The Force can have a strong influence on the weak-minded. (Obi-Wan Kenobi. Star Wars)

This is from a report in June of 2003.

The United States is planning to take control of parts of space and develop patrolling military aircraft in orbit as part of a revived Star Wars proposal for an American military empire above the ozone layer.

One has to put that report into the context of the time. The United States had invaded Iraq in March and Bush had stood before a large banner on an aircraft carrier which announced, Mission Accomplished. The US, having retaliated against the attacks of 11 Sept. 2001 were now executing the plans of PNAC and were engaging in globalization - military style. Paul Wolfowitz, the architect of military pre-emption was poo-pooing complaints that no WMD had been found in Iraq. The Bush administration, led by a blithering idiot, and controlled by neo-con think-tanks felt they were unstoppable.

According to James Roche, the US Air Force Secretary, America's allies would have "no veto power" over projects designed to achieve American military control of space.

The key theme of the ambitious plans is described as "negation" - the denial of the use of space for military intelligence, or other purposes, without American endorsement.

In other words, acccording to this nearly three year old report, the US would literally control the world. Period.

But the empire has stumbled, and then there is the quagmire of Iraq. Almost 3 years after Mission Accomplished, the US finds itself standing in the middle of an Iraqi civil war, an insurgency which will not go away. The US current account deficit has widened by 21.3% to a record $224.9 billion in the fourth quarter. Americans are spending everything they earn as fast as they earn it - and then they use credit to buy more.

So, since it is so expensive, one could expect an ambitious plan to control space to be shelved.

Not so.

From Liberal Catnip comes this Boston Globe report.

The Pentagon is asking Congress for hundreds of millions of dollars to test weapons in space, marking the biggest step toward creating a space battlefield since President Reagan's long-defunct ''star wars" project during the Cold War, according to federal budget documents.

And then you realize... not one person in the Bush administration has heard a word anyone has ever said to them, nor have they learned one thing in 5 1/2 years.