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Call me a cynic, but this reads like the US military-industrial complex is looking for a new "enemy" that needs vast amounts of money to "contain"? While the "

Call me a cynic, but this reads like the US military-industrial complex is looking for a new "enemy" that needs vast amounts of money to "contain"? While the "war on terror" seems to be dying down, what about the good old standby enemies (Russia and China)? They just sold 1.2 billion dollars in military hardware to Taiwan, they can milk this for another 5 years at a minimum. I cant wait for the news stories in the future. The UFO's have a "interstellar space ship gap" or some other real or imagined "gap" we need to close.

mike_hock 4y ago
They're delivering weapons to Ukraine as we speak. Some other lucrative proxy wars might be coming up soon.
- erdos4d 4y ago
  I'm sure they have something cooking, there's too much money at stake to just close up shop.
krapp 4y ago
That would make sense if the US military-industrial complex had any problems whatsoever with funding. As far as I can see, the military and black-budget initiatives in the US already have an infinite, no questions asked credit line from the taxpayers and Congress. They don't need to resort to something this ridiculous, and even if they did, as you mentioned Russia and China are already effective boogeymen.
- LexGray 4y ago
  Not like greed has a limit. When a measurable percentage of congress is invested in conspiracy theories seems like a good time to get a bigger cut of an even darker black box.
  - MichaelCollins 4y ago
    There are some real nuts in Congress, but the ones they would really need to convince are the twenty or so on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. Most of the real wackjobs are in the House of Reps, and I have a feeling the members of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense are kept on a shorter leash than most of the rest. At least insofar as being well informed about defense matters is concerned.
Bloating 4y ago
see, if we just elected people that wanted good government then they wouldn't waste money on boondoggles The problem here though, is that the interstellar space aliens are smart enough to have sightings in every state, therefore insuring wide spread political support for additional funding
api 4y ago
If we could find a way to redirect the massive defense budget from squabbling over dirt into space flight I have a hard time seeing a downside. We just need some kind of narrative to trick politicians and world leaders into doing something useful instead of war.
lrem 4y ago
This wouldn't make sense as a target. "We estimate we'll need seven quintillion dollars and it will take about seven hundred years" doesn't make for a good money-grab.
- kennend3 4y ago
  it would appear sarcasm is lost on you? Obviously they are not going to advocate building interstellar space flight simply because some "UFO" has it.
AndrewKemendo 4y ago
That's just not how any of this works The gap between how the government runs in actual practice, and how citizens think it runs is so large that I'm not sure we can even communicate coherently about it
- gonzo41 4y ago
  Well you should roll back to the time of the missile gap, where Kissinger helped get a lot of nukes built for political reasons more than anything. Raytheon has adds on subway stations in DC for a reason. Messaging works.
  - AndrewKemendo 4y ago
    I've been a senior DoD technology leader, I know how it works. I live in DC, I see the ads. Never once has Raytheon or any other defense company tried to make me or any other PEO, acquisitions or contracting officer buy something by generating some fake scare in an attempt to make me or anyone who can actually spend money on behalf of the DoD do so (hint, there's not that many people who can actually approve real money). People think there is some conspiracy to just grow our military for it's own sake - in fact it's almost always at the behest of a foreign partner that needs defense and is asking for the DoD to come and help them (usually via treaty or NATO request). The reason the DoD and the US IC grows is because we are literally protecting the economic freedom of MOST of the world because they explicitly ask us to protect them. It is in our best interest to protect those who ask because the more people who are our partners and allies, the more we can increase trade and promote our way of life. Whether you think that is good or bad is up to you. However there is no secret government cabal sitting around trying to figure out some new fake reason to scare the population. There's more than enough scary things that you aren't dealing with on a daily basis because What was the last time an American citizen seriously worried about being invaded by a foreign power or attacked by a nation state? It just doesn't even occur to the average citizen that there are about a million people working to ensure Americans don't even have to think about not being attacked by foreign power. This is true for every major nation state with a significant defense presence.
sdssdfsdf1 4y ago

mike_hock 4y ago

They're delivering weapons to Ukraine as we speak. Some other lucrative proxy wars might be coming up soon.

erdos4d 4y ago
I'm sure they have something cooking, there's too much money at stake to just close up shop.

krapp 4y ago

That would make sense if the US military-industrial complex had any problems whatsoever with funding. As far as I can see, the military and black-budget initiatives in the US already have an infinite, no questions asked credit line from the taxpayers and Congress. They don't need to resort to something this ridiculous, and even if they did, as you mentioned Russia and China are already effective boogeymen.

LexGray 4y ago
Not like greed has a limit. When a measurable percentage of congress is invested in conspiracy theories seems like a good time to get a bigger cut of an even darker black box.
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  There are some real nuts in Congress, but the ones they would really need to convince are the twenty or so on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. Most of the real wackjobs are in the House of Reps, and I have a feeling the members of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense are kept on a shorter leash than most of the rest. At least insofar as being well informed about defense matters is concerned.

Bloating 4y ago

see, if we just elected people that wanted good government then they wouldn't waste money on boondoggles The problem here though, is that the interstellar space aliens are smart enough to have sightings in every state, therefore insuring wide spread political support for additional funding

api 4y ago

If we could find a way to redirect the massive defense budget from squabbling over dirt into space flight I have a hard time seeing a downside. We just need some kind of narrative to trick politicians and world leaders into doing something useful instead of war.

lrem 4y ago

This wouldn't make sense as a target. "We estimate we'll need seven quintillion dollars and it will take about seven hundred years" doesn't make for a good money-grab.

kennend3 4y ago
it would appear sarcasm is lost on you? Obviously they are not going to advocate building interstellar space flight simply because some "UFO" has it.

AndrewKemendo 4y ago

That's just not how any of this works The gap between how the government runs in actual practice, and how citizens think it runs is so large that I'm not sure we can even communicate coherently about it

gonzo41 4y ago
Well you should roll back to the time of the missile gap, where Kissinger helped get a lot of nukes built for political reasons more than anything. Raytheon has adds on subway stations in DC for a reason. Messaging works.
- AndrewKemendo 4y ago
  I've been a senior DoD technology leader, I know how it works. I live in DC, I see the ads. Never once has Raytheon or any other defense company tried to make me or any other PEO, acquisitions or contracting officer buy something by generating some fake scare in an attempt to make me or anyone who can actually spend money on behalf of the DoD do so (hint, there's not that many people who can actually approve real money). People think there is some conspiracy to just grow our military for it's own sake - in fact it's almost always at the behest of a foreign partner that needs defense and is asking for the DoD to come and help them (usually via treaty or NATO request). The reason the DoD and the US IC grows is because we are literally protecting the economic freedom of MOST of the world because they explicitly ask us to protect them. It is in our best interest to protect those who ask because the more people who are our partners and allies, the more we can increase trade and promote our way of life. Whether you think that is good or bad is up to you. However there is no secret government cabal sitting around trying to figure out some new fake reason to scare the population. There's more than enough scary things that you aren't dealing with on a daily basis because What was the last time an American citizen seriously worried about being invaded by a foreign power or attacked by a nation state? It just doesn't even occur to the average citizen that there are about a million people working to ensure Americans don't even have to think about not being attacked by foreign power. This is true for every major nation state with a significant defense presence.

sdssdfsdf1 4y ago