Al Gore Blasts Bush’s Space Policy

I thought this reaction from Al Gore to Bush’s recently released space policy statements was interesting.

“Very few people have analyzed the insides of this new space policy. I urge all of you who are interested in space to analyze it very carefully. It has the potential, down the road, to create the [same] kind of fuzzy thinking and chaos in our efforts to exploit the space resource as the fuzzy thinking and chaos the Iraq policy has created in Iraq. It is a very serious mistake, in my opinion.
“We in the United States of America may claim that we alone can determine who goes into space and who doesn’t, what it’s used for and what it’s not used for, and we may claim it effectively as our own dominion to the exclusion, when we wish to exclude others, of all others. That’s hubristic.”

Put in a nutshell, Bush’s space policy states that America will support the “use of outer space by all nations for peaceful purposes.” It also states, though, that “‘peaceful purposes’ allow U.S. defense- and intelligence-related activities in pursuit of national interests.” Al Gore doesn’t like that, and I think is dislike is illustrative of common American liberal self loathing.
Setting down a space policy that leaves America with the option to use space for activities that will defend our national security and promote our foreign policy abroad just makes sense. If we don’t use space for those goals another country will. Pure and simple. China has made massive advances in its space program over the last several years, and you can bet that they’ll be using space for spying and national defense missions. If America doesn’t we’re going to be behind the curve, and that’s a dangerous place to be.
Al Gore, and liberals like him, don’t get that though. They seem to think that if our country doesn’t “militarize space,” no other country will. That’s an unbelievably naive position to have, but why else would they oppose promoting the use of space for American national defense?
Again, it’s liberal self loathing. These people think America is the real problem in the world, and that if they can reign in “aggressive” American policy the world will be a better place. Al Gore proved that point with his criticism of Bush’s space policy above, and Democrats in general have proved it when they’ve pushed for cuts in military spending and try to saddle our intelligence agencies with silly rules and regulations. Unfortunately, while these liberals are keeping the promotion of our country’s interests in check other nations in the world are pushing to promote their interests in space and all around the globe.
Which is just one more reason why Democrats can’t be trusted with national security.