Re: NOW WHAT: STAR WARS MIGHT JUST WORK (oh, Bu#$hit!)

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Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2001 14:32:53 -0700
From: "Russell D. Hoffman" <rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com>
Subject: Re: NOW WHAT: STAR WARS MIGHT JUST WORK (oh, Bu#$hit!)
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To: Bill Smirnow <smirnowb@ix.netcom.com>
Cc: Bruce Gagnon <globalnet@mindspring.com>
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July 15th, 2001

Hi Bill, everyone,

I'm all for vastly more sums of money being poured into education (shall I note that I write educational software and such a policy might help my business, as a form of disclosure?). I'm for national health care, and I'm against Star Wars, and our Pentagon budget could surely be cut to 1/5th of what it is and yet, if it were properly spent, it could protect our troops and our citizens as well as the trillions we now spend is doing.

Those are things I believe.

I seriously doubt that any Pentagon test that appears to make Star Wars seem to work is valid. The Ruskies or whoever our supposed enemy is can just make ever-so-slightly smarter rockets to get around that. Patriot missiles hardly worked against SCUDs during the Gulf War -- despite what the media politely reported for the Pentagon during the heat of battle. And SCUDS aren't the least bit smart, and go much slower than an ICBM might travel.

Also, Star Wars technology would be virtually completely destroyed by a single nuclear EMP first-strike above the atmosphere, and that same blast would render our electronic equipment useless, much of it on fire, with no way to get to the fires because the fire trucks won't run, the pump stations won't have any power to create water pressure for the hoses, and the electricity generating stations will all be fried (this is all over the entire United States, Canada, and Mexico, in the first millionth of a second after the very first attack). Our nukes will probably be melting down as well. It would be chaos and horror everywhere.

And there are other ways to beat Star Wars. Our enemies might even resort to manned or unmanned airplanes which pretend to be drug smugglers, which seem to have little trouble getting through our supposedly impenetrable defence system. Who needs an expensive rocket when a private plane, boat, or even a suitcase will do?

So what, exactly, does Star Wars buy us anyway? Nothing! First of all, IT WON'T WORK. And even if it could miraculously be designed to defeat today's attacker, that's only a momentary gain. To make Star Wars work against a smarter weapon will cost vastly more than the smart weapon that could penetrate the current generation that is being contemplated for Star Wars. Got that? If the aggressor ups the ante just a little bit, it will cost an order of magnitude more to defend against it. Star Wars, if it works at all, will barely work against yesterday's and today's rockets, which have predictable trajectories and speeds, and which are not expected to be sent against us in overwhelming numbers, and which are not expected to be preceded by a nuclear EMP first strike. So all Star Wars could possibly buy us is a flimsy umbrella of protection, full of holes, easily defeated by smarter weapons, and fragile as well and susceptible to a wide variety of attacks against it. Effective laser weaponry is little more than smoke and mirrors (literally).

Naw, the Gag Man is wrong again! We can and should fight Star Wars on the grounds that it will not work as planned, would cost billions more to be hardened against nuclear EMP first strikes, will encourage an enemy to use a nuclear EMP first strike which would be devastating to the country, and lastly, the enemy who is capable of launching a rocket attack against us will in a few short years be capable (if they aren't already) of launching MIRVs, dummy rockets, jinking rockets, and maybe even stealth rockets.

We can and should also fight Star Wars on the grounds that much of it uses dangerous radioactive elements for its operation, which should be banned from space (and on earth too). The power for space-based lasers will have to come from somewhere. Do you think it will be solar, with big space-panels supplying the laser beam with the incredible amounts of juice it needs to sustain itself?

An International treaty to ban nuclear material in space would end much of the Star Wars threat, because the power for a lot of space-based Star Wars weaponry has to come from nuclear generators out in space, or even from nuclear explosions, as some Star Wars laser proposals are built around. They explode a nuke, and in the fractions of millionths of a second before the nuke destroys the Star Wars weapon itself, mirrors aim the incredible light which emits from the explosion at the incoming enemy. Yeah, right. This is going to work. This is going to be easy to test. This will make us sleep well at night, knowing military geniuses have made us safe.

This is preposterous, of course. But that's the sort of thing we are spending billions on right now.

The best way to stop Star Wars is by each of us acting as though our efforts alone will make the difference (because there are so many infiltrators in our movement against Star Wars), and each of us recognizing that the most important thing our efforts can produce is new activists who also oppose Star Wars and speak out themselves at every chance.

We cannot unite effectively when our lines are broken and infiltrated so often with disinformation campaigners telling us gosh, look out -- Star Wars might just work so we better drop that line of attack completely! Bull.

The proposed Star Wars won't work. It would be an environmental disaster if it is ever built. It would be even more of one if it is ever used. These facts remain our best arguments against it, because all the principles (misguided or otherwise) in the world, all the money that can be had, all the perceived need, won't make something that doesn't work a practical reality. So if it won't work, why pour even one thin dime into it?

I've demonstrated many times in the past, through careful analysis of his actions, which I've published in my STOP CASSINI newsletters and posted online, that Gagnon is an agent of disinformation. He's clearly at it again.

Thanks,

Russell Hoffman
former editor, STOP CASSINI newsletter
Concerned Citizen
Carlsbad, CA

The Effects of Nuclear Weapons:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/tenw/nuke_war.htm

At 02:54 AM 7/15/01 , you wrote:

Friends,
                I agree with what Bruce has said. I think repeatedly making the factual point that there is NO enemy out there, none on the horizon, and that the American public will ALWAYS be sold the boogey man scenario to have the military-industrial complex rolling in OUR money. There is NOTHING to defend against after all- except the media spin that all this is being done in the name of defense. We have to work long and hard on media to get out that this is about OFFENSE and about MASSIVE LEGAL THEFT both in space mining of other planets and keeping the earth's poor poor.

Just as the ideology and term "a living wage" has come to be accepted in mainstream life, so, too does US national security need to be linked if not become synonymous with US human rights in the form of a quality free education through all levels for all US citizens, quality life long housing for all Americans, a HEALTHY environment [as close to pristine as possible], a truely publicly owned and democratic media, quality health[including the most effective health care- holistic based on prevention] care from cradle to death. THIS constitutes true national security. Not the right of the rich to get richer and keep the poor poor. We need to network with people both within and without the USA to show them the common enemy they have- The Pentagon. An entirely out of control Pentagon which feels it has to listen to no one except a very limited opposition in Congress. To paraphrase Marx "Americans and workers of the world unite. See who the real enemy is and don't allow him to get away with hi s crimes":
<http://www.spacecom.af.mil/usspace>http://www.spacecom.af.mil/usspace

I think we need to sit down and do some hard number crunching re:
1. What free [subsidized] education through all levels for all Americans would cost?
2. What would quality, housing cost for all Americans for life?
3. What massive environmental clean ups and maintance would cost to ensure that we have and continue to have a clean, healthy environment to live in in perpetuity
4. The cost of cradle to death quality health care

    Eventually this has to be put to referendums to let Americans choose for themselves what they want- Pentagon's Orwellian version of national security and boogey man paranoia or true national security rooted in ration,sanity and justice.

A final issue to point out is what does this say about the word of the USA? How can they be trusted again after such a lie on such an incredibly important legal and moral document?

   -Bill Smirnow

----- Original Message -----
From: <mailto:globalnet@mindspring.com>Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
To: <mailto:Undisclosed-Recipient:;@mindspring.com>mailto:Undisclosed-Recipien t:;@mindspring.com
Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2001 3:51 AM
Subject: NOW WHAT: STAR WARS MIGHT JUST WORK

Friends:

The news that the Pentagon has successfully tested their "missile defense" system is not easy to swallow. It reminds me of the feeling I had when Galileo (1989), Ulysses (1990), and Cassini (1997) all were launched carrying plutonium payloads to loud cheers at NASA.

I think the most important lesson from all of this is that given enough time and money that Star Wars could be made to work. In the end it might not be the lemon some claim it to be after all.

Our opposition to Star Wars can't be based on technological claims. If the rocket scientists have proven anything it is that they can do amazing things sending rockets to the moon, Mars, and having bullets hit bullets in space (even if not 100% of the time.)

The public has been told by some that Star Wars will never work. Now they might not believe us next time we make such a claim.

Better we don't get into a technological pissing contest with the Pentagon. It's not our best card to play.

The lesson for the peace movement is to stick to the moral, ethical high ground. Star Wars might just work and can we really afford weapons in space? Can we afford to hand over the national treasury to the Pentagon?

Do we want the U.S. Space Command to "control and dominate" space and to "deny other countries access to space"? Is "full spectrum dominance" in the heavens going to make the world more secure? What is the relationship between the Space Command's "Vision for 2020" and the plans for corporate globalization? These, I think, are the questions we should be asking.

Many politicians would prefer that we restricted our criticism to the technological questions. That way they can easily answer them by offering more money for research, development, and testing. That makes the aerospace industry happy as well. The politicians would rather not debate the messy points about space "control and domination" because they are basically in favor of U.S. corporate global dominance.

If we focus on the real issues surrounding a new space arms race we won't be affected by flight test results in the future. We need to control the debate on our terms and not get sucked into the technology vortex. Let's keep our eyes on the prize and march on.

Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, FL 32607
(352) 337-9274
<http://www.space4peace.org>http://www.space4peace.org
<mailto:globalnet@mindspring.com>globalnet@mindspring.com

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First posted September 22nd, 2001.

Webwiz: Russell D. Hoffman