This Is Funny

Many have expressed skepticism that the administration would undertake such an expensive and complex operation to shoot down a satellite for something that carried a negligible risk. Some have suggested the Pentagon wanted to test its capabilities a year after China shot down an aging weather satellite, while others say it had to do with testing missile defense technology. "This is only conceivable if you can imagine that the people who are in charge of intelligence-gathering might attempt to mislead the American public," writes the NYT's Gail Collins.

This sounds like a line from a Jay Leno monologues.

Added, via Froomkin:

"The detailed rationale given by administration officials for the shoot-down makes little more sense. USA 193 carries on board a tank of hydrazine, the fuel U.S. satellites use to change orbit in space. . . . Hydrazine is moderately toxic, with effects akin to chlorine gas. The hydrazine cloud from USA 193's tank would, if released, diffuse over an area of roughly two football fields. The cloud would dissipate in minutes. Nevertheless, we are told, that is the risk that impelled President Bush to order the satellite's midair destruction."

They lie as easily as they talk.

Added II: Arkin points out that no one is taking a look at the enormous amount of money being spent on the grossly failed program that spawned the failed satellite in the first place.