OPINION:
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Virtually no one in politics focuses on the grave and growing military threat the United States faces in space from China. Little do they realize that if we aren’t the preeminent force in space, we could soon lose everything, including very nation.
While many politicians don’t see the warning lights flashing from space, former President Donald Trump has taken note of them for years. In his acceptance speech on July 18 at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, he gave a shout-out to the Space Force, a command he is rightfully proud of creating.
On Dec. 20, 2019, then-President Trump signed into law legislation creating the U.S. Space Force and said that “space is the world’s newest warfighting domain. Amid grave threats to our national security, American superiority in space is absolutely vital. We’re leading, but we’re not leading by enough, and very shortly, we’ll be leading by a lot.”
Mr. Trump was correct in his assessment until the moment President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took office. Had that not happened, the United States would have been “leading by a lot,” thanks entirely to the leadership and push by Mr. Trump to make the U.S. preeminent in space. Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris — who is also the missing-in-action head of the National Space Council — quickly unraveled that vital mission by making NASA perhaps the most “woke” agency in the U.S. government while dangerously weakening our military.
Mr. Trump wanted to create the Space Force in part because he understood what so many liberals foolishly deny. That said, once humans cut through Earth’s atmosphere into the vacuum of space, their flaws, greed, prejudice, hate and military ambition come with them. This reality has been proved by history time and again.
China understands that no nation is more dependent upon its satellites, in near and geosynchronous orbit, for its survival than the United States. For years, the Chinese military has been identifying which of our satellites to target and how best to take them offline or destroy them. China is on the brink of doing so.
These are issues I worked on for three years at the Pentagon while advising and assisting our ballistic missile defense program and as a past adviser to NASA and the space shuttle team, and have continued to address since in the private sector. They have been known for decades.
In his speech on Sept. 12, 1962, at Rice University on the need for the United States to become the “preeminent spacefaring nation,” President John F. Kennedy stressed: “We mean to be a part of it — we mean to lead it. For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace.”
It is fair to say that Mr. Trump was the only president since Kennedy who truly understood — and understands — the military vulnerabilities the United States faces in space. Mr. Trump does realize that China is literally looking to plant “a hostile flag of conquest” on the surface of the moon as it declares that body its sovereign — and protected — territory.
Why would China do so? Other than the fact that it represents the ultimate “high ground,” the Chinese want the moon for energy independence, a goal they hope to achieve via helium-3. Helium-3 is an isotope that litters the surface of the moon and could provide a potentially limitless supply of safe, clean energy. Some experts estimate the moon’s surface holds over 2 million metric tons of helium-3, and that just 25 metric tons could fuel the energy needs of the United States for a year.
China’s space program is a military program controlled by that nation’s leaders. They realize that the United States is falling further and further behind in space. They will act when the time is best for them in Earth orbit and on the surface of the moon. They intend to use the promise, riches and military high ground of space to deter and then defeat the United States.
Mr. Trump understands this and will move quickly to reestablish our preeminence in space. He will do so because, as he said in part from the Rose Garden a few weeks before creating the Space Force: “Our adversaries are weaponizing Earth’s orbits. … So, just as we have recognized land, air, sea, and cyber as vital warfighting domains, we will now treat space as an independent region overseen by a new unified geographic combatant command.”
The Biden-Harris administration has irresponsibly ceded the ultimate high ground — with potentially the most promising energy source ever — to China. Mr. Trump knows it could be game over if we don’t get it back.
• Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official and author of the book “The 56: Liberty Lessons From Those Who Risked All to Sign the Declaration of Independence.”
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