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From: rwl@uvacs.UUCP (Ray Lubinsky)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: Destroy SPOT with an ASAT?  (what!?)
Message-ID: <261@uvacs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Mar-86 21:46:29 EST
Article-I.D.: uvacs.261
Posted: Wed Mar 12 21:46:29 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Mar-86 20:12:24 EST
References: <364@vger.UUCP>
Organization: U.Va. CS in Charlottesville VA
Lines: 33

> The French recently orbited the SPOT earth resources satellite with a
> minimum resolution of 10 meters.  This resolution is good enough to
> be militarily useful in some cases.  RUMOUR has it that there has been
> some discussion in the Pentagon about destroying SPOT with an ASAT
> should SPOT detect 'sensitive' military information not
> normally available to anyone but the US and Soviet armed forces (both
> organizations have satellites with far better resolution than SPOT).
> 
> My question for the net: under what circumstances should the US destroy
> SPOT?
> 
> My own opinion: only if Congress has declared war on France.
> 
> I will summarize for the net if there is sufficient response.

If this is a joke, it's not particularly funny.  Otherwise, this is an
extremely irresponsible posting on a network which is read around the
free world.  Regardless of the reliability of your rumor source, there is no
reason to believe that our government would infringe on the rights of another
nation -- particularly an ally.

How do you think the European sites feel when reading a posting which so
casually discusses the idea of the US smacking a smaller country on the nose
for daring to stand toe-to-toe with the ``superpowers''?   I don't know about
you, but I'd feel pretty pissed off.

It seems like this newsgroup in particular should be a forum which harbors a
sense of global community on Spaceship Earth rather than crass parochialism.
I'm sorry to find that that's not necessarily the case.
-- 

Ray Lubinsky	University of Virginia, Dept. of Computer Science
		UUCP: ...!cbosgd!uvacs!rwl or ...!decvax!mcnc!ncsu!uvacs!rwl