NEW: Pres. Trump says he is directing the Department of Defense and the Pentagon to "establish a space force as the sixth branch of the armed forces."
"We must have an American dominance in space." https://t.co/dMeVjlPoyT pic.twitter.com/a59t6cFHWv
— Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) June 18, 2018
Alright. A few points here. First, I hate that name: Space Force. It sounds like the title of one of those post-Star Wars b-movies from the late 70’s like Starcrash or Battle Beyond the Stars.
The idea of militarizing space is okay with me. I get what we’re doing. Especially since the Pentagon keeps admitting that it’s been running into unidentified flying objects that it can’t seem to do anything about. For what it’s worth, I think aliens are real and are not our friends. But then, I’m not the president and have no obligation to be serious about anything, ever.
For our terrestrial foes, yes, it’s vital that we have a warfighting ability to handle threats from satellites and what not. No argument there. I get what we’re doing and why it’s necessary. My only real complaint is that I agree with Mattis in that we shouldn’t create a whole new branch of the military for this capability. It’s only going to contribute to the sort of bloat and waste we’ve gone through since the bad decision to split the Air Force into a separate branch from the Army.
Splitting off yet another branch from an already-unnecessary branch is an invitation for all manner of problems. The Air Force has plenty of expertise and technology for further development into space warfare. There’s no point in disrupting it.
I might be willing to change my mind if the Space Force wears the Colonial uniform from the classic Battlestar Galactica though. I hope to God they don’t end up going with some kind of shiny jumpsuit or anything like that. Like, it’s okay to have a silly name if you at least look cool.
