| Wednesday, February
5, 2003
I have been looking at letters telling me I am nuts to be in favor of
SSTO and in particular calling me names for saying we ought to build one
now. Of course that is not quite what I said. I've been looking at papers
posted right here on line.
There is
http://www.jerrypournelle.com
/slowchange/SSX2.html which looks at lessons
learned from DC/X and recommends a future system. Note well that we
predict disaster from an attempt to build SSTO directly as a line item;
and look at means of development. This was in fact our response to the
X-33 proposal. Alas no one listened.
The above comes from Amazon Associates. It makes for some ugly HTML
that I haven't been very successful at cleaning up largely because I
haven't worked at it, but it does provide a link. I don't make a lot of
money out of books bought on Amazon through this web site, but it's not
trivial: that is, if you go to Amazon through this link and buy a book, a
rather small amount of what you pay winds its way to me a few months
later. I could never support this place off the Amazon Associates revenue
-- the only way that happens is through subscriptions
-- but every ickle makes a mickle...
The question is, does this new exhortation require dynamic links that
greatly increase the download times? If so, out it goes. Otherwise it's a
distraction but not fatal, I think.
Iraq and the Star Road
Colin Powell this morning made his case: Saddam Hussein isn't disarming
and never intended to. None of that was astonishing, or indeed unexpected,
at least by me. My qualms about this coming war have nothing to do with
Saddam Hussein, who is a bad guy, and if are going to go wring evil necks
his is a good candidate to be among the first.
My problem has always been, is it our business to go wring the necks of
bad guys in general, or only those who are a provable threat to the people
of the United States; and Powell's presentation, while it certainly showed
that everyone in that region has good reason to consider Saddam Hussein
armed and dangerous, didn't show me a threat to the United States:
certainly not one greater than the threat posed by a number of other
nations who have no reason to love us.
Perhaps if we depose Saddam we will teach all the others a salutary
lesson; but then didn't the overthrow of the Taliban do that? Before we
invade Iraq I for one would like more direct evidence of Iraqi involvement
in attacks on the United States and links to al Qaeda, in part to assure
both the American people and the various dictators of the world that we
aren't starting a crusade to rid the world of bad people simply because
they are bad. I do not think it our business to protect the weak and make
humble the strong.
But I have said all that before, without effect.
Steve Stirling points out that I tend to use analogies drawn from the
Roman Empire, but that the British Empire -- the Experiment in World Order
-- is far more relevant, and a great deal more like what is likely to
happen. I tend to agree, but that makes my point. I'm sorry the British
Empire is gone, and I regret the role the United States played in forcing
its demise: but I don't really want to substitute GI Joe for Tommy Atkins,
and I don't think the American people will pay the costs of world empire
even as long as the English supported the vast reach of the Widow of
Windsor and her successors.
There is magnificence in discipline and sacrifice, and I don't want to
know anyone who isn't moved by the Birkenhead Drill; but I'd rather sing
about the conquest of the stars than about breaking the Fuzzy Wuzzies.
"What ha' you done with half your mess,
Johnnie, Johnnie?"
They couldn't do more and they wouldn't do less,
Johnnie, my Johnnie, aha!
They ate their whack and they drank their fill,
And I think the rations has made them ill,
For half my comp'ny's lying still
Where the Widow give the party.
"And what was the end of all of the show,
Johnnie, Johnnie?"
Ask my Colonel, for I don't know,
Johnnie, my Johnnie, aha!
We broke a King and we built a road--
A court-house stands where the Reg'ment goed.
And the river's clean where the raw blood flowed
When the Widow give the party.
(Bugle: Ta-rara-ra-ra-rara!)
It is magnificent; but it is war, and often it's hard to see what we
accomplished. Blackhawk Down!
Will we pay that price and the star road's toll as well?
For we must stay in space. Much of our military might vanishes if we
lose control of space. If we can't meet challenges there, we won't meet
them on the ground; make no mistake about that. Whether or not we break
Kings and build roads and court-houses, we will have to pay the star
road's toll.
War To The
Knife
I have been watching Powell's presentation. This morning the cable
company was doing things to the cable and I didn't see all of it.
Now I see parts I had not seen. I have also been sent a copy of his
briefing charts and text.
There are now two possibilities: Powell is a liar, or Saddam Hussein is
stupid enough to have harbored international criminals who assassinated an
American official and committed other crimes against the American people;
as well as against Britain.
Since I have not the smallest doubt about Colin Powell's honor and
integrity, there is only one conclusion: Saddam Hussein not only hates the
United States -- something none of us ever doubted -- and also has not
been deterred from acting on that hatred. He has sent agents to attack us,
or he has allowed such people the use of his country to stage such
attacks. It's a matter of indifference to me which it is. Saddam Hussein
must go. Since Iraq will defend him, it is to be war.
The next Dark of the Moon would be a good time to begin.
So it is to be war. What I said above still
applies: we must stay in space; and while it is now clear that Saddam
Hussein has declared himself, we should be clear that it is not our task
to remove every nasty dictator in this world: but all those who
contemplate aiding our enemies should harken to what is about to happen to
President Saddam Hussein and the Ba'ath Party.
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