*STAR WAR STARTED…*?
*By Prof. Waqar Hussain*
(Head of Chemistry Department; Freelancer; M.Sc. Chem, M.A. History, M.A. Pol. Sc., M.A. Isl. St.; CSS, PCS Qualified; Correspondent Course in Journalism NIJ)
The United States has, for the first time, confirmed that it has deployed a weapon in space. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said Washington now has “on-orbit space control weapons” capable of defending U.S. forces against hostile action — an admission that turns a long-running shadow contest into an open one. America had earlier condemned China for firing a missile at its own satellite and Russia for launching an anti-satellite weapon from one of its spacecraft. Those tests were denounced. Now the United States says it will defend its own interests in orbit. What exactly it has placed there remains undisclosed. Officials describe it only as the start.
*ابتدائے عشق ہے روتا ہے کیا
آگے آگے دیکھیے ہوتا ہے کیا*
(This is only the beginning of the obsession — why weep already? Wait and see what happens next.)
Here “ishq” is not love in the ordinary sense. It is the fever of war.
Washington has also accused Beijing and Moscow of building satellites that can jam communications, use lasers to blind sensors, or carry grappling systems to shove other spacecraft out of orbit. The danger, officials warn, is no longer only disablement. It is destruction. Each kinetic hit would add to the thousands of debris fragments already circling Earth — shards that can wreck any satellite they strike. China answered on Tuesday by warning of an arms race and urging the United States to stop expanding military capabilities and “preparing for war in outer space.” Russia called for space to remain free of weapons.
Roughly 16,500 satellites are active. The United States operates more than 12,500, China about 1,480, the United Kingdom around 700, and Russia fewer than 400. The figures show, plainly, which countries dominate space — and how easily use can become abuse.
Modern life hangs on these machines. Weather satellites feed forecasts and disaster alerts. Communications satellites carry internet, phone calls and bank transfers. Navigation constellations time markets and guide aircraft, ships and phones. Science and Earth-observation probes share the same crowded lanes. A war among them would not stay overhead.
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty forbids nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction in orbit, but not conventional arms. Talks on a treaty to prevent an arms race in outer space have stalled for decades. Measures still available include a ban on destructive anti-satellite tests, stricter debris rules, mandatory registration, and transparency on dual-use satellites. Without them, the orbital commons that underwrites weather, money, maps and speech becomes a battlefield no country can fully own — and no country can fully escape.
On Earth, some voices now warn of another existential race. Commentator Jacob Coxon has argued that humanity faces a looming threat from artificial general intelligence. In orbit, a second danger has taken shape: space weapons and a satellite war that critics already call “Star War Started.” From that double anxiety a slogan has begun to travel: Save human from superintelligence and Star War.
