I am sure that I (as well as Neil) will be taken to task by more than a few people for linking to his recent article at the Libertarian Enterprise on The United States Space Force. In part, this will be because:

(a) he speaks slightingly of Murray Rothbard.

(b) he praises The Donald, at least relative to other POTUS.

(c) he advocates for what is, essentially, an increase in power of the FedGov.

(d) he assumes that the FedGov will do the right thing with an USSF.

I don’t see it that way – even on the last point.

Surely, the FedGov will make a mess of the entire project: that is what governments DO. But keeping in mind that the perfect is the enemy of the good, does anyone else have an idea that COULD be implemented to address the issue which Neil does so elegantly. And has for so long?

Compare it to the USAF. For a very long time (since it was spun off from the Army) it has been used by the idjits in the White House and Capital for doing incredibly stupid, brutal, even murderous things to other people, literally around the world. Millions (if not billions – McD’s anyone) of tons of high-explosive have been dropped and launched from USAF aircraft and have killed not just enemy soldiers but way too many other people.

Although it does not justify by any means the misuse (criminal and immoral) that the USAF has done on orders of Massa and the Critturs (Congresscritturs, that is), the USAF has been good for the Fifty States. (Neither does it justify the insane wastefulness of the military-industrial complex, with its $500 hammers and $1000 toilet seats.) Courtesy of the USAF (and, I add, to some degree, the US Navy), we here in the Fifty States do not have to worry about a possible Russian- or Chinese-financed army of invasion massing in Mexico, or even Canada or Siberia. Just the current, pretty-much unarmed masses of border jumpers and would-be infiltrators and saboteurs. And we really don’t have to worry about someone (Russian, Chinese, or even French, British, Indian, or Pakistani) launching even one or two nuclear-tipped missiles, because they know what is likely to happen.

(I count the Navy because of boomers, of course. But let us also not forget that we don’t have to worry as much about pirates as say, Indonesia, the Philippines or Somalia, raiding our cities like Miami or Boston or Charleston. Or just gliding up to South Padre Island or South Beach to capture sex slaves.)

I’d talk about some of the other points that Neil is sure to get beat up about, but let me leave off on this for now. One of the very few justifications for any sort of government is to defend us from outside threats. We think of those as being primarily human, but Neil has a good point. Murphy isn’t human, and the universe is a pretty dangerous place, all things told.

And utopia is not an option.