Statement to Berlin workshop participants
US Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich
I would like to thank the International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation for convening this very important conference and inviting me to speak. The 107th Congress of the United States is in the midst of a legislative session, and my duties as a Member prevent me from appearing. I hope you will accept this statement.
Recently, I introduced a bill in the House of Representatives, the Space Preservation Act (H.R. 3616), that would ban the research, development, and deployment of space-based weapons. The bill would also bar the use of weaponry to target objects that are in orbit, thereby proscribing the use of Anti-Satellite Weapons.
I continue to push for swift passage of this legislation to block efforts to put weapons in space. Already, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on the development of weapons such as the Space-Based Laser. This program and other types of space-based weapons such as Anti-Satellite Weapons (ASATs) continue to draw more and more attention and resources.
Efforts to field such weapons will cost an exorbitant sum of money. Further experimentation with the Space-Based Laser, for instance, is supposed to cost $3.4 billion by 2012. At full deployment, SBL is expected to cost $70-80 billion. The development of other weapons might eventually drive the cost of space-based weapons into the hundreds of billions.
Will this massive investment make our world more secure? Undoubtedly not. According to scientists, space-based weapons are unproven and technically dubious. There is also no urgent threat: other nations are decades away from fielding workable space-based weapons. Most countries, including our largest potential adversaries (Russia and China), are urging a global ban on space weapons.
In fact, placing offensive weapons in space could prove catastrophic, launching a space arms race as costly and destabilizing as the nuclear arms race.
We must resolutely oppose the imposition of a fear-based approach to world security. Rather, we must offer the people of this world hope: hope for a world that is safe not due to a truce among belligerents but rather due to peace among friends. Hope for a world that is governed not based upon fear but upon trust. Hope for a world that regards space not as the final realm for military domination, but as the first domain to be secured for peace.
I look forward to working with you all to help create this hope. Thank you.
