Putin’s plans for space nukes should wake up the left and right

Vladimir Putin’s drive to put nukes in space, dominating near-earth orbit and so crippling Western surface forces, should be a wake-up call across the political spectrum.

Anti-war obsessives on the left and neo-isolationists on the right must face facts: Putin means to keep on conquering, and he will if he’s not stopped now.

Modern militaries depend on satellites for everything from communications to targeting; cutting off those capabilities would cripple forces trained to depend on them.

And while the Pentagon’s orbital assets might be protected by armor or stealth against some anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons, nuclear attacks are far more destructive across a much wider volume.

A nuclear electromagnetic pulse alone could shut down vast stretches of the sky — and one aimed to blow closer to ground level could shut down much of surface telecommunications, civilian and military.

That’s why international treaties ban nukes in space, but Putin has ripped up plenty of other treaties when they got in his way.

US intelligence believes the Kremlin hasn’t yet launched any such weapons into orbit, but has apparently seen signs Russia’s exploring it.

China and Russia have both experimented with non-nuclear ASAT weapons.

Back in November 2021, Moscow destroyed one of its own satellites in a test of a surface-launched missile — incidentally creating space debris that permanently threatens other craft in the vicinity (another sign Putin won’t respect other nations’ rights).

Meanwhile, one wing of the Republican Party thinks Putin’s not so bad: “Russia is open to a peace agreement, while it is DC warmongers who want to prolong the war,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) tweeted last week, with all the geopolitical wisdom of a former high-school football coach.

End the Ukraine war, let Kyiv fall — and wait for Putin to take his next step toward restoring the old Russian (and/or Soviet) empire.

It’s not just the right, of course: President Barack Obama sent Hillary Clinton off to meet Putin with that oh-so-cute “reset” button; got caught on an open mic telling Putin’s wingman he’d have more “flexibility” after the 2012 election (during which he mocked Mitt Romney for warning of Moscow’s ill intent) — then barely blinked when Putin seized Crimea in 2014.

Then again, Obama also imagined he could turn Iran’s revolutionary regime into a US ally, the linchpin of a stable Middle East, if he appeased Tehran enough, starting with his infamous nuclear deal.

Isolationist-leaning Republicans shouldn’t repeat Obama’s mistakes — with Iran or Russia.

And Democrats who now claim to recognize Putin’s evil should be backing across-the-board increases in defense spending — not holding them hostage to higher domestic outlays.

Ignoring or appeasing our enemies — powers determined to upend the world as it is, peace be damned — invites continued aggression and disaster.

Left and right must quit fooling themselves; House Republicans can start by passing the $95 billion package to aid Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and boost the US defense industry.