What they could do is have it up there

[Ostap]

You know, people, this is exactly why America needs to start some sort of military force to defend space. Think about it. Right? What they could do is have it up there defending all of space on America's behalf.
link with timecode The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

Am I right that the "they" refers to the government while the "it" refers to the "military force"?

 

[Tarheel]

I think it means that what the space force could do is have satellites in space. (He should have been more specific.)

 

[Ostap]

I think it means that what the space force could do is have satellites in space. (He should have been more specific.)

Yes but the question was about the reference of the two pronouns.

 

[emsr2d2]

Am I right that the "they" refers to the government while the "it" refers to the "military force"?

Yes.

 

[Tarheel]

I don't think America is the same as the government.

 

[emsr2d2]

I don't think America is the same as the government.

In general terms, I agree with you, but in the context of the original post, I don't think it's fair to say that the entire American population would be involved in creating a space defence force. The "they" that's attached to "could do" really has to refer to the government. They're the only ones who could actually create/fund such a force.

 

[Tarheel]

What they could do is have it up there defending all of space on America's behalf.

It still makes sense to me that "they" is the military, and "it" is the array of satellites (the defense shield).

 

[Ostap]

It still makes sense to me that "they" is the military, and "it" is the array of satellites (the defense shield).

But there is no prior mention of "array of satellites" for "it" to refer to.

 

[jutfrank]

The reference words it and they do not refer to other words, but to mental objects in the speaker's mind. In other words, they refers to whichever agency the speaker is thinking about, which may be the US government, or the US military, or the particular group of scientists and engineers who can actually realise the operation, or more likely a vague amalgam of all of these. We use this kind of they all the time when talking about power and authority. Similarly, the referent of it is whatever the speaker has in mind. It could well be an array of satellites—the speaker doesn't have to specify such an idea linguistically in order to refer to it.