The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

Trump’s Space Force:
Star Wars Sequel

Aug 20, 2018

Early in August, Vice President Pence announced that the Trump administration is planning to create a military command dedicated to space under the title "Space Force," as the sixth branch of the U.S. military, as soon as 2020.

This announcement was immediately ridiculed among the media, becoming a rich source of jokes among comedians.

Such space age plans are not new. President Ronald Reagan started a program in 1983, under the title Strategic Defense Initiative, which was dubbed as Star Wars following the popular space fantasy movies. The fantastic sounding weapons, X-ray lasers, chemical lasers, neutral particle beams, hypervelocity railguns, etc. were purportedly developed by companies. More than $400 billion spending in today’s dollars, and 10 years later, the Star Wars program was canned.

Trump’s Space Force is apparently an attempt to raise the Star Wars program from the grave.

But, the jokes aside, this program would increase the tensions between countries and possibility of a widespread war. And the working class would dearly pay for it through their taxes and potentially through their lives, and the rich will get richer.