The news cycle since yesterday has been abuzz with a grave national security threat. First launched into the public eye by House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) as a cryptic warning on X, it has since been fleshed out. As much as the Endless-War-and-Money-for-Ukraine crowd wants us to believe Russia is on the ropes, the country has, in fact, been holding its own quite well, not only cementing its gains in Ukraine and building a thriving economy with its slimy trade partners but also apparently developing frightening new weapons systems.
"1 big thing — Russia threat: next war frontier" was the lead story in this morning's email briefing from newser Axios:
U.S. officials are warning of Russia's rising ability to station nuclear weapons in space, illuminating the next, scarier frontier of warfare.
Why it matters: The future of war is autonomous weapons, robots, sophisticated artificial intelligence and a race to dominate space. The new intelligence suggests Russia might be gaining a tactical edge in the space race.
A space-based nuclear weapon could threaten America's extensive civilian and military satellite network, which transmits billions of bytes of data each hour, the N.Y. Times reports.
Who could have foreseen such a frightening threat? As it turns out, plenty of people. But when they have tried to prevent it, we're always told how stupid they are. Luckily for us, they've persevered nonetheless, leaving us safer for their efforts.
Not to date myself, but I'm old enough to remember when the mighty President Ronald Reagan was ridiculed the world over for his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). Leftists alternated between disparaging "Cowboy Ronny" and his "Star Wars" military fantasies and shrieking in terror that he would get us killed by provoking Russia, our Cold War nemesis in the mutually assured destruction (MAD) scenario. Reagan called MAD a "suicide pact" and calmly went ahead with developing his project.
Naturally, the '80s pop culture world piled onto the effort to ridicule Reagan's vision and scare us into thinking he was going to get us all killed. Who can forget films such as "The Day After" and "WarGames," or songs like Nena's "99 Red Balloons" (99 Luftballons in the original German), Sigue Sigue Sputnik's "Love Missile F1-11," or Genesis's over-the-top Reagan hatefest, "Land of Confusion"?
Of course, that video was made when lefties were in one of their "Russia is harmless — we're the problem" phases. Too funny that a befuddled, elderly Reagan (then a mere 75) accidentally launches the nukes at the end, when today's reality is that a much older, demonstrably senile "President" Biden has his finger on the button. But, you know — he has a "D" next to his name, so all is well.
I remember at the time asking my brilliant Ivy League classmates how creating a purely defensive system that can't hurt anyone is the war-monger move. You'll be shocked to hear that no one could ever answer me.
Of course, in reality, SDI led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, which was too fragile a house of cards to compete with us once we looked likely to develop a defense against their weaponry and thus gain the military advantage. And today, the United States (and our ally, Israel) enjoy the protection of anti-missile systems. Thank you, Ronaldus Maximus.
Fast forward to 2019, and the smart set was at it again. The mighty President Donald Trump took the prescient, historic step of adding a new branch to the American military: the U.S. Space Force. Once again, scorn and ridicule were rained down upon the transformative leader's vision, and once again, it was ignored, and the vision was realized. And in light of the new Russian space nuke threat, we may be reassured by the fact that we already have a military force dedicated to protecting America in the theater beyond the atmosphere. Thank you, Donald Trump.
But somewhere in between those two magnificent presidencies, America had to get through eight years of Barack Obama's fundamental transformation of our beloved country. The things the man spouted as he ran for president in 2008 ranged from mildly anti-American to manifestly idiotic, yet our brow-beaten, white-guilt-ridden populace elected him anyway — twice. But in light of today's new threat, behold the sheer idiocy of this campaign promise from then-candidate Obama:
For some reason, we are constantly told that Barack Obama is the Smartest Man Ever to Live, let alone grace us with his presence in our Oval Office. But even as those dimwitted words left his oddly blueish-hued lips (Why are they that color? Is he getting enough oxygen?) —"I will NOT weaponize space" — I knew how stupid they were. They are the epitome of liberal wishful thinking, the same asinine school of thought that wants to cripple American society with gun laws that disarm the good guys, leaving only the bad guys with weapons.
But then, Obama is also the genius who, as a senator, disarmed Ukraine and then, as president, stood by while Russia annexed Crimea.
"I will NOT weaponize space." That's great, buddy. Unfortunately, everyone else will. Then what?
When will Democrats ever learn? Yes, nukes are scary — all weapons are scary. But as long as bad guys exist — that is to say, always and forever — it will be necessary for the good guys to protect themselves as well as those too weak or stupid to do so.
God bless the good guys.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this article attributed the song "99 Luftballons" to Nina Hagen. We regret the error.
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