NASA's New Mission: Make Muslims Feel Better About Themselves

I've been in an Apollo program reading frenzy lately, reading several books related to America's achievements in space during the 60's and early 70's.  It saddens me to think that after two more Shuttle missions America will no longer have the capability or the will to put Americans in space using our own equipment.  From the conclusion of the last Shuttle mission to the foreseeable future Americans will have to hitch rides into space aboard foreign craft.

Why is that?  Perhaps this item from Powerline will give you hint as to our president's priority when it comes to our national space agency:

In the video below, Charles Bolden, head of NASA, tells Al Jazeera that the "foremost" task President Obama has given him is "to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with predominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering." Thus, NASA's primary mission is no longer to enhance American science and engineering or to explore space, but to boost the self-esteem of "predominantly Muslim nations."

Exploring space didn't even make the top three things Obama wants Bolden to accomplish. The other two are "re-inspire children to want to get into science and math" and "expand our international relationships,"

This is more evidence, if any were needed, of Obama's lack of interest in American achievement or, indeed, American greatness. He seems to believe we've achieved enough (or perhaps too much) and that the trick now is to make nations that have achieved little for centuries feel like we couldn't have done it without them (in the video, Bolden goes on to talk about how much NASA owes the Russians and the Japanese).

Behind the bravado of the Muslim world there may well lie an inferiority complex. If so, Obama is a fool if he believes we can help Muslims overcome that complex by having the head of the agency that symbolizes our technical superiority make patronizing statements about ancient Muslim contributions to science.

So, what are the contributions to math and science today from the Muslim world? Today women in their societies aren't even allowed to study math and science. And the only science that's being applied in the Muslim world is either being used to drill for oil, develop nuclear weapons designed to kill Israelis, or build backpack bombs designed to kill Israelis.  If the Muslims developed a space program it would be designed to launch Israelis into space...and not bring them back.

This new emphasis by NASA on building self-esteem among the world's backward societies is a terrible waste of American knowhow and technical expertise.