Soft power and soft logic

The Moon as a military base? It sounds like something from the early days of the Space Age, when military leaders and pundits suggested that the Moon could be used as a military base of some kind, perhaps as a location where missiles could be launched towards Earth—nevermind that it would take three days for those missiles to arrive (see “Heinlein’s ghost (part 1)”, The Space Review, April 9, 2007). Unfortunately, Senator Mikulski doesn’t explain what the Chinese will do with their lunar military base: perhaps guard supplies of helium-3 for reactors that don’t yet exist?