Almost as Needed as a Big Ostentatious Military Parade

Nobody does adhocracy better than Donald Trump. Seat-of-the-pants policy-making is one of the hallmarks of this thoroughly underprepared dictator-wannabe. If it sounds good, if one of his “I need affirmation from the base” rallies responds positively to yet another wasteful and inane proposal, it becomes rapidly set in stone.

Examples: A big powerful physical and mega-expensive wall in an era of highly sophisticated digital tracking and detection systems. An immigration deportation scheme that required detention housing we did not have, a deportation work force we never needed and a system that would separate little tiny children from their parents and threaten the immigration status of people who really have never lived anywhere else. A massive and well-televised military parade, generally part of an insecure nation’s message to its people to stay in line, that most of Trump’s own forces see as both un-American (we don’t have to flash our might to anyone; they already know) and wasteful (can we deploy that money to Veteran’s Hospitals instead?).

Next stupid idea: A new branch of the military, called the Space Force. Proposed in late June of this year, Trump stressed that this would insure U.S. supremacy in outer space. Or would it be throwing down the gauntlet to challenge nations to ramp up their counter-measures immediately?

Internally, the highest-ranking general staff in the military has been highly averse to escalating the militarization of outer space, and any notion of weaponization and military defense (the “Star Wars” defense shield) has been easily contained within the Air Force, an expert branch of government with massive existing missile and air power. While those currently in the military are mandated to follow the policies of their Commander-in-Chief (er… that would be Donald Trump) and must publicly support him, privately they simply cannot believe that they are going to be forced to come up with implementing plans to present to Congress (the only body that actually can authorize a military force).

It is a tragic joke to them, particularly when the most present new “here and now” threats are coming from cyberspace, an area that Trump is loath to address because acknowledging the threat, as has every American intelligence agency has, would be an admission that his electoral victory might actually be due in significant part to Russian cyber-hacking and its campaign of disinformation. So as necessary and immediate as that challenge to our democracy might be, Donald prefers to weaponize the distant future of space instead. Not only is that a terrible waste of money, not only does it send a terrible message to the rest of the world on American intentions, but it invites every other world power of note to do the same. Think of the billions of dollars that would be spent by nations engaged in an unnecessary space race fomented by Donald John Trump!

A very good summary of the unofficial reaction (the real reaction) from our own military and knowledgeable civilian leaders comes from former Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James, who was interviewed (in June) in the August 10^th The Cipher Brief: “My first reaction [to the Trump Space Force proposal]:  I wondered what the President had maybe just seen on TV that spurred him to do this.  The announcement was a surprise to the Pentagon.  Secretary James Mattis did not know it was coming.  The Air Force did not know it was coming.  As a matter of fact, the President was speaking from prepared remarks for the Space Council that the inter-Agency had looked at.  Those remarks did not contain an announcement about Space Force.  So this was another adlib that took everybody by surprise and clearly was not well thought through.

“As you probably know, there are one or two studies that Secretary Mattis is charged with conducting.  They’re in process, but those studies were directed by Congress, so they have to be done.  The first one is due in the August timeframe, the second one is due at the end of the year.  The Center for Naval Analysis was hired to do one of those studies which is meant to examine whether a Space Corps is a good idea and if not, why not?   If so, why?  This would be the beginning of how you might map it out.  This was by order of the National Defense Authorization Act of the House and Chairman Rogers (who was the proponent of space corps).

“The second study was ordered to provide more specifics on how you would pave the way and actually do it.  So now that the president has decreed it will happen, it will be interesting to see what this first report says because it’s no secret that Secretary Mattis and the Air Force have been against the idea – so now if they want to protect their jobs – they’re going to have to reverse or appear to reverse, their position in order to back up what the president said.”

Indeed, where experts who have retired from the federal government are asked, there is almost a uniform revulsion to the notion of an American military Space Force. Even as Vice President Mike Pence carries a very-pro-Space Force message to the reaches of Trump’s base, there is a lot of eye-rolling among those who really know what they are talking about. Like former NASA astronaut, Scott Kelly, who feels that this militarization effort could seriously jeopardize peaceful space exploration and multinational space stations and cooperation:

“‘It's not clear to me what the purpose is of this new branch of the military, which is going to be incredibly expensive,’ Kelly said Friday [8/3]. ‘And my big concern here is that, you know, space has been a place for us to work in a peaceful manner. And, you know, changing that with not any clear reason at this point is, like I said, kind of hard to understand.’

“Kelly, a U.S. Navy veteran, added that the envisioned force’s goals would likely be redundant with space objectives already being worked toward by other military branches… ‘Any time you add more bureaucracy to an already large bureaucracy, it's going to cost a lot of money. I think the capability we're talking about is something that probably already exists in the U.S. military, in the Air Force, Navy, other armed services,’ he said. ‘I spent 25 years in the Navy, and 20 of it at NASA. And this is not something that we ever really heard was a serious consideration over all that time.’” NBCNews.com, August 3^rd. 

You mean that the President done thunk this one up, all by himself and announced it without really running it by any of his most senior military or his civilian experts? Without discussing the impact of such a statement on our relationship with other nations with our Department of State? Yup! Wonder if Donald would like a cool “Commander-in-Chief” military uniform with lots of ribbons and medals… all the way down his legs too! Those North Koreans have got that look down, along with ostentatious military parades!!!!

I’m Peter Dekom, and most clearly coherent policy-making skills are no longer remotely prerequisites to becoming President of the most powerful nation on earth.