An article appeared April 23 on a blog hosted by CNN with the seemingly bland title “Skin-peeling speed doomed hypersonic glider, U.S. says.” The article recounts the failed test of an experimental aircraft, the Hypersonic Technology Vehicle, designed to travel at 20 times the speed of sound, or Mach 20.
The article explains that such a working vehicle could travel from Los Angeles to New York in less than 12 minutes. If a successful flight was achieved, the implications for humanity are quite astounding,
But the genesis of this project comes from an organization called the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. DARPA is a military organization whose mission is “to maintain the technological superiority of the U.S. military. …” DARPA boasts of developing the Internet, the Stealth bomber and the M-16 assault rifle.
DARPA’s stated aim in developing the HTV-2 is so the U.S. military can strike a target anywhere in the world in under an hour.
It is worth contrasting the bland pseudo-scientific orientation of this article to the fear-mongering coverage by the big-business media when the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea attempted to launch a satellite.
When the missile carrying the North Korean satellite crashed after launch, the United States condemned this as a provocative act. CNN and other big-business media were quick to claim that the launch proves how “dangerous” North Korea is to the stability of the region and how the DPRK leadership is a threat to world peace. U.S. officials called for U.N. actions against North Korea, despite the fact the satellite launch did not violate any international law or agreements.
Why is it dangerous for North Korea to join the United States, Russia, Japan, China, France, India, Israel, Australia and England as a country with a space satellite?
Is it not a danger to humanity for one country to possess a technology that no other country can defend against? Where are the calls for U.N. sanctions on the United States for attempting to develop a hypersonic bomber, the only country in the history of humanity to use atomic weapons or attempt to militarize space satellites?
Instead of calls for sanctions, the “objective” and “free” press refers to the latest state-sponsored weapon of mass destruction as a glider. According to Webster’s dictionary, a glider is an airplane without an engine. How is it that the Pulitzer-prize winning editors at CNN missed this false and misleading use of language?
It is because it is in the interest of U.S. imperialism to portray itself as the guardian of peace, freedom and democracy and not the merchant of death, destruction and occupation. It is the job of the corporate media to be a partner with the Pentagon as part of the propaganda campaign of the capitalist system.
