LOGO: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.Best Political Blog Winner, 2007 Webby Awards, People's Voice and Jury.   Gore Vidal and Mr. Fish - Exclusive Truthdig Gifts for the Holidays
 
December 1, 2008
Log in / Register

 Choose a size
Text Size

Most Read

Afghanistan in Crisis

Report: WMD Terror Attack Likely

Confronting the Terrorist Within

Bush’s 11th-Hour Bid for Secrecy

They’re Here, They’re Queer, and They’re … Well-Organized

Most Comments
Most Emailed

Reports
Afghanistan in Crisis
Our Dear Leader

Ear to the Ground

A/V Booth

Arts & Culture

Digs
Financial Meltdown 101
Vetting Sarah Palin

Truthdig Bazaar
Whose Toes Are Those?

Whose Toes Are Those?

By Jabari Asim
$6.99

more items

 
Ear to the Ground

U.S. Claims Successful Hit on Faulty Satellite

Email this item Email    Print this item Print   
Posted on Feb 21, 2008
Gates
AP photo / Mark Wilson, pool)

Robert Gates declares Wednesday night’s anti-satellite strike a success. The defense secretary made the comment Thursday in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

The official reason the U.S. military offered for its show of fireworks Wednesday night high above the Pacific was to shoot down, using an anti-satellite missile, a failed spy satellite before it might do damage upon reentry. However, not everyone read the skywriting that way.


BBC:

The US denies the operation was a response to an anti-satellite test carried out by China last year, which prompted fears of a space arms race.

US officials had said that without an attempt to destroy the fuel tank, and with the satellite’s thermal control system gone, the fuel would have been frozen solid, allowing the tank to resist the heat of re-entry.

If the tank were to have landed intact, it could have leaked toxic gas over a wide area - harming or killing humans if inhaled, officials had warned.

The US has denied that it shot down the satellite to prevent parts of it from falling into the hands of foreign powers.

Read more

Jump to Comments

Advertisement


Elsewhere: .

Comments

Are you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.

By PatrickHenry, February 24 at 2:04 pm #

If being a bigot means flushing out self serving morons such as lilmamzer, I guess I fit the bill.

I could care less of a persons ethnicity or religion until it affects others or myself.  When I find their viewpoint so condesending (lilmamzer) they can count on a response from me.

I believe this country taxes and spends far too much on military adventurism and supports too many punk ass countries such as Israel. 

The U.S. military buildup prior to the downfall of the Soviet Union had nothing to do with that governments collapse as many in the controlled media and MIC would have you believe.  The Soviets had (and still have) enough nukes to destroy the world many times over so why would they care.  The dissolution of the Soviet Union had more to do with consumer choices, lines and a desire for free enterprise.

Report this

By lilmamzer, February 24 at 6:09 am #

“It was a resounding success without ever having become operational.”

With that prescient comment, the incoherence of the far-left fools here at TruthCrapDig has been put into comic relief.

The reverberating mantra on these pages and throughout the moldy basement of the Che t-shirt-wearing tin-foil-hat-topped left is the faux indignation (oh, the horror) of applied US military action in defense of this country and our allies around the world. So when Reagan’s missile defense system plays a huge role in the dissolution of one of history’s tragic authoritarian empires without firing a shot or a single loss of life, is there any recognition or acknowlegement from the loony liberal left?

Of course not. That’s why the vast majority of Americans reject the wingnut left as repersented on these comment pages by cyrena, wicher, chalmers, etc. etc., not to mention the flat-out bigots like PatrickHenry and weather and non credible. Amusing fools, all of them.

Report this

By Frank, February 23 at 4:26 am #

Rowdy, Reagan’s Star Wars program was less about reality and more about intimidation of the Soviets. It was a resounding success without ever having become operational. It was designed, along with a number of other programs you may never hear about, to hasten the bankrupting of the Soviet Union through escalating the unsustainable military spending that eventually led to their collapse. Charlie Wilson’s war in Afghanistan gets a lot of credit for this, and rightly so, but without the panic in the Kremlin caused by the F-117, the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars), and the rhetoric of Reagan himself, the Soviets might have last another two decades, and ultimately the outcome could have been very different.

Report this

By Dr. Knowitall, PhD, PhD, February 22 at 3:01 pm #

Hey Rowdy, take it easy.  There are a lot of people out there who love ray-gun.  Cripes, they even named a fuckin’ airport after him and probably a few streets, schools, buildings, and probably even a sex position. 

Why not let Bill at least get his feet wet before you blow him out of the water?

Report this

By rowdy, February 22 at 11:13 am #

avoid typing the funny letters in the box, by becoming a “registered commenter”. but before you do that, try and find yourself a brain. it seems our “missile defense” depends on good weather. unlike that fucking billion dollar tax boondoggle which had a predictable orbit and was visible to the naked eye[ i saw it on 3 different nights] enemy missiles can come from anywhere unseen by anyone. since ray-gun first gave us star wars, with 2 exceptions it has been a miserable failure, everytime it has been tested. moron. go back and listen to “rush” some more.

Report this

By JimM72, February 22 at 8:20 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Yes-they dont exactly have the credibility market sewn up tight. It probably was a phony shootdown.

Report this

By Dr. Knowitall, PhD, PhD, February 22 at 7:15 am #

There’s probably as much truth in Gate’s declaration of “Mission Accomplished” as there was in Bush’s.

Who out there believes anything anyone in the current adm. says?

The truth really, really is I got the latest mega-version of the Red Ryder BB gun for Xmas/Hannukah/Quanzaan last year and I shot the thing down last month (took four tries.) It landed on a cow in Turkey that had MCD and the thing was immediately cured.  Hydrozene, they say.

Report this

By independent, February 21 at 11:19 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

In political science class we would have called these reasons strategic motivators but the MSM deters discussion by calling them conspiracy theories.

Now, if you want to hear a conspiracy, consider why the government waited until the exact moment everyone had their heads turned to watch the eclipse… Do you think any non-Navy telescopes caught the satellite event?

Report this

By redhound, February 21 at 9:47 pm #

President Bush = Chicken Little
The sky is falling along with the dollar, our infrastructure , job growth, and our influence in the world.

Vote republican for more of the same.

Report this

By PatrickHenry, February 21 at 6:19 pm #

I sure hope that billion dollar space lemon had a warranty on it. 

With all that money we could have built or repaired a school in every state.

Report this

By Bill, February 21 at 6:17 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

I think its a good deterant, showing what kind of muscle the United States of America is capable of. We may never need this type of arms but its good for some people knowing we can stand up to whomever thinks about trying to arm and shoot a nuclear missle at us. Why do i have to re-type what is in the box? ummmm talking about weird.

Report this

By QuyTran, February 21 at 5:59 pm #

This guy wants to catch China in a marathon.

Report this

By Douglas Chalmers, February 21 at 5:35 pm #

Oh, great! The war in space is now ushered in.......

But the real question is not who will win it - or even how.

What will happen after it is ‘won’? People won’t stand for that kind of neverending domination by another country, uhh.

Report this

Add Your Comment

Posts by unregistered readers are moderated. Posts by members
are published immediately. Why wait? Register today!






Notify you when others comment on this article?


Are you a human?
Retype the word you see here.


Please read and abide by our comment policy.
By submitting this comment, you agree to this site's terms and conditions.

Newsletter

Get Truthdig in your inbox

Privacy Policy

 
Click here to advertise with Truthdig
 

 
Join the Liberal Blog Advertising Network
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
Copyright © 2008 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.