‘We Would Be Opening the
Heavens to War’
CounterSpin interview with
Karl Grossman on the weaponization of space
JANINE JACKSON
Janine Jackson: While the
internet treated it largely as a kind of painful joke, corporate news
media reported the
Trump White House’s plans to establish a “Space Force” as the sixth branch of
the US military as almost an inevitability: A Los Angeles Times story slips
from saying the force “would be” responsible for training military personnel to
saying the space command “will centralize planning for space war-fighting.” The
pushback reported is from those concerned about “bureaucracy,” or changes in
the “roles and budgets” of existing military branches. There are details to be
worked out—even such “basic” ones, says a Washington
Post front-pager, as “what uniforms” the space force would use. But
coverage presents potential opposition to the plan, from congressmembers, for
example, more as a “hurdle” than a cause for deeper investigation.
Karl Grossman is a preeminent
resource on the weaponization of space. He’s professor of journalism at State
University of New York/College at Old Westbury, and author of the books Weapons
in Space and The Wrong Stuff: The Space Program’s Nuclear Threat to
Our Planet, among others. He’s also a longtime associate of FAIR, the media
watch group that brings you this show. Welcome back to CounterSpin, Karl
Grossman.
Karl Grossman: A pleasure
to be with you, Janine.
JJ: We can ask how media
can report the statement, from the bipartisan leaders of the Armed
Services Committee Panel on Strategic Forces, that “beefing up” military
capabilities in space “will result in a safer, stronger America,” with no
thought to whether terrestrial war-making has made America safer or stronger,
but we know that elite media takes place in this sort of la-la land where those
presumptions are premises.
But I want to ask you about
the more specific claim being made, and simply recited in the press, about the
nature of this plan: USA Today says it
“would develop forces to defend satellites from attack and perform other
space-related tasks.” It says the Pentagon’s plan “identifies”—doesn’t allege,
but identifies—Russia and China as “explicitly pursuing space war-fighting
capabilities to neutralize US space capabilities in a time of conflict.” What
are we to make, Karl Grossman, of the idea that creating a space force is a
defensive measure?
KG: What we would be
doing is opening the heavens to war, making space a war zone, and that flies in
the face of the Outer
Space Treaty of 1967, which sets space aside for peaceful purposes, and
precludes the deployment in space, by any nation, of weapons of mass
destruction. And there’s been efforts—I’ve covered them for years now;
mainstream media has not covered these efforts—to broaden the Outer Space
Treaty to preclude not just weapons of mass destruction, but any weaponry
in space, and in that way ensure that it would be space for peace.
And the two countries that
have been leaders in this effort have been Russia and China. In fact, I have
here a piece from Chinese media, this was just a couple of weeks ago, “China Envoy
Calls for Strengthening Outer Space Covenants and Cooperation.” What Russia
and China—and let me mention, too, our neighbor Canada—have been promoting,
pushing, has been a treaty titled Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space,
the PAROS treaty.
And I’ve been actually to the
United Nations for votes on the PAROS treaty. And one country after another
country votes for it—again, with Russia, China and our neighbor Canada in the
lead. And the one nation, in all the countries of the world, voting against the
PAROS treaty? The United States. And because there’s a consensus process for a
disarmament treaty, the PAROS treaty has gotten nowhere. So what we’d be doing
by creating this Space Force, and seeking, as Trump put it,
“American dominance” in space, is just really asking for Russia and China and
other countries—there will be India and Pakistan, the list will go on—to go up
into space and weaponize space.
JJ: So it’s really turned
on its head; it’s being
presented, in the words, largely, of Mike Pence and other officials, that
it’s “our adversaries,” as it’s put, that have already transformed space into a
war-fighting domain—those are their words—and so, therefore, the US has to get
up there to respond.
KG: I must say, China did
a real stupid thing in the year 2007. It used
one of its missiles to destroy an obsolete Chinese satellite. And the
next year, we did the same thing to one of our satellites, with a missile. And
this is being used by the US as an example of China being keen on
anti-satellite weaponry. In fact, what is was was a very dumb way to eliminate
a satellite, because you’re left with all kind of debris—dumb on the Chinese
part, and dumb for the United States to do the same thing the year after.
But up to now, China and
Russia—and I’ve spoken to officials of both countries, and I’ve been to both
countries; I’ve been on the story for a long time—and they’re very, very
reluctant to violate the intent of the Outer Space Treaty. Also, and they’ve
gone on and on with me about this, they don’t want to waste their national
treasuries; they don’t want to expend—I mean, to put weaponry up in space is an
expensive proposition; it isn’t like acquiring a tank or even a jet fighter;
billions and billions of dollars would be the cost—and they’ve told me that
they just don’t want to waste their money on placing weapons in space. However,
if the US moves up into space with weapons, with this mission to dominate the
Earth below from space, despite the cost, they’ll be up there.
JJ: I’ve read a lot about
satellites, Karl, but a word that I haven’t seen much of in this current round
of coverage is nuclear. But that’s got to be in the story, right?
KG: Absolutely. In moving
up into space, with the Space Force, no doubt the United States will be placing
nuclear power systems in space. That was the architecture of Reagan’s
Star Wars, orbiting battle platforms with nuclear reactors on them
providing the power for hypervelocity guns, particle beams and laser weapons;
as Star Wars head general James Abrahamson said, without reactors in orbit,
there would need to be a long, long extension cord that goes down to the
surface of the Earth, bringing up power. Consider the consequences of a
shooting war: Battle platforms are hit, and radioactivity from these nuclear
reactors rains down on Earth.
JJ: You really are not
getting the picture of, not just things going wrong, but things going as they
might be anticipated to go, being, really, a horrific calamity for
human beings. It’s a very tidy image that we’re getting about what war in space
would be like.
KG: This lethal threat
would be above our heads. I did a documentary a number of years ago, entitled,
advisedly, Nukes in Space: The Nuclearization and Weaponization of the
Heavens. And nukes and weapons in space, they go together.
JJ: And I wanted to ask
you about that question of priorities, finally. The Washington Post had
an article headlined
“Potential Winners if a Space Force Flies,” which delivered the no doubt
shocking news that “a group of government contractors sees a chance to profit.”
Hold onto your hat! An analyst tells the Post, “Lockheed Martin, Northrop
Grumman and Harris Corporation may be particularly well positioned to benefit
from Trump’s Space Force.” I found it odd to present military contractors as
sort of savvily responding to policy, as opposed to driving it, but then, to
your point, there was vanishingly little reference in media coverage to who
would not benefit from this allocation of funds, to what would be
lost, to what would be harmed, and so I wanted to underscore that point that
you made, just to say, media didn’t talk about it either.
And then, finally, what do you
see as the role for the public in this, where can people focus in terms of
speaking out on this issue?
KG: Just a quick mention
of a very important piece, in regards to mainstream media, I was so happy to
see it, in the Los Angeles Times, this is just a couple of days ago,
the headline,
“Trump Backed ‘Space Force’”—in quotes—“After Months of Lobbying by Officials
With Ties to the Aerospace Industry.” And listeners can Google that;
it’s very, very detailed, talks about
a small group of current and
former government officials, some with deep financial ties to the aerospace
industry, who see creation of the sixth military service as a surefire way to
hike Pentagon spending on satellite and other space systems.
So on this issue, we can at
this point, there’s been enough documentation, to include the “follow the
money” precept.
As to what people can do, we
have to rise from the grassroots. An excellent organization, that I would
recommend that people connect with, is the Global Network Against Weapons and
Nuclear Power in Space. Its website is Space4Peace.org,
and among other things, the Global Network will be doing, October 6–13 this
year, they’re going to—all over the world, this is going to be
happening—protests and other actions in a Space for Peace week. So from the
grassroots, people—certainly in this country, and all over the world—need to
stand up and to stop this madness, to keep space for peace.
JJ: We’ve been speaking
with Karl Grossman, professor of journalism at State University of New
York/College at Old Westbury. You can find his recent article, “Turning
Space Into a War Zone,” on CounterPunch. Karl Grossman, thank you so
much for joining us this week on CounterSpin.
KG: A pleasure, Janine.
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