George Bush to Kelvans....It's War!

[APW 0]

Wonder Why He Thinks The War Would Be Intergalactic? You may have heard about the interesting ideas of former Canadian Defence Minister, Paul Hellyer

 

A former Canadian Minister of Defence and Deputy Prime Minister under Pierre Trudeau has joined forces with three Non-governmental organizations to ask the Parliament of Canada to hold public hearings on Exopolitics -- relations with "ETs."

 

By "ETs," Mr. Hellyer and these organizations mean ethical, advanced extraterrestrial civilizations that may now be visiting Earth.

. . .

Mr. Hellyer went on to say, "I'm so concerned about what the consequences might be of starting an intergalactic war, that I just think I had to say something."

. . .

Hellyer warned, "The United States military are preparing weapons which could be used against the aliens, and they could get us into an intergalactic war without us ever having any warning.

 

There's nothing surprising about a member of Canada's Liberal party worrying about the United States getting everyone into a war. But the scale of war that Hellyer fears does surprise me.

 

Let's review the terms for his benefit. A war in which the earth is attacked by beings from another planet would be "interplanetary". A war in which the earth is attacked by beings from another stellar system would be "interstellar". So, when Hellyer says he fears an "intergalactic" war, he is saying he fears an attack by beings from another galaxy.

 

The closest galaxy (not counting some small satellite galaxies) to our own Milky Way is Andromeda. It is, according to this answer, almost 3 million light years away. (If your mind needs boggling, work out what that would be in miles.) By way of comparison, the closest star system to our own, Alpha Centauri, is about 4 light years away. So Hellyer is worried about a truly long distance attack.

 

Sadly, nothing in the article explains why he is worried about an intergalactic attack instead of an interstellar attack, or even a mere interplanetary attack. Nor does he say anything about how other intelligent beings in our own galaxy — if there are any — might react to an attack from Andromeda, or some other galaxy. Hellyer wants the United States to release data on UFOs. Fair enough, but I think he should release his own data first and explain why he fears an intergalactic attack.

 

(Fun fact: You can see the Andromeda galaxy on a clear dark night without a telescope or even binoculars.)

 

Being serious for a moment, I have always thought that those who want to ban war from space have things backward. Instead, we should bar war from everywhere except space, which should cut down sharply on the casualties.)

 

LINK

Edited November 27, 2005 by admiralpeewee

[Gary Phaserman 0]

Correction, It would cut down on CIVILIAN casualties, APW. Actually, fighting ship to ship in space is more dangerous to the crew than traditional Naval warfare is (or air warfare) remember, you can't just "Jump Overboard" from a starship without already being in a pressure suit. Thank you for posting this, though. I'm beginning to see that the imaginitiveness of Liberals to conjure up rather interesting stories spreads beyond the US.

[APW 0]

I found this article at a blog run by a guy named Jim Miller.

 

I found it funny so I posted it here. I hadn't even heard about this. It's just so crazy.....but then again, marijuana is legal up north....maybe this guy brainstormed the First Contact Conference after a few too many doobies? :(

 

To be honest, though, if I were an alien about to make contact and I had concerns about being attacked, I probably wouldn't land in Washington, either......no matter who was in the Oval Office or a majority in Congress.

I'd hope we'd be smart enough to realize that any civilization capable of interstellar flight (much less, InterGalactic flight) would be able to squash us like a bug.

[Gary Phaserman 0]

Exactly. The other question, APW, is WHY? Why the hell would they be interested in some po-dunk backwater like Earth? Compared to an Interstellar or Intergalactic Species, we're in the frickin' Stone age! the odds that they care enough to stop in and say "Hi" much less fight us are slim. Unless, like in "Independance Day", they need our resources.

[BKY1701 0]

To have a reason to fight in space we would need to live on more then one planet. Otherwise it’s dumb and a waste of materials.

[Gary Phaserman 0]

Well, having something like Starfighters would be a major strategic advantage. Their speed and service ceiling would make them virtually impervious to all present and many developing Surface-to-Air weapons' systems. Also, if they can reach orbit and fight there, they would probably set range records. A Starfighter squadron could take off from, say, Eglin Air Force Base and make a "Self Escorted" bombing run over Pyongyang, leave at 0900 Local, and be back in time for lunch. There are advantages to having the technology...