Space Force!

Did you get yours? I got mine.

Amazon has about a million "Space Force" inspired T-shirts since the president announced the plan to create a new outer-space-centered military service, but I got the one recommended by Instapundit. So you know it's for reals! And it happens to be a well-made, comfortable shirt, at least so far, which is more than you can say about a lot of shirts purchased online.

Why did I get it? Well, my favorite T-shirts have a lot of stains and holes. But also, because I thought that the Space Force was a good call by Trump. I noted last month that NASA has become kind of embarrassing in that the guys who put the first American in space, in orbit, and on the moon now can barely get a human off the ground. So it's important for the United States to keep working in human/space technology, and if NASA has other plans, the military can take action.

But that's only part of it -- NASA is a civilian organization, was formed purposely to be one and must remain that way. (Ike was a fan of rockets for military use but didn't think the military branches would be effective for space exploration.) But we are naive if we think that our international competitors are not weaponizing space, or planning to. So, we can yield the orbit of the planet to China and Russia and anyone else who can get past the exosphere, or we can fart around and pretend we're not doing the same thing they are while doing it, or we can say, hey, we're going to have a military space group and you'd better keep up, pilgrim.

I think it's a winner of an idea. Then again, I liked Reagan's "Star Wars" back when all the smart people were sneering that you couldn't "hit a bullet with a bullet," and the Russians were sweating bullets over it. So I expect others to think my T-shirt is either evidence of Trumpmania or is being worn sarcastically.

But no, I think the time for Space Force has come. The name comes across as silly, and will probably be changed to something dull like the U.S. Trans-Orbital Military (Major TOM!). But everyone will call it "Space Force."

"Space Force" seems a little Hanna-Barbera-ish, but the idea is as serious as nuking from orbit. If we want to be safe, we must be vigilant.

I'm sure these guys would agree.