They are the early warning systems for approaching storms. They are the key link in a chain of telecommunications that allow us to talk to someone half way around the world via phone as if we were in the same town. They allow military operations in Iraq to planned, executed and monitored by planners in a command room in Florida. They are satellites. Space orbiting technological wonders that make possible many of the modern miracles of our world.

America has had a technological superiority in this field for many years. It is part of the reason for its world power status. But the field is changing, an emerging power is marking its territory in this critical area. Last month China revealed it had destroyed one of its old satellites  with a missile designed specifically for that purpose. China now has the ability to knock out any space satellite, thus taking out the eyes and ears of a military opponent in warfare. The implications for America are serious.

Should China, or any other nation, decide it is in their national interest to preempt American hegemony in their part of the world then taking out key communication satellites would quickly level the playing ground. Without these orbiting birds  "seeing" the globe and transmitting vital data to commanders the American military would be limited if not crippled. American troops and ships would be vulnerable. Missiles could not be tracked to targets. China's numerical disadvantage would be eliminated. This called asymmetrical warfare.

Writing in the Washington Times Arnaud de Borchgrave shows this has been apart of Chinese military planning for some time:
 

To offset America's enormous strategic military superiority, the Chinese military concluded in the 1990s that information warfare -- or cyberwarfare -- could give China an "asymmetric" advantage over the United States. In 1998, the PLA newspaper Jiefangjun Bao said priority should be given "to learning how to launch an electronic attack on an enemy... to ensure electromagnetic control in an area and at a time favorable to us."

How to take down the computer-driven sinews of a modern industrialized state quickly became a top priority for the major powers and Israel. Since then the U.S. has more than matched China's arsenal of cyberweapons -- from ultra-sophisticated logic bombs, to Trojan horses, worms, viruses and denial-of-service decoys.

The 1990-91 Desert Shield and Desert Storm and the 2003 invasion of Iraq (when 50 military-specific satellites and numerous commercial birds were used) showed the Chinese how utterly dependent the U.S. had become on "satcoms." In 1998, the failure of a single satellite disabled 80 percent of the pagers in the U.S.

Unmanned aircraft like the Predator achieve pinpoint bombing accuracy over the Pak-Afghan border while flown by a pilot/bombardier in a simulated cockpit thousands of miles away in Washington. Signals from Global Positioning System's satellites guide precision weapons to their targets in the same role as a rifle gunsight.

Modern battlespace's eyes and ears are in orbit and vulnerable. The space equivalents of bullets and shells -- kinetic energy weapons -- to destroy or damage a target in space is the next phase of modern warfare. The 2001 Congress-mandated Commission to Assess U.S. National Security Space Management said the U.S. "is an attractive candidate for a space Pearl Harbor -- or a surprise attack on U.S. space assets aimed at crippling U.S. war-fighting and other capabilities."
 

de Borchgrave conclude's China's bold move is a result of two factors. First is the distraction with the war in Iraq and Afghanistan which has polarized and dominated American political discourse. Secondly, the real perception in the world that America is weakened by this and can no longer exercise its will among the nations. This is a grave a growing perception that history shows can lead to geopolitical adventuring by nations wishing to assert their interest.

Bible prophecy shows in the end time large forces will assemble in the "east" as part of those gathered for the final battle called "the battle of that great day of God Almighty". (Revelation 16:12-16)  What happens in China today is critical to the future.