Two Things That Have Nothing To Do With Each Other

USA Today uses a Kennedy Space Center byline to bash the War in Iraq.



This really ticks me off. It happens that I agree with them that space is the better long term investment. I think a permanent presence in orbit and in the Asteroid Belt is likely to be one of the best things we can do for ourselves technologically and industrially (Kuiper Belt/Oort Cloud can come later). Colonies on other planets in this solar system is a cute idea, but until Mars and Venus are terraformed, we're already sitting on the one worthwhile chunk of real estate in the solar system.



This has nothing to do with Iraq. Nor is Iraq the only thing our government is doing that we could cut in a trade to find the money for space exploration. Just cutting the number of Robert C. Byrd Projects in half would fund space exploration for the next century.



This is a false choice. The two items have nothing to do with each other except as they are competing (with many thousands of other projects!) for the same resources. It would be equally valid to run an editorial "Welfare or Space? Which is the smartest investment?". Then we could compare "Welfare or Iraq, which is the smartest investment?" (the latter, in case you are wondering).



Just because one investment is smarter than another doesn't mean the other one doesn't deserve - or require - funding.



space iraq politics economics opinion