Wednesday, May 18, 2005

The Death Star & the Religious Right

Star Wars is coming to an end with the release of the last in the series, thank heavens. But the real Death Star is taking shape above us, thanks to the US Air Force, which today announced its plans to "weaponize" space.

What's truly scary about this is that it comes on the heels of weeks of articles about how the US Air Force Academy has quietly been turned into an evangelical Christian bastion, with an estimated 90% membership in some sect or other that can be called part of the religious right. That includes faculty as well as students.

The spectre of our bombers flown by folks who believe in their divine right to survive Armageddon--even to provoke Armageddon--is not comforting at all. No sir.

So it's even scarier to read the comments below in the NY Times article about the new space weapons:

"The Air Force believes "we must establish and maintain space superiority," Gen. Lance Lord, who leads the Air Force Space Command, told Congress recently. "Simply put, it's the American way of fighting." Air Force doctrine defines space superiority as "freedom to attack as well as freedom from attack" in space."

Ah, yes, the American way of fighting. And is his name really Lance Lord?

Oh, Lord.