The question is have we reached the point with technology where one man can rule the world? Alexander the Great utilized 18-foot spears to kill the Hoppites in their heavy armor before the Hoppites could approach close enough to use their short swords. Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and self-made billionaire, took it upon himself using his own technology to block a military operation against the Russians in Ukraine that benefited the Russian government.
How can a lone civilian inject himself into an armed conflict halfway around the world and influence the outcome of a battle? Musk admitted to rejecting a request from Ukraine to activate the Starlink satellite in fear of “complicity in a major act of war”.
Starlink, owned by Musk, is the world’s first and largest satellite constellation that uses a low Earth orbit to deliver broadband internet capable of supporting streaming, online gaming, video calls and more.
Musk responded to the accusations of refusing to let Ukraine use his satellite system saying that “The onus is meaningfully different if I refused to act upon a request from Ukraine vs. made a deliberate change to Starlink to thwart Ukraine. At no point did I or anyone at SpaceX promise coverage over Crimea. Moreover, our terms of service clearly prohibit Starlink for offensive military action, as we are a civilian system, so they were again asking for something that was expressly prohibited.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukraine’s president Volodymr Zelenskiy, argued that Musk’s business had failed to recognize Ukraine’s right to defend itself by any means possible. Podolyak asserted that companies have to make up their mind if they are “on the side of the right to freedom” or “on the Russian Federation’s side and its ‘right’ to kill and seize territories” after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.
SpaceX is constructing Starshield for the US government, a similar constellation of satellites for military purposes, but smaller since that system will be owned and controlled by the US government.”
