Evil Chinese and Russians are trying to get us from space — says Space Force General John Raymond

© 2020 Peter Free

 

27 November 2020

 

 

Who would have guessed this was coming?

 

The one year old US Space Force is already adopting the United States' evidently prevailing strategic plan for demonstrating paranoid belligerence toward everything that moves.

 

Space Force chief of operations, General John W. Raymond, said recently — my comment in bracketed italics:

 

 

"Space really underpins… all of our instruments of national power," Raymond said.

 

"It provides huge economic opportunity, scientific opportunity and military opportunity."

 

Many people call Operation Desert Storm the first "space war." U.S. strategic missile warning capabilities were used innovatively to detect tactical scud missiles. GPS made possible the "left hook" blow into southern Iraq.

 

"It was the first war where we integrated strategic space capabilities into theater operations," Raymond said. "And it provided us a significant advantage."

 

Since then, the strategic environment has changed considerably.

 

Space was a benign domain in 1991 [until the United States weaponized it for the Operation Desert Storm], but it is a contested domain today.

 

This requires the U.S. military to adapt and change, Raymond said.

 

China and Russia caused this shift in the strategic environment. The two countries seek to stop U.S. access to space, and they are developing capabilities that would negate the U.S. advantage.

 

China and Russia have exhibited threatening behavior in space. Their capabilities include reversible jamming of GPS and communication satellites.

 

The two nations are working on directed energy and kinetic destruction of U.S. assets via missiles on the ground. Raymond said that there are on-orbit capabilities which are very concerning. If people think the threat isn't real, the general points back to when the Chinese shot down a satellite in 2007.

 

© 2020 Jim Garamone, Chief of Space Operations Discusses Need for Outreach to Partners, State of Space Force, US Department of Defense (25 November 2020)

 

 

The moral? — US strategic planning seems to involve acting in ways that threaten other nations . . .

 

. . . and then using those nations' subsequent efforts at self-defense as an excuse to act even more aggressively toward them.

 

It's a great (trillions of dollars) budget booster, as well.

 

What could possibly go wrong?