So the Chinese appear to have successfully tested anti-satellite missile technology, and the blame-America-first crowd is wasting no time in blaming America first:

Michael Krepon, president emeritus of the Henry L. Stimson Center, another non-profit involved with security issues in Washington, called the Chinese test a likely — and unfortunate — response to American space policies.
“The Chinese are telling the Pentagon that they don’t own space,” he said. “We can play this game, too, and we can play it dirtier than you.”
Krepon said the Chinese test “blows a hole through the Bush administration reasoning behind not talking to anybody about space arms control — that there is no space arms race. It looks like there is one at this point.”

Oh dear. Where to start? The United States has no weapons stationed in space. None. What we have are vital communications, surveillance, and positioning satellites. They don’t pose a direct threat to anybody, though they do provide our military with enormous warmaking advantages. Are these the “American space policies” that Mr. Krepon find so provocative? They are in fact utterly necessary and sensible. They are also dependent upon satellites whose vulnerability makes them obvious targets for our enemies. No amount of “arms control” will change that basic fact–”arms control” will succeed merely in hindering American power, leveling the playing field with countries that can’t take advantage of space to the extent that the United States does. The only way to make our satellites less vulnerable is to protect them through emerging technologies that permit defensive measures, redundancies that allow a system to survive a successful strike, and clear statements about American resolve.

As this debate evolves, you will hear a lot about how horrible it will be to “weaponize” space. With the Chinese blowing up satellites with ASATs, however, space is weaponized. Right now. We can accept this reality and deal with it as best we can, or we can pretend it doesn’t exist and deal with the consequences when it’s too late.