posted on Aug, 24 2003 @ 09:40 PM
Why should the NRO be ashamed?
I don't see what's wrong with launching spy satellites, at all.
Actually, you should read a book called "Secret Empire". It's all about Eisenhower and the drive to develop strategic recon capabilities. The
main point it --- and many other history books --- makes is that strategic recon alowed the united states to use its scientific and monetary resources
effectively. You see, before things like spy satellites, Generals could just march up to congress and claim that the soviets "might" have far more
weapons than they did. As a result, things like "missile gaps" emerged in the public consciousness. The early U-2 and Corona flights, however,
proved that Soviet power was not as strong as suspected, so Eisenhower was able to shift funds from production to R+D... and social concerns (such as
education). Surely you have heard about Ike's warnings concerning the "military industrial complex" and his common observation that 30 or so
schools could be built for the cost of one B-52? If he didn't have the eyes in the skies that he did, he could never have restrained the military
from making the mistakes the soviets did, in terms of overproduction and straining social resources.
Recon is all about knowing what threads are real.. and which ones are imagined.
So, if anything, the NRO has prevented the rise of a military state... and probably helped avert WW3.