Elon Musk sabotaged Ukrainian attack on Russian fleet in Crimea
politico.eu
politico.eu
Man, Musk really seems like a pathtic, ordered at Wish, version of a Bond vilain. At least those had no problem with potential consequences of their actions.
Rant over, so in all seriousness. That call was not his to make, not even close. It was a military decision by Ukraine, and one be sure that included some consultation with NATO. If he wants to establish SpaceX as seriois defence, or heck even just government or critical infrstaructure provider, he cannot switch of services forbthese customers nased on whatever whim he has in the moment, this is not some folks Instagram account. If he doesn't want to support a war, sure, just don't sell to beligerents. If you do, your in, and you have mo say about what said beligerents do with your stuff. Seriously, while shocking it is not surprising. And I have mo idea why anybody ever believed Musk would be a reliable supplier for those things to begin with.
While I happen to agree with the goal of pushing Putin out of Ukraine, can I blame a private individual for not wanting to take that step.
Musk is a private individual, and Starlink is a private company. They are not in business to fight wars.
What's more puzzling is that he thought that he thought he could dabble in geopolitics and matters of war and come away cleanly.
FTA: “Elon Musk secretly ordered his engineers to disable Starlink satellite communications near the coast of Russian-occupied Crimea last year to sabotage a planned Ukrainian drone strike”
I don’t think both of those can be the full truth, and am inclined to give Walter Isaacson’s claim (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/09/07/elon-musk...: “Allowing the use of Starlink for the attack, he concluded, could be a disaster for the world. So he secretly told his engineers to turn off coverage within 100 kilometers of the Crimean coast”) more value, but that’s a gut feeling, not one based on facts.
> Musk is a private individual, and Starlink is a private company. They are not in business to fight wars.
That’s true, but nevertheless, they can’t avoid being in a war. They can’t close their eyes and ignore that war. Even not doing anything is a choice.
Other subject: what would you do if you were one of those engineers being ordered to disable Starlink?
Edit: To be clear, in this instance, it isn't "Elon Bad!" It's that no one person should be able to wield nation state power without all of the governance that goes with a nation state.
Thank God private individuals and private companies don't fight wars. It is difficult to imagine a world where that happens.