Warning: Although
not named, this essay contains implied spoilers for a recent alien
invasion movie.
Although peaceniks
were until recently salivating at the mouth at the prospect of
disarming the West of its strategic deterrence recent events in alien
invasion motion pictures have changed all that. In a stunning
reversal of the debate, the US Congress has joined the US Air Force
in calling for increased preparedness to deal with a potential alien
invasion augmented by the ability to control time to their advantage.
The debate was set
off by a recent Hollywood film in which the alien menace combined
fabulous tactical ability in the form of their aerial-capable,
amphibious-capable, underground-capable foot soldiers controlled by an
all-knowing, all-seeing time control master alien with the power to
reverse time by a day or two to replay events until things go its
way. Although the movie has a human getting a bit of this power by
accident and using it to heroically save the world from the
implacable alien menace, authoritative military sources suggest that
is not very likely in the real world. “No offense to Tom Cruise,”
said General Wm. Shelton, commander of the US Air Force Space
Command, “But I think it would be a bad move on our part to place
the hope of all mankind on the heroics of a glorified press agent and
one good special forces person who whacks aliens with a propeller. What this country needs, what this planet needs,
is a serious contingency plan to deal with this threat.”
Gen Shelton talking to reporters about the implacable alien menace
This time-manipulation capability has caused a radical rethink in the strategies that might counteract the alien menace. It would not be sufficient to merely nuke the aliens over a period of a day or even an hour, sources explained. “The way this works is you would have to be certain to get the main bad guy on the very first blast, even though you do not know where it is exactly. All you know is roughly what continent it is on. Its not enough to nuke Berlin, and then Paris, and then inbetween. If you set off one blast even a few minutes before the one that kills the main bad guy then the bad guy will just reset time a few days earlier but now it knows what happens and you don't. So you have to be certain to nuke that continent hard, from top to bottom, being sure to hit it so hard that it wipes out alien life no matter where it is or how far underground. You only get one shot at this.“
“This means that
the weapons would have to be synchronized within a few seconds of
each other, and with essentially no warning”, Gen Shelton
explained. “The only way to do that is to preposition weapons in
space by the hundreds if not thousands of the most deadly weapons
that we have. Missiles would not be enough to guarantee a short
enough warning period and the ability to carpet bomb an entire
continent simultaneously. To defeat this alien we have to be able to turn a continent instantly into
radioactive slag”.
Industry observers
noted that this is not the first time a policy of nuclear weapons in
space has been advocated by an important movie about aliens. In the
Jim Cameron film Aliens (1986), the civilian Ripley
famously advises “Lets nuke them from orbit. Its the only way to
be sure”.
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