"Vietnam, as bad as that was, was nowhere near as bad as what the Propaganda Masters told me that Biden has done in Afghanistan. And I am such a drooling dumbfuck that I believed them! Orange man good! Stop the steal!!!!!"
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Monday September 20 2021, @09:11AM (3 children)
I'm anti trump, fairly left wing for the UK, even stood in election against the travesty that tory party is, which probably makes me a communist on the US scale.
I can still see that Biden fucked up
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 20 2021, @05:02PM
Has there ever been a "good" withdrawal? Even Fred Trump couldn't manage that.
(Score: 2) by quietus on Monday September 20 2021, @05:21PM (1 child)
You're in the camp that says "If we just throw in another trillion, and stay for just a few more years, all will be fine and dandy"?
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Tuesday September 21 2021, @02:12PM
Sudden withdrawal in the middle of fighting season for the sole purpose of meeting an arbitrary date to boost poll numbers. Waiting until say early November (home for thanksgiving etc) would have been more sensible and given the Afghan army a fighting chance.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Sunday September 19 2021, @01:27PM (3 children)
Yep, the Military Industrial Complex defeated the people of America, again. Afghanistan was merely the chew toy. Biden finally took the chew toy away. Casting about for something else to chew on, space is a natural target.
Presidents contribute very little. Failure in Afghanistan, in the "nation building" sense of helping them become a friendly democracy, was much more the work of the MIC. They didn't care whether that part of it succeeded or not. They have a vested interest in selling more materiel, and how better to do that than in making sure wars never end? Especially wars against really weak opponents.
Everyone likes to blame, bash, and sometimes credit POTUS, as if the dude is an absolute dictator who has way more power than is actually the case. Of them all, Trump came closest to gaining and exercising dictatorial levels of authority and power, largely because he managed to pack a lot of government with the worst incompetent toadies, sycophants, yes-men, and door mats who'd let him do damn near anything. Most fortunately, there were still people in government who pushed back.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 19 2021, @03:02PM (2 children)
Uh oh, now with all the vote rigging in the CA recall election it might be time to bring the gift of democracy home.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Sunday September 19 2021, @03:30PM (1 child)
Yeah, those Republicans are such losers. Rig the vote all they can, and still lose. Then they accuse the Democrats of rigging the vote, and point to the crap they themselves did as evidence, as if they really believe no one knows or can figure out they did it!
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday September 20 2021, @12:00AM
They have enough believers to keep 50% of congress, which is all they want. The blame game works better that way
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday September 19 2021, @10:21AM (13 children)
Satellites are vulnerable. Theirs, and ours. Take theirs down, they take ours down, and vice versa. First strike might be surgically done with lasers, that second strike won't be so surgical. The guy who strikes second (or third, or fourth) is going to send some small warheads, blow the shit out of a few dozen satellites, and let the debris destroy everything left in orbit.
People better think long and hard before they launch that first strike. We won't go back to the dark ages without satellites, but it will most certainly set the world back a few decades.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Opportunist on Sunday September 19 2021, @11:10AM (1 child)
Also, remember: A war against high tech is one where we would lose WAY more than anyone else. We, our people, our infrastructure, our economy, our life is fully and 100% dependent on that. Ponder for a moment if you will what would happen in the US and Europe if evey sat in existence would cease to exist. Then ponder how that would impact Russia or China.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 19 2021, @12:33PM
(Score: 3, Touché) by Barenflimski on Sunday September 19 2021, @12:39PM (1 child)
Can you be more precise about how many decades that might set us back? I ask as I'd really like to see some of those Michael Jackson and Nirvana concerts I missed and am wondering if this is an option.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday September 20 2021, @03:26PM
No more 10 day weather forecasts that are reasonably accurate.
It becomes more difficult to pay for your fuel with a credit card at the pump. And don't think that EV chargers wouldn't have the same problem.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 19 2021, @12:59PM (8 children)
Look at the good side: Amateur Radio will make a fast comeback.
ARRL for the win! Do you have your hardback ARRL handbook? The older the better. The older tech will be easier to make with whats left. Save those old transistor radios folks.
Signed:
KFUKED
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 19 2021, @03:05PM (5 children)
It's a preppers wet dream. I can hear you salivating about all those rusty cans of tuna and boxes of ammo you stockpiled. Ha! You told them.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by pipedwho on Monday September 20 2021, @03:22AM (4 children)
Imagine a world where only preppers survived. The most paranoid, risk-averse, war-mongering, conservative members of population. They'd come out of their holes, and then it's every man for himself until the ammo runs out. The only ones left are warlords and crazies. What a world to live in.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 20 2021, @06:05AM
The Postman? Kevin Costner will save us all. Or, the bare realization that none of us is as strong, as we are together. And that rules out libertariantards and Trumpsters.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 20 2021, @06:31AM (1 child)
You don't need to imagine it. Just wait another 10, 20 years. I recommend keeping a few cans of beans in the pantry so you can survive long enough to watch the action.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Monday September 20 2021, @07:19AM
I don't need to stock beans. My neighbor already does that.
You don't need resources in a post apocalyptic scenario. You need the firepower to take everyone else's. Not like the pre-apocalyptic scenario on the global scale, just on the local scale.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday September 20 2021, @02:30PM
When's the movie coming out? Oh, just a rehash of The Walking Dead? Pass.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Acabatag on Monday September 20 2021, @02:14AM
I have a few ARRL handbooks scattered through the past 5 or so decades. I also have a vacuum tube Tektronix oscilloscope. Not a really good one, but it would suffice in a pinch. And a Swan HF rig that is all tube.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday September 20 2021, @03:27PM
Let's not forget LORAN.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LORAN [wikipedia.org]
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 4, Funny) by looorg on Sunday September 19 2021, @10:29AM (2 children)
I was hoping it was going to be like Moonraker and not just satellite jammers. Very disappointing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 19 2021, @02:01PM
I was hoping it would be just when I bulls-eyed womp rats with my T-16 back home. Very disappointing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 19 2021, @04:18PM
And they all laughed at the Jewish Space Lasers.
(Score: 2) by rigrig on Sunday September 19 2021, @11:29AM (4 children)
I guess they are to be announced at the Party Congress on Monday?
No one remembers the singer.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 19 2021, @03:10PM (1 child)
No, they just assume the Chinese will have them since they're classified.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Monday September 20 2021, @07:14AM
Of course they will have them. How do you think they're supposed to build them if you don't send them the specs?
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday September 20 2021, @02:58AM (1 child)
As you know, our president likes surprises.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 20 2021, @04:08PM
Well, every day is a new world for him, so he is always surprised. Plus, he gets to meet all the people in the White House for the first time again every morning. Alzheimer's serves him well.
(Score: 2) by GlennC on Sunday September 19 2021, @11:57PM (1 child)
Will this "inevitable" space war be before the American Civil War version 2.0, or after?
Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Opportunist on Monday September 20 2021, @07:12AM
During.
C'mon, get with the times, ending a war before starting a new one is seriously outdated.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 20 2021, @01:16PM
An organization expanding to fill a vacuum is old stuff.
This is the first time it happened in a real vacuum!