Space force or folly?

I can’t count the times a desperate presidential candidate has called for a human mission to Mars or a moon colony. Now we are asked to fund a “Space Force.” I credit the arguments for this in The Spokesman-Review. However, nobody states what this entails. It would surely call for a “Space Academy.” Perhaps this could be placed in orbit or buried on the moon. It makes sense to give this mission to the Air Force, since it would involve flying hardware and pilots into space. Alternatively, a “Space Force Graduate School” could allow all the services to participate. Otherwise, we could outsource the “Space Force” to private corporations like Blackwater.

Congress slobbers money on defense while exploding our national debt, so funding is no problem. There is an existing “Outer Space Treaty” (1967) that prohibits the militarization of space, including the moon, but hey, who cares? This is a serious concern and should be treated as such. Surely, our existing military, Homeland Security and intelligence services can handle this. If not, why not?

Meanwhile, will somebody fix the potholes in Spokane?

David Webb

Spokane