G.I. Joe in Orbit

Does Bush have any military aspirations for the new Space Race?

Bruce Gagnon: I think it?s part of a long, long-time plan to begin to build the infrastructure to use space to control the earth and then ultimately to create a 50-year, 100-year plan to control the shipping lanes between the earth and planetary bodies. There's a plan to actually mine the skies. They've discovered gold on the asteroids. On Mars, there's magnesium and cobalt and uranium. That little rover driving around Mars today, it's not looking for the origins of life like we're told; they're doing soil identification and they're trying to identify what is where on that planet. There's helium-3 on the moon. In fact, there's a New York Times story where they say that it will replace fossil fuels when they are gone on the earth, and helium-3 will be used for fusion reactors. Coincidentally, the U.S. never signed the 1979 Moon Treaty that outlaws permanent bases on the moon, military bases, and most importantly, says that no country or corporation or individual can claim ownership of the moon. The U.S. didn?t sign that treaty because we've always intended to have military bases on the moon. I have a copy of a secret Army study from 1952 that says the U.S. has to control the moon. They long ago realized that whoever controls the moon actually will be able essentially to control the pathway on and off the planet Earth ? they call it the earth-moon gravity well; whoever is at the top of the well will control who can get on and off the planet. And a congressional study in 1989 entitled, "Military Space Forces: the Next 50 Years," stated that with our bases on the moon, we would be able to hijack rival shipments upon return, so that if anyone else tried to mine the sky but they weren't authorized, we would be able to take them out on the way back.

Then, of course, there's competition with China's space program. But the more you look at this, the less Bush seems like an idealist.