Martians beware

No longer content merely with Middle Eastern countries, the Bush administration has now apparently decided to invade outer space. It looks like the push for Star Wars is alive and well after all. Maybe it's just me, but since we're occupying two countries and still have plenty of unaddressed homeland security needs, couldn't we spend this money a little more wisely?

The United States signed the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which barred the militarization of space. What signal does it send to our allies when our country claims the prerogative to break international treaties whenever a new president takes office?

Our word should be our bond, and if circumstances force us to renege on an agreement, we need to be crystal clear to our allies about our reasons for calling off the deal. Even if it would be cool to be able to blow up stuff from space -- and the 6-year-old boy inside me screams that it would be -- we shouldn't just blow off our allies to do it.