{"id":35015,"date":"2018-06-21T05:45:51","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T09:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=35015"},"modified":"2018-06-20T11:43:51","modified_gmt":"2018-06-20T15:43:51","slug":"space-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/06\/space-force\/","title":{"rendered":"Space Force"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

President Trump has directed the Pentagon to create a sixth branch of the military:\u00a0 the Space Force.<\/p>\n

Thus, in addition to the Army, Navy, Marines (though part of the Navy, considered a distinct \u201cbranch\u201d), Coast Guard, and Air Force, we would have a Space Force, designed to carry out military operations in outer space.<\/p>\n

In addition to countering hostile satellites and other space-based weaponry such as China is developing, the Space Force would protect us from illegal aliens.<\/p>\n

Sorry.\u00a0 I could not resist the temptation to say that.<\/p>\n

From the Washington Post:<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

President Trump said Monday that he would direct the Defense Department and the Pentagon to create a new \u201cSpace\u00a0Force\u201d \u2014 an independent\u00a0sixth branch of the armed forces.<\/p>\n

\n

Trump has floated this idea before \u2014 in March, he said he initially conceived it as a joke \u2014 but has offered\u00a0few\u00a0details about how the\u00a0Space Force would operate. Several experts noted that an act of Congress is required to establish a new branch of the military.<\/p>\n

Trump said Monday that the branch would be \u201cseparate but equal\u201d vis-\u00e0-vis the Air Force and that Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would oversee its creation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not enough to have an American presence in space, we must have American dominance in space,\u201d Trump said, adding that he did not want to see\u00a0\u201cChina and other countries leading us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dunford\u2019s staff acknowledged Trump\u2019s comments in a statement Monday afternoon, pledging to work closely with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis\u2019s office, other Defense Department officials and Congress to \u201cimplement the President\u2019s guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSpace is a warfighting domain, so it is vital that our military maintains its dominance and competitive advantage in that domain,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n\n

Good idea?\u00a0 Bad idea?\u00a0 Not needed?\u00a0 Too expensive for now?\u00a0 A confusion of science fiction with reality?\u00a0 A visionary initiative?<\/p>\n

Back in 1967, the U.S. signed and the Senate ratified the Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits establishing military bases on the moon and other planets.\u00a0 It also forbids placing weapons of mass destruction in orbit.\u00a0 China and Russia also signed that treaty.\u00a0 The Washington Post article linked above says that \u201cthe treaty has no enforcement mechanism.\u201d<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t we need to honor the treaties we signed, even without an \u201cenforcement mechanism\u201d?<\/p>\n

The article quoted an expert who said that it wouldn\u2019t necessarily rule out a Space Force, depending on what it is and what it does.\u00a0 But is it really a good idea to militarize space?\u00a0 Do we need \u201cAmerican dominance in space\u201d?<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

Illustration by ColinOOB via Pixabay, CC0, Creative Commons<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Trump has directed the Pentagon to create a sixth branch of the military:\u00a0 the Space Force. Thus, in addition to the Army, Navy, Marines (though part of the Navy, considered a distinct \u201cbranch\u201d), Coast Guard, and Air Force, we would have a Space Force, designed to carry out military operations in outer space. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":35021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,44,49],"tags":[7163,4923,7157,7160],"class_list":["post-35015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-technology","category-war-2","tag-militarizing-space","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-space-force","tag-u-s-military"],"yoast_head":"\nSpace Force<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President Trump has directed the Pentagon to develop a 6th branch of the military: The Space Force.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/06\/space-force\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Space Force\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Trump has directed the Pentagon to develop a 6th branch of the military: The Space Force.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/06\/space-force\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-06-21T09:45:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-06-20T15:43:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/305\/2018\/06\/space-3078979_1920.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"432\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/06\/space-force\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/06\/space-force\/\",\"name\":\"Space Force\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-21T09:45:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-06-20T15:43:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"President Trump has directed the Pentagon to develop a 6th branch of the military: The Space Force.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/06\/space-force\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/06\/space-force\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/06\/space-force\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Space Force\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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