Taking Militarization to the Next Level

There is now an article on the CNET Web site with the title "Here's how you put an asteroid boulder in orbit around the moon." The article consists entirely of images except for the subheadline:

NASA has a bold new plan to steal a boulder from an asteroid and bring it back for orbit around the moon, to help test an Earth-defense system.

I suspect I am far from the only one whose most salient memory of Generation Kill was the guy who said he became a Marine so he could "blow shit up." Well, this sure takes blowing shit up to a new level! I suppose the project grew out of someone who remembered Armageddon better than Generation Kill and thought that the best way to protect the planet from any large object falling out of the sky would be to destroy the object. Needless to say, anything we learn in the interest in defense may subsequently serve us for offense. After all, what would we do if we were menaced by a large space ship full of hostile aliens? When do we start designing rules of engagement to determine when we use those boulders as weapons?