Opinio Juris is pleased to note official White House reaction to the petition (via the
We the People White House site, an Obama administration initiative promising an official response to citizen petitions garnering 25,000 signatures within 30 days of posting) calling upon the Obama administration to
“secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016.”
As
reported by Entertainment Weekly (the only truly canonical outlets for this kind of news would have to be EW or Wired, Hollywood or Silicon Valley), here is the
official administration response, from Paul Shawcross, Chief of the Science and Space Branch of OMB (we must assume this went through the authoritative interagency clearance process and perhaps one day might even contribute to the
opinio juris of the United States for purposes of interstellar law of war on the destruction of planets):
“The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense,” begins Shawcross, “but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon.” He cites a Lehigh University study that calculated that a Death Star would cost a deficit-exploding $852,000,000,000,000,000 (that’s $852 quadrillion), notes that “the Administration does not support blowing up planets,” and rightly points out that it would be foolhardy to build a space station “with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship.”
Shawcross then goes on to tout the many space endeavors, both public and private, that are currently underway. (“Even though the United States doesn’t have anything that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, we’ve got two spacecraft leaving the Solar System and we’re building a probe that will fly to the exterior layers of the Sun.”) He concludes by encouraging the diligent soul(s) who created the petition to pursue a career in a science, technology, or math-related field, declaring that anyone who does so embraces the power of the Force: “Remember, the Death Star’s power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force.”
I've put the full text of the Obama administration response below the fold (and check out the many interesting links at the White House site, which I haven't included). It is more substantive than one might have anticipated - it discusses private space flight initiatives, the International Space Station and - naturally! - robots.
Update: Response from the Air Force General Counsel's Twitter feed (and I recommend both the Twitter feed (@AirForceGC) and
blog:
Still smarting from Death Star decision, but must admit weapons review would have been a bear.
Referring to US legal requirements for a review of the legality of all weapons systems, meeting the terms of Article 36 of 1977 Additional Protocol I.
Air Force GC