Afghan Detainees
2010.03.17 - Wednesday
Here's an issue I'm more than a little tired of hearing about. Seriously, what's the big deal?
We're over there trying to build a country, or stop terrorism, or give the terrorists
alternative targets, or change a culture, or fatten the bank accounts of arms dealers, or I don't know,
something. Prisoners almost certainly get tortured in Afghan jails. That's the culture. The same
culture we're told to respect in the face of the manipulation and subjugation of women, the exploitation
of children, and the blatant disregard of virtually every rule of warfare ever conceived by Mankind.
But I suppose since those things don't involve our touch of evil, not being the direct result of the
Western military, it's just their way. It's not their fault that they have no choice. It's the culture.
It's no better or worse than ours.
Well, except ours apparently is worse, since we do have a choice, and choose to hand our prisoners
over to a legal system in which we know torture is commonplace. Clearly it would be ideal for us to
demonstrate our cultural superiority by imprisoning these combatants ourselves. Of course, since most of
them toss their weapons into the nearest bush or ditch at the mere sight of our troops, and since that
action prevents us from actually fighting them because of our steadfast adherence to honourable rules
of combat, we would basically need to imprison almost every single enemy combatant we come across. The
last time a Western nation went down that road, the number of combatants was so great we had to send them
to the other side of the world, just to imprison them safely. Some place called Guantanamo Bay. I don't
know, maybe you've heard of it?
Of course it didn't take long, just a few days I think, before the mere fact that we were
holding these "soldiers" became tantamount to torture itself. "America's shame!" A modern day
"concentration camp". We took pictures of them, offending their beliefs. We delivered each man a copy
of the Quran, but dared to touch it with our bare hands, offending their beliefs. They were made to sit
in cages, outdoors, in Cuba, with only a little bit of shade! Yeah, I guess a handful of them were
waterboarded, too. No one's perfect. Eventually, we had to put each man on trial as if this was a
criminal issue, or release them. We had to present evidence. "Now, Sergeant. On the field of battle,
five years ago, did you actually see this man fire a weapon at US forces? Ah! You don't remember! Free
to go!" Needless to say, holding them all ourselves doesn't seem to be good enough, either.
So, we can't imprison them ourselves, and we can't turn them over to the Afghan justice system,
in Afghanistan, where they were caught in the first place? Ahh! I see. Well, I have a perfectly
reasonable solution to this entire problem. We could just start treating this like a real war, and,
you know, shoot them!
The Future of Western War
Giving Up The Game
2010.03.13 - Saturday
So, Obama has cancelled NASA's Constellation program. Originally set in motion by President Bush,
the program was supposed to return America, and by extension, Humans, to our Moon roughly ten to
fifteen years from now. Missions to Mars or beyond would be possible with roughly the same hardware
being developed under Constellation. Although it was happening slowly, at least it finally appeared
as though we were getting back on track. Well, "nevermind", I guess.
The really frustrating thing about Obama's cancellation of the program is that he's actually giving
NASA more money, not less. The program was over-budget, true, but I haven't heard anyone say the
budget was realistic in the first place. Show me an important, significant, large scale, technologically
challenging project anywhere in the world, public or private sector, and I'll show you a project that's
over-budget. At the end of the day, however, this isn't about money. It's about vision, and Obama's
blatant lack of it where space is concerned. In canceling Constellation, which wouldn't have even been
capable of putting a Human into space for at least another five years, Obama is effectively, and
voluntarily, taking America out of the Human space flight business for the foreseeable future. NASA
stands for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and I don't see anything there that
suggests it should be turned into the world's biggest climate science research body, which is one of
NASA's new major responsibilities. Satellite monitoring or not, how that doesn't fall under the
jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency is beyond me.
Supposedly, the ultimate goal is to turn NASA into something akin to the FAA; a regulatory agency
who will monitor and police a private sector space flight industry. I'm completely in support of that
goal, in fifty or sixty years. Today, Human space flight is not at all analogous with early private
development of airplanes. It has a lot more in common with the early exploration of the New World,
done under massive government expenditure, which no private endeavour could possibly support or
sustain. Eventually, over the course of decades, enough knowledge was gained, and enough infrastructure
was created to allow private exploration and colonization of this continent. The private sector space
industry in America, at least where Human space flight is concerned, is probably at least ten or fifteen
years away from achieving what NASA is currently capable of, even if they're given billions of dollars
in public funds. Sub-orbital tourist rides for the wealthy, which aren't even happening yet, are a
long way away from sending astronauts to the space station, let alone putting people and equipment
on our Moon.
Once the Space Shuttle stops flying in September, America will, for the first time since space flight
was invented, not be able to launch a Human being off this planet. It may not be getting a lot of press
right now, but it will, and once it does, I don't think that's going to sit very well with people.
American astronauts will go to the space station, but they'll do it on Russian rockets. Someday, maybe
even on Chinese ones. They'll be up there, somehow, but just as Europe abdicated the throne of leadership
after the Second World War, forgoing the space race to focus on rebuilding itself, so America is
doing now. At least Europe had the excuse of being physically ruined; practically bombed back to the
Middle Ages. What has America got? A recession? Trillion dollar bank bailouts on top of trillion dollar
bank bailouts? Mortgage foreclosures? Oh the Humanity! Yet Obama is still finding a way to boost NASA's
budget, while crippling its very purpose.
It all depends on how you view Humanity's destiny. I know our destiny it not to sit on this planet,
in harmony with our environment or not, and wait for the next asteroid, comet, solar flare, ice age,
or volcanic catastrophe to come along and exterminate our species. We need to get out there, and without
things like Human space flight, what else will American children aspire to? Where will their dreams
take them once space is cut off? Once the skies are limited by carbon emission rules? Once they can't
even hit the road and just drive? To work for the government, perhaps. To get a nice job, with security,
and retire at 55 with benefits. If Americans aren't careful, their country really will end up just like
Europe, and Canada, for that matter. Great free nations, with good economies, strong culture, and a
high standard of living, who accomplish nothing.
