By James P. Pinkerton
Columnist and writer, “The American Conservative”/FOX News Political Contributor

“China, India hasten arms race in space/U.S. dominance challenged” – that was the headline in The Washington Times last week. It should have been bannered everywhere.

Reporter David R. Sands detailed the military space race between India and China: “India, which has an extensive civilian space satellite program, must ‘optimize space applications for military purposes,’ army Chief of Staff Gen. Deepak Kapoor said at a defense conference in New Delhi. ‘The Chinese space program is expanding at an exponentially rapid pace in both offensive and defensive content.’” Those two Asian giants have fought wars against each other before—of course they understand the important of military space.

In addition, Japan and France are accelerating their own ambitious and barely concealed “milspace” programs.

So what is the U.S. doing? Obviously not enough. Missile defense is inching forward, although liberal Democrats make no secret that they would like to roll back even that modicum of progress toward a defensive shield for us and our allies. Meanwhile, of course, missile offense, from the likes of Iran and maybe even Venezuela, is moving forward. If present trends continue, the day will come when a dozen different countries can easily target American cities. Should that be an issue in the 2008 presidential election? I think so. And space-based defense will surely be a big issue in the elections thereafter.

And in the meantime, at the high-frontier level, America is under threat. The Pentagon takes the issue of space war seriously, even if political correctness—you know, the ideology says that it’s OK to lose a war, so long as The New York Times praises you—prevents the brass from speaking openly about all that’s going on up there, beyond the wild blue yonder.

Americans must understand that space, with humans in it, is ultimately no different from earth, with humans in it. That is, every virtue, and every evil, that is evident here will be evident there. If there have been, and will be, arms races on earth, then there have been, and will be, arms races in space.

And the same with wars. Yes, war is terrible, but losing a war is worse. Once again, what’s true for the earth is also true for space.

Meanwhile, Chinese have demonstrated that they have military intentions in space. Beijing’s deliberate shoot-down of one of its own aging weather satellites in 2007 was a test of China’s military capacity—and China passed, bigtime.

But some experts seem to think that America can’t win such a war. The Times’ Sands cites two:

Nancy Gallagher and John D. Steinbruner, researchers at the University of Maryland’s Center for International Studies, argue in a study that the Pentagon cannot hope to dominate space through technological and material superiority.

The United States will not be able to “outspend and out-innovate all potential rivals in space,” the two argue in a “white paper” just published by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Here’s a question: Why can’t we? Why can’t we plan to win? Obviously the US should have allies in space defense, just like every other kind of defense, but we should always be preparing to win, not lose.

The question of whether or not to try to win in space would seem be a profoundly important cleavage that is opening up between the two presidential candidates. As Sands explains, “Aides to Sen. Barack Obama, Illinois Democrat, and Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, are staking out markedly different stands on the space arms race as the presidential campaign heats up.”

Sands went on to quote Steve Robinson, an Obama campaign adviser, declaring, “We don’t need more battlegrounds. The idea of militarization of space is not something that Senator Obama is in favor of, and cooperation is better than confrontation.”

Sure, Mr. Robinson, cooperation is better than confrontation. And sugar and spice is nicer than coal and steel. But sometimes, your enemies don’t want to cooperate. They don’t want to play nice. Indeed, as Ronald Reagan proved in his dealings with the Soviet Union, sometimes firm confrontation actually leads to cooperation.

Happily, the McCain campaign seems alert to the danger from space. Floyd DesChamps, a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee staffer representing Mr. McCain, told Sands, that the Arizona Senator recognizes the need to defend U.S. space assets from hostile attack. ‘The reality is that we have to protect those assets.’”

The Washington Times did Americans a real service by putting this story on its front page last week. And Senator McCain could do his country one more service by highlighting this issue in the upcoming up election campaign.

If China, India, Japan, and France are going to be active in space, then it’s vital for us, too, to be in space.

And oh yes, whatever happens, we must plan to win.