Keep the wars on Earth and China in the U.S. orbit

The revelation last week that China had launched an anti-satellite missile and successfully destroyed one of its own weather satellites was a surprising and terrifying event for many in the U.S. military. The test could foretell the expansion of modern warfare into the arena of space.

During the 1980s the United States and Soviet Union were able to develop anti-satellite missile technology, but subsequent arms agreements between the two nations forbid the further testing of these technologies.

The United States and Soviet Union never sold their technologies on the international market and have thusfar remained the only two powers capable of shooting down spy satellites. If less powerful countries (Iran, Sudan or Syria) added anti-spy satellite technologies to their arsenals, future wars could include battles in space, as threatened countries try to prevent others from spying on them by targeting their satellites.

The destruction of China’s weather satellite released hundreds of thousands of pieces of debris into the Earth’s atmosphere, which can damage or destroy other satellites they hit.

Satellites are extremely expensive and an important part of the global economy. Any future use of anti-satellite missiles could cause a terrible chain reaction affecting far more than just military satellites.

The United States should take this opportunity to quietly congratulate China on its impressive ability to shoot down satellites and ask China to sign an agreement forbidding them to test and/or sell its technology with other nations.

Let’s keep this genie in the bottle.

Time to get our guns and get serious with Sudan

Over the weekend the Sudanese Air Force once again violated its cease-fire agreement with Darfur rebel groups by bombing and sending helicopters to attack villages in northern Darfur.

Since 2003, the Sudanese government has paid and armed nomadic Arab tribesmen to murder over 400,000 non-Arab Darfur civilians. The Sudanese government has also used violence and starvation to kill non-Arab Darfurians, but these groups have no defense against helicopter and military aircraft.

I couldn’t find any MIG or Antonov fighter jets but after I Google map-searched “Darfur, Sudan” and switched the view to satellite, I found 11 Russian military helicopters parked in Darfur.

Seven of the helicopters were at the airport in the capital of North Darfur, El Fasher, and the other four were at the airport in the capital of South Darfur, Nyala.

It’s time for the U.N. and the international community to get serious with Sudan, a country that only understands the use of force, and destroy its helicopters and fighter aircraft in the name of stopping genocide.

The Sudanese government has 20 years of experience negotiating and lying to the U.N., which tried hopelessly to stop Sudan’s North-South civil war in the 1980s and ,90s. The Sudanese

government violated countless cease-fire agreements and only paid lip service to the U.N. as it tried passively to stop the unending violence.

When the world talks of taking action to end genocide in Darfur, it needs to consider what it is dealing with. It’s not a peace-loving, equitable government, but a racist, rich and arrogant Arab state that will stop at almost nothing to achieve its goals of Arabizing Darfur.

It’s time to show the Sudanese how serious the United States and the U.N. are about human rights and its commitment to stopping genocide, be it in Kosovo or Darfur.

It’s time to show the Sudanese that the world is done offering promises.

We know where the planes and helicopters are. Now is the time to launch 11 cruise missiles ($1,000,000 each) and destroy the weapons of mass murder, put an end to this horrific madness and make a point.

We have the weapons and we have Google Earth. This has gone on long enough.