Possible NASA Administrator Bridenstine Wants To Fight North Korea
Exclusive – Rep. Bridenstine: Shoot the Next One Down, Mr. President, Rep. Jim Bridenstine, Breitbart
“President Trump should order the Secretary of Defense to position American assets and shoot down Kim Jong Un’s next missile launch. Intercepting a North Korean missile would signal to Pyongyang that America has the capability and the willingness to defend our allies and the homeland. In the parlance of military strategy, the missile defense option enhances deterrence-by-denial. North Korea is more likely to be deterred from developing missiles if robust, layered missile defenses deny them any strategic benefit from striking first. The only two alternatives are preemptive offensive action and, of course, more strongly worded UN Security Council resolutions and toothless sanctions.”
Keith’s note: If a North Korean rocket threatens U.S. assets – or even seems to be doing so – we should defend ourselves. No argument there. Bridenstine has a military background and it is natural that he’d have concerns about issues such as this – and speak out about them. When I have heard him speak about space he does well when it comes to military, communications, and commercial space. But when it comes to NASA science – nothing but crickets. If Bridenstine is the nominee to become NASA administrator he clearly needs a Deputy and a strong AA and Center Director contingent to make up for his clear lack of science management experience.
The fact that this “exclusive” op ed by Bridenstine appears on Breitbart News, the controversial former employer of Trump’s avatar Steve Bannon should not be lost on people. This sort of op ed placement does not happen by accident these days. There is clearly an idealogical mind meld going on here – as well as the beginnings of a possible Alternate NASA PR machine – one independent of NASA PAO – in the making.
And this is exactly how humanity going to Mars is pushed down the road another 20+ years. The clean up, focus and commitment realignment alone will take 5+ years.
Shooting down North Korea’s annual missile posture stunt would be pointless escalation. I want a NASA head who is a bit more politically savvy.
Maybe not. China is stopping its import of coal from N. Korea in response to the launch and his assassination of his half-brother.
http://www.bbc.com/news/wor…
China would likely look the other way, and if they did so would the rest of the world. The last thing anyone wants is a North Korean nuclear bomb in orbit. Oh, there would be some crocodile tears, but nothing more. After all the launch site Iraq used to place its satellite in orbit was taken out early in the Gulf War and no one complained about it.
Any such action would require incredible finesse, a word not often applied to the current WH.
We have the right to shoot down missiles, etc that could potentially threaten our territory but we do not have the right to shoot down missiles that are flying in far corners (even if that corner is near an ally, Japan) of the world. These are ideas that cause wars – we should put Bridenstine and his kids in South Korea if we do this.
Is that actually true? If the missile is in international air space, and if it had been launched in violation of a UN security council resolution, I think it might be legal to shoot it down. The wisdom of doing so is another matter. But we are talking about North Korea. Being polite matters to most nations, but it doesn’t seem to matter to North Korea’s dictator.
My thought is that two wrongs do not make a right. If the missile is launched in violation of a UN resolution the UN should consider actions (of course we know that they do not actually act on anything). Another sovereign nation does not the right to take unilateral actions.
It doesn’t become legal to attack a nation just beacause it is in violation. A second resolution on use of force would be needed, and would be very unlikely absent an overt threat.
Guys… maybe Mr. Bridenstine is carrying out his duties as a member of the House Armed Services Committee, where he is supposed to think about things like “how does the U.S. best defend not only ourselves but our mutual-defense allies like Japan and South Korea?”
So when did NASA become a branch of the Military?
Until he is appointed and confirm as NASA administrator (if that ever happens) Mr. Bridemstine still holds his current job. A member of the House of Representatives. Since he’s on the Armed Services community, having opinions on North Korean missile launches is basically doing his job. The only NASA-related issue is how those veiws reflect on his qualifications as a potential, future NASA administrator.
Just a guess, but they’re supposedly bringing back the National Space Council. If it’s as it was to 1993 it’ll include the Secretary of Defense, CIA Director and the National Security Advisor. Plenty of potential military ties.
All nations who have missiles test them out over the ocean – us, more than anyone. Two nations in particular are under UN resolutions and sanctions to not do so: North Korea, and Iran. But- like the US in other situations- both countries don’t follow decisions they did not agree to be part of (unlike the Iran nuclear agreement, which the Iranians were part of, and are indeed following).
We also have defense agreements with both South Korea, and Japan. And those two countries would be the ones to suffer the inevitable blowback from North Korea if the US, unilaterally, and not with its two allies agreement, decided to start shooting at other folks missiles that were not being aimed at any of the three of us.
Therefore…. to urge the US to, unilaterally, start playing this game, as the Congressman does, not only is irresponsible and will undoubtedly bring immediate danger to our two allies; it almost certainly would turn both populations, and governments, of our allies against us; and probably spark much the same reaction in Europe as well. And Russian and Chinese cooperation in the UN and other forums about North Korea – and Iran, and in Europe – would probably disappear.
Rep.Bridenstine gave an excellent talk last week at the FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference; tho, like Keith, I believe that there is a dark lining around that silver cloud with respect to science, and climate science in particular. However, to have him argue for such unilateral aggressive action on our part without our allies being a part of it – and I’m guessing, in violation of the defense agreements with both our allies – is irresponsible for any American politician; to have someone on the Armed Services committee do so is downright frightening; particularly given the, er, temperament, knowledge, and maturity, of the President he is talking about.
I appear to know more about foreign policy and security issues in East Asia than the Congressman; and that scares me.
Publishing such in a known disinformation site like Breitbart also ups the scariness factor.
Fortunately, the head of DOD at the moment is a thinking, experienced, sober, adult. We need him to be the firewall; but he may be standing alone. As for NASA, we also need someone who puts more sober thought into what they write, and also where they write it.
Keith, You’ve pointed out the failings of the NASA PAO over the last several years. Maybe it is time to consider alternate paths to provide NASA news/info (or NASA Admin news/info) to the public?
So Breibart is your answer? What a nightmare in the making.
I’m missing something. Isn’t NASA Watch an alternate path to provide NASA news and information? All news sources have biases. The official NASA PIO folks have one (making NASA look good), Keith has his own axes to grind, and I’m not sure I want to know about Breitbart’s spin on spaceflight. I think people need data from multiple sources, should compare them, and know there is always some spin involved.
With a distinction. The bias I see on this site is strictly in the choice of stories. If there’s a philosophical thread that places it right or left I haven’t seen evidence in many years’ reading.
uh-huh. Like 45’s comments that basically go around the ‘dishonest’ news media? This is precisely how tyrants gain power.
I’ll stick with the MSM, thank you; they know they are biased and do what they can to eliminate those biases. Not so much the aforementioned alt site.
I can’t believe I even have to say this.
Tyrants gain power only in cultures that are intolerant of free speech. As long as folks continue to respect the First Amendment America won’t have one.
Come on, Dr. M. That’s a little disingenuous, isn’t it? The issue isn’t free speech.
When the resident of the WH continues to bash the free press what do you think will happen? It’s in fact essential that the political establishment support the notion of free press wholeheartedly without unnecessary adjectives (failing, dishonest).
You are assuming the big global corporate media is THE free press. It is only one element of it. Keith’s NASA Watch is another as are all the independently owned small town newspapers and small news websites.
First, I am not worried about the big media. Their billionaire owners have the deep pockets and battalions of lawyers to take care of themselves. Its the small websites like NASA Watch that are in danger as the Silicon Valley Moguls seek to banish alt.news and limit free speech online by labeling anything they dislike as false news and hate speech.
As for President Trump attacking the media, he is in the tradition of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, etc. And it is actually a good thing as the more a President bashes the big corporate media the more likely they are to do their job. Both President Bush and Obama were too close and supportive of the media, which led to mistakes like the Iraq war and the mess in Libya and Syria. The media should have been the guardians to prevent those from happening rather then cheering them on.
If you think the MSM is bad, look what happened at Brietbart yesterday. And no, Mr. Trump, that’s not an ‘alternative fact”.
IF he was NASA Administrator the statement that he was using an different news outlet than NASA PAO would be true. But he is still a Congressional Representative, his name has not even been placed in nomination, and they often post op-eds on different news sources.This is no different than op-eds other members of Congress sent to media outlets.
And it makes since to submit to Breitbart if you want to get the Trump Administration’s attention. They would probably ignore it if it was elsewhere.
What this should do,IF he is nominated, is raise questions about his attitudes towards the military use of space and its relation to NASA. And also his views of the function of NASA’s PAO. But there is nothing here to indicate any desire to go around the NASA PAO when he is Administrator other than the current climate of fear that seems to be griping Washington. You would think the ghost of Andrew Jackson has returned to the White House 🙂
The problem lies in the reasoning that we should shoot down a North Korean missile just because it makes us feel manly. This kind of thinking can get people killed. Like, billions of people.