China, with a single balloon, mocks and weakens America
OPINION:
China can deny, dismiss and apologize all it wants — the fact is, a balloon owned by the communist country found floating over Montana sends a clear, compelling and even chilling message to the world that goes like this: America is weak.
America, under Joe Biden’s presidential leadership, is very, very weak and vulnerable.
And that means the world’s bad actors are sitting up, taking notice and plotting accordingly for an offense — even as America’s allies of the world are similarly sitting up, taking notice, and planning accordingly for a defense.
Buckle up. We’re headed for a time of testing — and perhaps worse.
If Team Biden allows China to fly a balloon into domestic skies, and does nothing, what is to be expected but another balloon, another incursion into U.S. space, another encroachment of America’s lands, another flex of foreign muscle and flip of middle finger to the once-great, once-unrivaled power of the United States?
“The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is flying over the continental United States,” said Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, ABC News reported. “NORAD continues to track and monitor it closely.”
Great. The North American Aerospace Defense Command is on the job. They’re tracking the balloon; they’re watching the balloon; they’re setting their detection and detective sights entirely on the balloon. The only thing they’re not doing is stopping the balloon.
Republican after Republican after Republican in Congress may call on Biden to “shoot it down.” But Biden doesn’t want to go that route.
“Pentagon tracking suspected Chinese spy balloon over the US,” CNN wrote.
Team Biden is worried that shooting it might put citizens in danger. They’re probably worried about pollution more than people; no doubt, at least one of the pinheads serving in Biden’s chain of command has probably had a thought, more than one thought, actually, about the potential environmental impacts an exploding balloon might bring — not to mention the contamination that might come to the groundwater from falling metal shells. This is the administration, after all, that employs John Kerry as climate czar, the same John Kerry who used his previous secretary of state platform to push the idea that climate change was as big a threat as terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. What’s a little communist spying on America when the bigger danger is the weather, right?
Besides, if China’s spy balloon is actually a weather balloon, as the nation’s foreign ministry has hastily stated, then wait for it, wait for it, this White House could actually make the case the communists were simply conducting some necessary climate tests; simply collecting some crucial climate data.
“It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes,” one Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said, CNN wrote. “Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course. The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into U.S. airspace due to force majeure.”
Ahh, that’s it. It was the Westerlies, dontcha know. The Westerlies and the force majeure, a particularly nasty combination.
Well, whatever it was, whatever is is, surveillance system or the wicked winds of “Westerlies,” Biden shouldn’t allow it to float on, all the while his generals sit and watch. The world already knows America’s borders with Mexico are opened wide to anyone who wants to cross by foot or vehicle. Do we have to open the skies just as wide as well?
Doing nothing actually does quite a bit.
It tells the world America is even weaker and more vulnerable that initially believed. And given enough time, that will lead to a whole lot of something — and it will be something that’s a lot more devastating, dangerous and deadly than balloons.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
