Opinion Forum

Apology Tour In Space

February 22nd, 2010

When NASA was created, its first stated goal was to beat our ideological enemies, the Russians, to landing a man on the moon. It is therefore a twist of high irony that at the same moment when our country has chosen to abandon the pursuit of manned space flight and a return to the moon program, that within weeks of the announcement President Obama has asked NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden to “find ways to reach out” to our current ideological enemy, the Muslim world.

“In addition to the nations that most of you usually hear about when you think about the International Space Station, we now have expanded our efforts to reach out to non-traditional partners,” said Bolden, speaking to a lecture hall of young engineering students.

Specifically, he talked about connecting with countries that do not have an established space program and helping them conduct science missions. He mentioned new opportunities with Indonesia, including an educational program that examines global climate change.

“We really like Indonesia because the State Department, the Department of Education [and] other agencies in the U.S. are reaching out to Indonesia as the largest Muslim nation in the world. We would love to establish partners there,” Bolden said.

Well, I guess this will help to cure the complaints in Indonesia that Barack Obama has done nothing for them. Though one really has to wonder what’s wrong with the people writing the President’s Daily Briefing these days, that Obama isn’t aware that the spectre of “climate change” is becoming as dead as the dinosaurs.

On a more serious note, however, it should be pointed out that while there is nothing wrong with international cooperation in theory, and NASA has certainly collaborated with international partners for a good portion of its history, prior collaboration has always been with countries that had something of their own to contribute to the work. ESA builds instruments, Russia launches Soyuz and Progress spacecraft to the ISS, etc. This new collaboration, on the other hand, is explicitly based on the fact that the countries we are collaborating with will have nothing to offer up in forming a “partnership,” which means that not only will America be doing most/all of the work, but it will be doing the work while cooperating with the dictates of nations who are not able to do it. Furthermore, since these sorts of schemes are invariably advanced under the premise that people would like America better if only we were nicer to them and helped them out a bit more, you can bet that any specific plan advanced in the name of this “outreach” will involve a further drain on America’s resources without America being allowed to ask anything in return.

In order to understand why this is a problem, picture what would happen to a company that brought bagels to employee workplaces under the premise that they would get paid by the honor system, if they started bringing bagels to a company where the employees had unrepentantly decided that they owed no money to the bagel guy in return for his services. If you were the bagel company, you would have two choices. You could either realize that you would never be able to convince the employees that they should pay you and decide to withdraw your services. Or you could keep bringing the bagels and plead with the employees to put the money in the tin until you went bankrupt. Most of us would consider the second option stupid, destructive and pointless, but apparently Obama knows better than we do.

And then of course, there are the security concerns. “Outreach,” by necessity, translates into “cooperation,” which in turn translates into sharing information and technology. Does anyone really think that instituting such a policy with respect to Muslim countries is a good idea?

When NASA was first formed, its historic achievements were one of the greatest symbols of the greatest nation in the history of man. I suppose it’s only to be expected that in an era where America seems to be determined to apologize to her enemies for her greatness, that NASA would be forced to join in.

Articles written by Brianna Aubin
Tags: cooperation, Indonesia, manned space flight, NASA, outreach
Categories: News, Politics, Science | Comments (6) | Home

6 Responses to “Apology Tour In Space”

larry | February 22nd, 2010 at 1:39 pm

Brianna
Your right of course. Why this administration is so pro Muslim is no secret. I’ll bet that someone on here will defend the actions of this administration and claim your just an alarmist.

Brianna | February 22nd, 2010 at 2:14 pm

I don’t think Obama IS muslim, if that’s what you’re implying. I simply think that he subscribes to the view held by most liberals: if someone does something bad, it’s because someone did something bad to them. The worse a group (radical Islam) is, the more victimized that group must have been by some other group (the evil, imperialist West) and the more the victimizing group must do in order to apologize for their supposed evil actions.

larry | February 22nd, 2010 at 5:51 pm

Nope, I can’t say he is a muslim. He causes me to wonder just as you do. What are the intended consequences of actions such as the ones you describe?

Tom | February 22nd, 2010 at 6:47 pm

Larry, you said “Why this administration is so pro Muslim is no secret.” That implies that you are in possession of the truth because, as you said, it’s no secret. So please enlighten us — why is this Administration so “pro-Muslim?”

Then you said “What are the intended consequences of actions such as the ones you describe?” What Brianna described is very clearly a mindset, not some kind of conspiracy. Do you think there are some sinister “intended consequences?” What are they?

larry | February 22nd, 2010 at 7:38 pm

Tom
This president and his justice department has treated the Muslim terrorist with far to much civility. You may find that you don’t agree. That is your privilege. Don’t belittle me if I don’t agree with you. Your straight for the jugular approach is uncalled for.
I see no conspiracy. I do see as Brianna pointed out, something that is stupid, destructive and pointless. The consequences of sucking up to people that cut off a persons head and show it on the internet is what? Why it’s stupid, destructive and pointless.

Tom | February 23rd, 2010 at 12:10 am

I agree with you that the Obama Administration has treated alien Muslim terrorists with too much civility. They should be handled within U.S. law and in observance of our international treaty obligactions. That does not mean that they should be tried in civilian courts and granted all the rights of U.S. citizens and legal residents.

As for the rest, I didn’t belittle you, in my opinion, and I certainly didn’t go “for the jugular” by any means. I simply asked a couple of questions about things you said, and you still haven’t answered them. Why is the Administration so “pro-Muslim?” You say it’s no secret, so please tell me the reason. You implied that there are “intended consequences” involved in their behavior (the mindset Brianna described), which means that they have a purpose, an agenda, a goal — so what is it?