Washington Monthly - September/October 2014 - 15

TIlTINg aT wINDmIlls

research, and work on an asteroid defense. Asteroid defense sounds like a bad
Bruce Willis movie, but in the last twenty
years it's been discovered that there are
far more "near-earth objects" than previously thought. The count is 11,143 as
I write this, two-thirds of them located
in the last decade. New research shows
that deadly space strikes have been uncomfortably recent. The Tunguska event
was 1908; if that rock had hit a major city
instead of Siberia, loss of life would have
been awful. According to some theories,
multiple large objects falling from space
caused the sixth century's mini ice ages: a
similar sudden cooling happening today
would knock out global agriculture.
The Obama White House has paid some
attention to developments in asteroid research, and authorized an initiative to
snag an asteroid using an automated probe,
transfer the rock to orbit around the moon,
then send astronauts to stage an inspection. This seems like a colossal waste of
money-but perhaps will get the public enthused about doing something real
about the space-rock threat.
Here's the problem. Orion, the new space
capsule that may receive an unmanned
test late this year, is barely improved over
the Apollo capsule of the 1960s. The Space
Launch System (SLS), the new Saturn V-
class rocket that Orion would ride atop, is
years behind schedule. Recent estimates
total the cost of the SLS to be about $5 billion or more per launch, versus $2 billion,
in today's dollars, for Saturn V. The drive,
discipline, and optimism that once characterized U.S. space efforts have been replaced with the same featherbedded foot
dragging found in federal infrastructure
projects. "America's incoherent space program is unable to accomplish anything
other than to spend money," space historian Robert Zimmerman wrote recently.
And with "Space Launch System," NASA
can't even do names anymore.

by U.S. Marines at terrible cost in 2004,
was back in insurgent hands this year.
Obama says most U.S. combat forces will
leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014. The
certain result is that there, as in Iraq, the
cities and towns that American soldiers
died to liberate will return to the control
of the very forces we wanted to oust. Illinois Representative Adam Kinzinger, a
former Air Force pilot who flew missions
above Iraq and Afghanistan, summed up
the feeling of many when he said, "We owe
it to the Americans who gave their lives for
our cause" not to walk away. But do we, in
fact, owe this debt to the dead?
The 1915 poem "In Flanders Field"-the
most influential literary words since the
lyrics to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"-
helped convince Britons to support World
War I. Written in the voice of those who
fell at Ypres, it declares, "Take up our
quarrel with the foe / To you from failing hands we throw the torch / If ye break
faith with us who die, we shall not sleep."
This reasoning has been used to sustain
bloodshed in many nations and contexts.

In her outstanding new book Japan 1941,
Tokyo-born historian Eri Hotta reports
that Hideki Tojo opposed Japanese withdrawal from China-the obstacle to normalization of Washington-Tokyo relations
before Pearl Harbor-because he "insisted
it was inconceivable for Japan to withdraw
troops from China in light of all the heroic
souls" already lost there.
War should continue for one reason
alone: if it is a moral necessity. Those who
died early in World War II had to be followed to the grave by others. In Iraq and
Afghanistan, there is no moral clarity:
soldiers can't even say what their mission is. It was always the case that whatever would happen when we left Iraq and
Afghanistan, would happen when we left.
Accepting this does not break faith with
the fallen. The military dead do not wish
to be joined. They have far too much company already.
Gregg Easterbrook is a contributing editor
of the Atlantic, a columnist for ESPN, and the
author, most recently, of The King of Sports.

INTERNATIONAL FULL-SERVICE SALON AND SPA
Hair * Nails * Skin
Makeup * Wigs
Hair Replacement
Spa Services
Boutique

Featuring private rooms for discreet,
caring hair replacement and wig
services for cancer patients.
As seen in The Washingtonian:
"Dealing With Cancer"

20%

OFF

for new
clients

Is Afghanistan the new
Flanders Field?
Thousands of American service members-
and tens of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan
civilians-died as a result of U.S. attacks
on Iraq and Afghanistan. Fallujah, taken

2233 Wisconsin Avenue NW * Washington DC 20007

Please call 202.965.2100 for your appointment
www.EivindAndHans.com

Washington Monthly

15
http://www.EivindAndHans.com http://www.EivindAndHans.com
Washington Monthly - September/October 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Washington Monthly - September/October 2014
