The stupid is strong in these dumbasses
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3184659flashl (1000+ posts) Sat Feb-16-08 08:50 AM
Original message
US seeks to reassure nations on plan to shoot down satellite
Source: Boston Globe
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is trying to convince foreign countries that the Pentagon's plan to shoot down a dying spy satellite is not a test of a program to kill their orbiting communications and intelligence capabilities.
The State Department has instructed US diplomats around the world to inform their host governments that the operation, which could be conducted as early as next week, is solely to protect people who could be affected by about 1,000 pounds of toxic fuel on the bus-size satellite now hurtling toward earth.
"Our role is to reassure nations around the world as to the nature of what we are tying to do," spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday. "It's an attempt to try to protect populations on the ground."
In a cable sent to all US embassies, diplomats were told to draw a clear distinction between the upcoming attempt and last year's test by China of a missile specifically designed to take out satellites, a maneuver criticized by the United States and other countries.
Boston Globe
Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2... /
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Hmmm, I thought US diplomats had been displaced and put in mothballs. Also, I distinctly recall diplomats retiring, in protest of the ‘war’, who said rebuilding diplomatic ties would take more than 50+ years.
So … who exactly is left with any ‘capital’ to convince anyone that ‘our’ motives are ‘pure’?
Our motives are pure dumbasses....................we could be like the Chinese and not tell anyone and blow up on still in orbit.
peacebird (1000+ posts) Sat Feb-16-08 08:55 AM
Response to Original message
1. obviously this diplomatic offensive is meant to REMIND people about our ability to take out
satellites....
Why would any country believe we were doing this for any other reason? Satellites are made to fall apart on re-entry. They burn up for the most part. This "charm offensive" doesn't pass the smell test for me.
Oh I really bet that the hippie bird primitive is a rocket scientist
Finnfan (1000+ posts) Sat Feb-16-08 09:02 AM
Response to Original message
2. This wasn't my first thought when I saw the plans to shoot down the satellite.
My first thought was that their tracking models must show the satellite crashing down into a populated area.
flashl (1000+ posts) Sat Feb-16-08 09:08 AM
Response to Reply #2
6. IIRC, when falling satellite was first announced US claimed to not know where it would drop.
I found that to be questionable.
What exactly do these primitives believe the goverment can and can't................nevermind
Warren Stupidity (1000+ posts) Sat Feb-16-08 09:03 AM
Response to Original message
3. This test of our abilities to shoot down satellites is not a test of
our abilities to shoot down satellites. It is completely different from the Chinese test of their abilities to shoot down satellites.
OK. ****ing liar. Nobody believes anything you say.
texanshatingbush (229 posts) Sat Feb-16-08 10:17 AM
Response to Reply #3
14. Actually, my great fear is that we will NOT.....
....be able to hit it when we try, thereby displaying to the remainder of the world, once again, how much the Bush administration has made us a toothless tiger by weakening our military, or economy, and our standing in the world
.
Solly Mack (1000+ posts) Sat Feb-16-08 09:05 AM
Response to Original message
4. This excerpt says it all
"In a cable sent to all US embassies, diplomats were told to draw a clear distinction between the upcoming attempt and last year's test by China of a missile specifically designed to take out satellites, a maneuver criticized by the United States and other countries."
Message: We can do it too!
Summer93 (252 posts) Sat Feb-16-08 09:13 AM
Response to Original message
7. Scientists say.....
A scientist interviewed said that it is a bad idea to shoot it down
A.......not many a.
Dudley_DUright (1000+ posts) Sat Feb-16-08 09:26 AM
Response to Reply #7
9. Here is one reason why - It will increase an already too large amount of space junk
From a recent Physics Today Article:
Figure 2. Altitude distribution of cataloged debris for low-Earth orbit. Objects in noncircular orbits are distributed in the plot according to the amount of time they spend in each 50-km altitude bin. The differences between the 10 January (blue) and 31 March (red) curves are due to the tracked debris (green) from China's Feng Yun-1C satellite, destroyed in an antisatellite test in January 2007.
The Chinese ASAT test added some 2000 fragments to the catalog; they make up about 35% of the breakup-debris total.
<snip>
Currently the US and Russia are each responsible for about 35% of the cataloged objects in space, and China for about 20% following its ASAT test. The Russian percentage is expected to increase to roughly 40% in the next year as debris from the February 2007 breakup of a Briz-M booster stage launched in 2006 is cataloged.
more at...
http://scitation.aip.org/journals/doc/PHTOAD-ft/vol_60/...
Too damn stupid to realize that the timing and stuff of this is to minimize fragments
Summer93 (252 posts) Sat Feb-16-08 09:17 AM
Response to Original message
8. First thought
I first thought that this is a planned exercise. Anything *Bushco* does seems to have the outcome that makes him a lot of money or some other payoff. Could it be yet another way to inject U.S. presence into the Middle East?
dweller (1000+ posts) Sat Feb-16-08 09:41 AM
Response to Original message
11. what info is on/in this satellite?
so, it's a 'spy' satellite: spying on who?
am i reaching when this 'telecom immunity' bs has come to a head, lapsed, and now the decision is made to shoot down this satellite?
just more things that make me go hmmm.
dp
I have a theory and I'm going to run with it, and unless you can give absolute documented peer reviewed papers and science, I'll be right.
yadayadayada (915 posts) Sat Feb-16-08 09:43 AM
Response to Original message
12. I know who could be our spokesman to the world....
"Our role is to reassure nations around the world as to the nature of what we are tying to do,"
Let's send Colin Powell, after all we know how credible he is in speaking for the USA.
