Space Wars - The Reality

I just finished reading a new book called Space Wars.

If you've ever read an issue of Aviation Week cover-to-cover and you have read more than one Tom Clancy book, you'll definitely want to read Space Wars as soon as possible.

If you prefer James Joyce or William Faulkner, skip it.

The book is heavy on weapons tech and light on character development but it rises above those limitations to grab your attention - particularly if you want to know what's really out there in the "black world" of covert and space military operations. My strongest criticism is that the authors write with a definite conservative political agenda that reduces anyone with an alternative point of view to one-dimensional, self-serving caricatures. The authors make no attempt at all to even guess what might cause other intelligent human beings to hold very different opinions than their own regarding what is right and what is wrong in the world. Even so, because of that very flaw, the book unintentionally opens a window into the mind of those in our country who believe that doves are traitors and hawks are the only true patriots.

But the most profound insight of all is how the authors quite accurately describe the astounding vulnerability of the spaced-based "assets" so many of us have unknowingly woven into the everyday fabric of our lives. As the authors quite accurately illustrate, U.S. national security has come to depend heavily on an incredibly fragile network of unguarded satellites whose amazing hi-tech capabilities can be rendered useless with relatively little effort.

Space Wars tells the story of what might very well happy if that network were attacked and disabled. Yes, the authors see the political world through a soda straw. But as narrow as their view of politics may be, they have an equally broad view of something very few people understand: World War III will be fought in and from a new military battleground - space.