William Hartung joins the show to give his views on President Trump’s proposed Space Force. He explains that American satellites are in fact vulnerable to attack by foreign powers, but that a space force is a highly impracticable approach to protecting them, and one that is more likely to provoke attack than to prevent it. The idea of a Space Force is popular, however, because the arms contractors know it will mean more money for them, the existing efforts at space warfare within the Air Force (which are considerable) would get more funding and authority with their own branch of the military, and finally, Trump himself knows it’s just a popular talking point that his supporters are enchanted with.

Discussed on the show:

• “9/21/18 William Hartung on the Military-Industrial Complex and Yemen” (Libertarian Institute)
• “Trump’s Space Force: Smoke and Mirrors or a Step Towards War in Space?” (tomdispatch.com)
• “F-35B Stealth Fighter Bombs Ground Target in Afghanistan” (The Diplomat)
• “F-35 strike fighter crashes in South Carolina” (Burlington Free Press)
• Outer Space Treaty
• Boeing YAL-1
• Edward Teller
• Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States
• Big Israel: How Israel’s Lobby Moves America

William Hartung is director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy, and the author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex. Find him on Twitter @WilliamHartung.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Zen Cash; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and TheBumperSticker.com.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

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