But even if a military and economic rivalry develops, would that necessarily lead to one of the many Pearl Harbor scenarios spun out by space warriors? The answer is almost surely no. Any substantive antisatellite threat to U.S. space assets would have to be preceded by extensive testing, including tests in space. The United States would quickly detect any such tests. The kindest thing that can be said about space Pearl Harbor scenarios is that they are classic scare tactics, the latest installment in a string of scenarios trotted out by hardliners throughout the Cold War. Pearl Harbor allusions trigger potent images for Americans, visions of a sleepy Sunday morning that turn into a nightmare of roaring aircraft and staccato gunfire, of exploding bombs and torpedoes, of roiling smoke and foundering ships, of death in a fire-flooded bay. They also bring to mind a nation that was woefully unprepared for global war despite the Roosevelt administration's desperate attempts to get the country into some sort of fighting trim. Yet on closer inspection Pearl Harbor analogies seem to be little more than dramatic devices chosen for their emotional impact rather than for their correspondence to actual probability.

---

Moore, Mike. "A New Cold War?." SAIS Review. XXVI, No. 1 (Winter-Spring 2006): 175-188. [ 7 quotes ] [ page 183 ]