Opinion
 

Militarization will spell NASA's demise

By Paul Hensarling

With my down-to-earth vision tempered with a large dose of common sense, I can plainly see that President Bush's current domestic and foreign policies have put America and the rest of the world on a path of destruction. Now he is out to set up the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for certain failure, not any different than anything else that he has touched. Bush is really out of touch with the world and NASA will be just one of many institutions that he will destroy.

His recent announcement calling for missions to Mars and a moon base left many Americans wondering how we might pay for it. Going to Mars would be cool, but what about paying for it -- and what about the current worthwhile projects that NASA is already working on? It would be very feasible and desirable to state for the United States to start making plans for a future Mars mission, but why all the emotional hoopla for something overly-expensive in a time when Bush has already failed to control the governmental debt?

We can easily deduct where Bush's Mars and moon missions are going to go from the other fiascoes that he has been party to. His cowboy attitude is one that has no regard for anyone else, except for his minions that cater to his unrealistic agenda. 

The corruption and arrogance of the Bush administration speaks for itself. The strategy is to put the blame on someone else, use character assassination and then put forth any kind of spin that the public will buy. There is not a day goes by that the credibility of this administration is being questioned in the media. Even members of Bush's own party are starting to question his policies.

His reluctance to go before the 9/11 committee, except on his terms, speaks volumes. Going over the head of the United Nations and the rest of the world to attack Iraq speaks volumes. Appointing judges sympathetic to his agenda by going over Congress' heads while they are out of session speaks volumes. His lack of concern for the environment speaks volumes. His lack of concern for working people speaks volumes. 

Bush doesn't seem to care about anything except for his agenda. And now, he wants to declare a mission to Mars. Going by his record, I think it's possible that the mission will be abandoned, or adapted for military use. This, of course, would set NASA up for failure concerning scientific achievement, which is ultimately more spiritually important than Bush's agenda. A simple declaration of preparation for going to Mars at some point is fine, even great. 

Dropping everything to go to Mars, in which the most likely scenario is dropping the Mars mission in the long run, is a recipe for failure. 

Hensarling, an editorial writer for The Daily Cougar, 
can be reached via dccampus@mail.uh.edu.