UNcooperative

The Bush Administration condemned China's testing of a missile that shot down a satellite a week ago. That's all well and good, except that the US was the only nation to vote against a United Nations ban on the militarization of space that more than 170 other countries thought was a good idea.

Such votes are alarming and embarrassing. According to a piece online, the US voted "no" on about half of the UN resolutions advocating disarmament and security in 2006, often casting the only opposition vote: "[T]he United States stood alone even against measures intended to mitigate factors fueling civil wars and armed conflict" and on votes that would "curb the illicit trade of small arms."

Now, without an agreement to keep weapons out of space, America will spend -- and is spending -- billions of dollars to develop missiles that can hit a mark beyond the stratosphere, as well as technology that can defend against China's missiles. For Lockheed Martin, General Electric, Raytheon, Honeywell, Boeing, Northrup Grumman, General Dynamics and their peers this looks like another magnificent payday, but for the rest of us the world just got a little less safe.