Elon is having himself a hissy fit
The genesis of Elon's little tantrum appears to be the Ukraine leadership did not appreciate him parroting Russian talking points about how the war should end. Ostensibly, this is about not being paid. But, well, that turns out to not be entirely believable:
Though Musk has received widespread acclaim and thanks for responding to requests for Starlink service to Ukraine right as the war was starting, in reality, the vast majority of the 20,000 terminals have received full or partial funding from outside sources, including the US government, the UK and Poland, according to the SpaceX letter to the Pentagon.
SpaceX’s request that the US military foot the bill has rankled top brass at the Pentagon, with one senior defense official telling CNN that SpaceX has “the gall to look like heroes” while having others pay so much and now presenting them with a bill for tens of millions per month.
Exclusive: Musk's SpaceX says it can no longer pay for critical satellite services in Ukraine, asks Pentagon to pick up the tab | CNN Politics
In other, surely unrelated news, it came out yesterday that Elon is being investigated by the SEC over his antics around his on-again off-again purchase of Twitter. I am certain the famously thin-skinned Elon would not be pulling his support for a critical piece of wartime infrastructure as a way to get the SEC to back off its investigation?
People like Musk clearly have too much power in our system. If you disagree with the policy of supporting the Ukraine, you are allowed to argue against it, to protest, to vote Republican, etc. You should not be allowed, as one person, to rip away a vital piece of national security technology on a whim, or as a chit or get out of jail free card.
And I don't want to hear anything about how the government is taking his property. They are already paying for the service, and the invented most of the core technology that he is using to run those satellite. Nor do I want to hear about the sanctity of property. No right is completely absolute. No one is forcing Elon to march to the front, no one is moving soldiers into his home. They are paying for use of a small portion of his network to advance national security goals (and, incidentally, defend a largely democratic state against a quasi-genocidal invasion. That bears some mention here). Nor do I want to hear that the government should build a system itself. In our system, core infrastructure at every level, for good and ill, is built by allowing private people to profit from their construction and maintenance. It's not the system I would want, but it's the system we have. We cannot then turn around and allow those people to harm the overall society via their control.
Being part of a democratic society means you have obligations as well as responsibilities. Musk benefits from the basic research the government provides to make himself rich, builds his businesses under the protection of the rule of law and military might provided by his fellow citizens, and has received untold monies in subsidies and tax breaks to keep his businesses afloat. People who have been allowed to profit building critical infrastructure should not be allowed to use that infrastructure for their own personal whims.