[FPSPACE] Russo-Georgian conflict might affect US access to ISS

[Jens Kieffer-Olsen]

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Pesavento [mailto:pjp961 at svol.net] 
Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2008 3:37 PM

> From the Telegraph (UK)
  [snip]
> Congressional supporters of the space programme now say
> that the Georgian confrontation has compounded that problem.
> Democratic senator Bill Nelson of Florida, where the shuttle
> launches, said the prospects of passing a waiver are in
> freefall. "With the aggressiveness of Russia in Georgia,
> I think it's dead on arrival," he said. "It is a lose-lose
> situation. We have a $100 billion space station, and in
> theory, we couldn't even get people up there." He added:
> "US civil space activity should not become a hostage to
> Russian objections to Georgia's Nato membership goals" or
> "new Cold War political manoeuvring."

 This crap is absolute BS and an insult to all of us who
 lived through the Cold War.

 In the lead-up to the first World War the great powers
 used similar language for the slightest reason as well,
 but maybe Condoleezza 'Soon-back-to-the-piano' Rice and
 her countrymen haven't studied that period much?

 Next thing the US will pressure whiskey onto the Iranian
 market, just like the Brits once broke the Chinese
 government's resistance to opium trading through military
 force.

--
Jens Kieffer-Olsen
Slagelse, Denmark