re: Strong criticism
Where there is so much money involved for so many powerful interests, it's not surprising there would be attacks upon anyone who questioned the need.
Inject politics, and it gets worse.
Seems to me that in this case the wish is the father of the thought. I don't think Bush is talking about his Space Iniative, it seems abandoned by him, though if the idea "took off", he could still claim credit.
It appears that everyone else is talking about it as if it were a reality. The "reality" is that the money for it is buried in the rubble of Iraq.
Arf