Opinion BY Armin

The Missile Defense Agency Logo Conspiracy Theory

“It is the policy of the United States,” reads the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) web site, “to deploy as soon as is technologically possible an effective National Missile Defense system capable of defending the territory of the United States against limited ballistic missile attack (whether accidental, unauthorized, or deliberate).” That policy will be $1.2 billion short starting this year, as President Obama announced cost cuts last fall to a missile defense system plan that had been instated by the George Bush administration in 2002. Needless to say, with every Obama critic looking for any excuse to go on the offensive, this decision certainly had vociferous opposition — all perfectly acceptable as long as it’s within reason and rationalization. As opposed to, for example, the latest spewing of inanity that the new logo of the MDA is a sign that Obama and its administration are in cahoots with the Islamic populace and are giving Iran free reign to launch missiles willy nilly.

A slew of online publications are genuinely upset that the MDA logo looks like a combination of the Obama ‘08 campaign logo and the star and crescent moon symbol of Islam. Others have thrown in the Iranian Space Agency logo and the Soviet Union’s hammer and sickle flag, all as part of a series of codes that determine the agenda of the Obama administration. I threw in the Boeing logo just for kicks — hey, someone has failed to point out a corporate villain in all of this — and I also added perhaps the biggest oversight by the media, the use of Trajan. Cue Twilight Zone theme song.

Conspiracy theory diagram.

I will never state that Obama is a Muslim, until I see him on his knees praying to Allah, but even if he is not the results would be basically the same. He is as pro-Islamic as they come and this symbol is a disgrace to America, as it is a hybrid of an Obama-Islamic crescent symbol. We are in serious trouble my friends!
— Loganswarning

Dear MDA:
Your new logo is wholly offensive and must be removed for these reasons:

First, it is Obama-esce, reminiscent of his campaign artwork. This is unseemly and smacks of a cult of personality.

Second, the play on the Islamic Crescent is sinister, disturbing and outrageous.

I am requesting a reply to this comment and will seek redress at every level possible. This should be removed and never reconstituted for this or any other government program.

Concerned citizen
— Commenter on Loganswarning

This is hitleresque…
— Commenter on Loganswarning

What could be code-breaking evidence of the latter explanation is to be found in the newly-disclosed redesign of the Missile Defense Agency logo (above). As Logan helpfully shows, the new MDA shield appears ominously to reflect a morphing of the Islamic crescent and star with the Obama campaign logo. (For a comparison, the previous logo is below.)
— Frank Gaffney, Big Government

Could TMP Government possibly come up with something else that does not seem to remind people of an American campaign long finished or a space agency whose nation’s [Iran] leader is a tyrant that wants to see our country’s demise? […] If a governmental agency’s logo begins to look scarily like a presidential campaign theme, even if done unintentionally, that is a problem and should be corrected immediately.
— Kerry Picket, Washington Times

I may be overly flippant about this, because it really is all ridiculous — slightly more ridiculous than those that said the new Pepsi logo looked like the Obama logo. If there is anything at fault with the new logo, it’s simply that it’s crappy. Granted, not as crappy as the previous one, which looks only a notch above Atari’s 1980s Missile Command, but still poorly executed. The logo was designed by TMP Government, an agency dedicated to designing for this particular niche. It must be pointed out that the new logo does not replace the old logo, at least not yet and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a slow replacement — right now, the new logo lives as the primary one on the web site, with the old logo appearing on the footer. Confusing, yes. The new logo is probably a tool to make the MDA look a little more sexy, make of that what you will, and TMP created a series of print ads and online games to make the agency more interesting for recruiting.

Richard Lehner, a spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency, dismissed the comparison entirely.

“It’s ridiculous,” Lehner told Fox News. “It isn’t a new logo to replace the official logo. It’s a logo developed for recruiting materials and for our public Web site. Also, it was used prior to the 2008 election and it has no link to any political campaign.”
— FOXNews.com

Print ads by TMP Government.

Engineer trading cards — seriously — by TMP Government.

Hopefully we can get back to more important issues, like Tiger Woods’ apologies and curling, and stop looking for shapes in clouds.

Thanks to Noah Rothschild for first tip.

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\"It is the policy of the United States,\" reads the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) web site, \"to deploy as soon as is technologically possible an effective National Missile Defense system capable of defending the territory of the United States against limited ballistic missile attack (whether accidental, unauthorized, or deliberate).\" That policy will be \$1.2 billion short starting this year, as President Obama announced cost cuts last fall to a missile defense system plan that had been instated by the George Bush administration in 2002. Needless to say, with every Obama critic looking for any excuse to go on the offensive, this decision certainly had vociferous opposition — all perfectly acceptable as long as it's within reason and rationalization. As opposed to, for example, the latest spewing of inanity that the new logo of the MDA is a sign that Obama and its administration are in cahoots with the Islamic populace and are giving Iran free reign to launch missiles willy nilly.