Stealing from Our Future: Space Militarization

By Bruce Gagnon  WAMM Newletter  October 2011

Photo: Solidarity for Peace & Reunification of Korea (SPARK) Japanese poster depicting missile defense’s destructive threat over the world.

 Native Americans tell the story of how the white man came to be named Wasichu, the fat-taker. “You shall know him as washi-manu, steal-all, or better by the name of fat-taker, wasichu, because he will take the fat of the land. He will eat up everything…. This new man is coming, coming to live among you. He will lie, and his lie never ends. He is going to make a dark, black hoop around the world.”

Today the fat-taker lives in the White House, the Congress, the Pentagon, and inside the aerospace industry [Editor’s Note: and on Wall Street].

The weapons industry wants increases in military spending during the coming year and is blaming the nation’s fiscal crisis on “entitlement programs” like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Social progress in America is being destroyed to fatten the weapons corporations and their rich allies.

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Barack Obama has been associated with the Crown family in Chicago, who were majority stockholders in General Dynamics. Once in office, Obama rejected George W. Bush’s version of “missile defense” and instead changed course to primarily rely on the version of missile defense that is based on Navy Aegis destroyers, made by General Dynamics at Bath Iron Works in Maine. These ships are outfitted with “missile defense” interceptor missiles that are having the most success in their testing phase.

Obama has increased the building and porting of these ships – and is using them to surround Russia and China by deploying them in waters off the coasts of both nations. Thus Obama is recreating the Cold War, as Russia and China are forced to take serious countermeasures. (Missile defense systems are used as the shield to take out a nation’s nuclear retaliatory strike after the U.S. has launched a first-strike attack on their nuclear forces.)

Russia has the world’s largest supply of natural gas and significant supplies of oil. China has the world’s leading economy, and the Pentagon has made the decision that while the U.S. won’t be able to compete with China monetarily, if we can encircle it with our military then we can control its access to resources that fuel its economy.

China imports 80 percent of its oil on ships via the Yellow Sea. The U.S. is now doubling its military operations in the Asia-Pacific in order to develop the ability to choke off China’s shipping lanes – thus the Pentagon believes the U.S. would hold the keys to China’s economic engine.

One new port for these Navy Aegis destroyers, with missile offense systems on board, would be in the small fishing and farming village of Gangjeong on Jeju Island in South Korea. Villagers are fighting to prevent the destruction of their way of life, but Jeju sits at the strategic entryway of the Yellow Sea and would be a prime naval facility in the U.S. effort to surround China’s coast.

The U.S. Space Command predicts that because of “corporate globalization” the gap between “haves” and “have-nots” will widen worldwide in coming years. With space “control and domination” in place, the Space Command will become the military arm of the multinational corporations, enabling the U.S.to suppress those who stand against corporate global dominance.

The fat-takers now have a global strategy. Suppress all the people around the world. Lower the standard of  living for everyone. Cut social spending and increase profits for the few. Control the people of the world by controlling space. With space “full-spectrum dominance” in place, the military will be able to hear everything, see everything, and target everyone on Earth.

Each October since 2001, the Global Network has organized an international week of protest to stop the militarization of space, called “Keep Space for Peace Week.” Groups organize local events in order to build consciousness about space issues and to help create a global movement to deal with the militarization of the heavens.

We are back to the days of kings, queens, lords, and castles protected by knights in shining armor. The time has come for the peasants to organize and revolt. Our children’s future depends on it. If we want to stop space militarization and endless war, we must fight for social progress. Guns and butter are no longer possible. It’s coming down to one or the other.

Bruce Gagnon is the coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space (www.space4peace.org) and has worked on space issues for more than 20 years. He organizes and speaks internationally, has written for Earth Island Journal, CounterPunch, Z Magazine, Space News, National Catholic Reporter, Asia Times, Le Monde Diplomatique, and Canadian Dimension, and has been featured on 60 Minutes. He edits the newsletter Space Alert, and has produced two videos, Arsenal of Hypocrisy (2003) and Battle for America’s Soul (2005). He published the book Come Together Right Now: Organizing Stories from a Fading Empire (Topsham, Maine: Just Write Books, 2005; revised ed., 2008). He is host of This Issue, a cable TV program that airs in his home state, Maine.

© 2011 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Related:

Mother Jones, Inside the Corporate Plan to Occupy the Pentagon