Raping the Moon, Mars and the Stars:
How does 'Walmartian' sound?
'Hallunaburton'?
Is Bush aiming to privatize the
planets and establish Lunar and Martian Corporate Territories as
Independent Nations?
By Rob Kall
Editor, OpEdNews.com
 I've
been a science fiction and space exploration fan and supporter all
my life. But George W. Bush's plans for NASA scare me. It's
simple. I don't trust him to treat NASA, the Moon or Mars any
different than the other aspects of the human commons he's
touched.
Any time he evokes a positive promise
and vision, enunciating his speechwriters' words so clumsily,
behind those words are plans to do the opposite -- to ravage and
plunder, to tear down and do whatever is most profitable for him
and his cronies. This is very predictable, very reliable.
So, if George Bush says he's going to
improve the space program, that means he's going to ruin it, and
in the process make some mega-corporations billions and, probably,
some pimp neocons hundreds of thousands of dollars offering
consulting services on how to make money off of the destruction of
NASA and the rape of the Moon and Mars.
I'd assume that, following the lines
of the IMF and WTO, that the Moon and Mars will be privatized,
sold outright to a corporation. Why give an acre of Moon land to a
government?
Perhaps that's the logical next step
for Bush and the rest of the traitors who are sacking the US --
establishing Lunar corporate territories. The space program could
be Bush's biggest giveaway ever.
In the near-term, I fear, as John
Glenn has also expressed concern about, that Bush's outer space
rape plans will kill or weaken important NASA programs already
under way.
The only thing we can trust about
Bush is that he will do the opposite of what he says when it comes
to promising to do good, and that the opposite will benefit his
cronies and money backers.
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Even life long space-buffs would be
wise to tread cautiously in welcoming the Bush administration into
space ... unless, of course, Bush, Rove and the neocons volunteer
to do the Mars trip themselves. That's one flight suit I'd be
truly happy to see on George.
This article has generated some nasty
remarks from right-wingers who think I'm crazy suggesting that
Bush might do as I suggest. But I'm not the only one.
Edward Hudgins, adjunct scholar at
the Cato Institute and editor of Space: The Free-Market
Frontier, suggested on CNN (Jan. 18) that large corporations
be given rights to their own bases on the Moon, in exchange for
them investing in the Bush Space project (since it is laughably
under-funded).
Here's an excerpt from the Progress
Report, a daily newsletter from the think tank, Center for
American Progress:
Mars
The scene is all too familiar: roll
out a big-sounding proposal to great acclaim, then drastically
underfund the proposal after the fanfare subsides to make room
for large tax cuts for the wealthy. No, it's not the "No
Child Left Behind" bill and the subsequent underfunding of
education, it's the President's new Mars proposal. In 1989 when
a similar idea was floated by Bush's father, experts
estimated it would cost about $500 billion. But even as
Bush waxed philosophic about the virtues of exploring the
unknown frontier of space, he said his grand vision could be
done by "spending
an additional $1 billion over five years." As USA Today
reports, this amount is so small, it is almost embarrassing: a
single flight of the space shuttle costs roughly $500 million.
In contrast to Bush's Mars proposal, "the original Apollo
program cost $150 billion to $175 billion in 2003 dollars."
Red Planet Motivations
 ...there is one company that has
supported a Mars mission for years: Halliburton. The company,
which was headed by Vice President Dick Cheney and is a major
financial backer of the Administration, has long supported
funding a Mars plan because it is good for its drilling
technology business (it was also Cheney who spearheaded the Mars
plan inside the White House). According to an article in the
August 20, 2001, Kiplinger's Business, "several
companies and university labs will stand to benefit from new
projects" in a Mars mission - including Halliburton. And
the payoff could be big: Citizens Against Government Waste notes
that, despite the White House's initial lowballing, legitimate
"cost estimates for the new program range from $550 billion
to $1 trillion."
HALLIBURTON ACTIVELY
PUSHING FOR MARS FUNDING
In the April 24, 2000, edition of Oil
& Gas Journal, Halliburton scientist Steve Streich
pointed out why a Mars program would be so lucrative for
Halliburton.
He says a "Mars exploration
program presents an unprecedented opportunity" for the
industry and that it "warrants the support of both
government and industry leaders." He says "one area of
great importance is finding out of what the inside of Mars
consists. That's where the petroleum industry comes in."
Specifically, benefits for "the oil and gas industry may
lie in technology that NASA will use for drilling into the
surface of Mars." He says there is "great potential
for a happy synergy between space researchers" on a Mars
project and "the oil and gas industry."
HALLIBURTON ALREADY
INVOLVED IN MARS PLANS
The April 24, 2000, edition of Oil
& Gas Journal also reported that Halliburton is already
involved in a preliminary consortium of industry and academia
"organized to support the development of new technology
required for the Mars mission." A February 28, 2001, report
in Petroleum News confirmed that "NASA has been
working with Halliburton and others to identify drilling
technologies that might work on Mars."
MILITARY MOTIVATION
On top of the Halliburton factor, USA
Today reports that Cheney "persuaded Bush that there
could be military benefits, such as space-based defense
systems."
# # #
Rob
Kall is the founder and editor of OpEdNews.com,
and president of Futurehealth, Inc. Copyright © 2004 by Rob Kall.
All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.
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