Slashdot Mirror
Expensive U.S. Spy Satellite Not Working
Penguinshit writes to mention a Reuters article about some trouble the U.S. is having communicating with a spy satellite. The sensor package was launched last year by the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, and is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. It has apparently hung in a low orbit for months now, and efforts to communicate with it have been unsuccessful. From the article: "The official said the problems were substantial and involved multiple systems, adding that U.S. officials were working to reestablish contact with the satellite because of the importance of the new technology it was meant to test and demonstrate. The other source said the satellite had been described to him as 'a comprehensive failure.' There was no suggestion by either of the sources that the satellite had been purposely damaged as part of a terrorist attack. Another government official said he had no information about any attacks on U.S. satellites."
I agree.
Terrorists = those who attack on civilians to induce terror (presumably to induce civilians some kind of change driven by the civilians).
Resistance, Insurgents, Freedom fighters = those who attack military and government units (not 5 year olds).
Nihilists = those who attack civilians really just because they like death and destruction and not because they have any particular goal of any kind in mind.
"Total War" is not really terrorism. You are not trying to induce a civilian population attitude change- you have decided to kill everyone on the other side.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
The military knows that it is a target and is capable of responding, and so it's generally considered a valid target. The world gives a kind of grudging acceptance of your right to do it.
Tell it to the people talking about the U.S.S. Cole.
Terrorism comes much closer to Clausewitz's "total war".
Beware of leaving your opponant without options.
KFG
Reading the comments posted above is chilling. Generally, people don't even begin to understand the issues.
Weapons and spy contracts can be mostly secret. In practice, that means there will be less supervision and much more opportunity to make and sell junk at very high profit. It is very common that an entire project is so poorly designed that it is useless; however, the politics is such that the failures are kept secret. The U.S. government has been corrupted by secrecy and dishonesty.
Here is my summary of U.S. government corruption: George W. Bush comedy and tragedy. I hope you will write your own summary and send it to friends and government leaders.