Therefore, the Air Force was not comfortable when Space Command was given the responsibility for Information Warfare, and it was not happy to lose the F-22 while Rumsfeld swooned over Space Command.

In fact, the Air Force was not having all that much luck with Donald Rumsfeld until Sept. 11 changed the entire dynamic. Once the emphasis was switched to homeland defense, it meant not only the creation of a new Cabinet department but also, and more important, a reorganization of the military's homeland defense structure - something that clearly needed to happen.

The military's solution was to create an entity known as "Northern Command," that was to control all of the military assets tasked with defending the United States against al Qaeda. So, for example, in the event of another attack by al Qaeda, Northern Command was to control all of the National Guard troops that would immediately be summoned. Other military assets were also designated to Northern Command.

The single most important of these assets is the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD), an obviously indispensable element of homeland defense.

It is also the only command in which there is direct Canadian participation, so its assets can operate on a truly continental basis. Since the end of the Cold War, or even since the Soviets went to a missile strategy, NORAD has not had much of a function. Its job was mostly to keep score in the event of nuclear war until NORAD itself was taken out. But against al Qaeda, NORAD suddenly could really affect the outcome.

Since Air Force Space Command operated one of NORAD's most important sensors, the DSP satellites that sense heat and can detect a missile launch, it is reasonable that NORAD would be part of U.S. Space Command.