Editor’s note: I am not 100 percent recovered from my brief illness, but I am much improved. No idea if it was COVID, because I didn’t test, but it was mild enough that I tend to doubt it. All I took was Vitamin C and Alka-Seltzer Cold and Flu gel caps and I am back on my feet and getting better.
I’ve avoided addressing the China Spy Balloon issue, but I don’t think I can do so any longer. But first, a warning: If you buy your kid a balloon, tie it to their wrist. You don’t want to causes a panic if it floats away.
Mysterious Floating Objects
Balloons. Unmanned objects. Octagonal canisters. Metallic balloons. Objects of unknown origin.
Are these mysterious objects our military has been shooting down a serious threat, or is this a diversion the government is playing up to keep us from paying attention to more important stories? For example, the new Russian offensive in the Ukraine or what may be a serious environmental disaster (and possibly a terrorist strike) in East Palestine, Ohio, where a train carrying hazardous materials derailed. Neither of these stories are getting anywhere near the coverage they deserve, thanks to headlines about mysterious objects dominating the mainstream media.
Maybe the administration feels it’s better to keep people’s eyes focused on the skies than the rows of tanks rolling West in Ukraine and the waves of missiles falling on civilians. Russia’s renewed offensive seems to prove that they aren’t running out of ammunition but that we may be.
On the other hand, the need for the U.S. to shoot down “enemy airships” is concerning. It’s the first time we’ve had to do so over U.S. skies since Pearl Harbor, more than seventy years ago. Oh, we’ve shot down plenty of aircraft since then, but we’ve never had to worry about how big the “debris field” was before because those weren’t Americans down there. This is the first, and it is not a positive sign of what is to come. We’ve talked before about Biden appearing weak; this isn’t helping.
I think the public reaction to Biden not shooting down the first balloon has made it a political imperative to shoot down any subsequent balloons, even if they aren’t “spy balloons.”
Lies and More Lies
Did you notice how the Biden Administration tried to say, “Yeah, but Trump did nothing about balloons during his administration,” only to look petty when the Pentagon revealed no one knew about the prior balloons until after they discovered this one. And am I the only one who thinks the Biden Administrated wouldn’t have said anything about balloons at all, if it weren’t for some sharp-eyed fellows in Montana who spotted it?
According to the Wall Street Journal, the presence of the big balloon over the U.S. seems to have caught the Xi and the Chinese state officials by surprise. Does that mean it actually is a weather balloon, or is this so secret a program that their state department wasn’t read in on it?
At first, China said this was a corporate balloon that was blown off track. When we didn’t seem to accept that, they got cranky and accused us of blowing things out of proportion. Now we are faced with the question: Is this a “corporate balloon” and is the government blowing it out of proportion to distract us?
I’m waiting for the FBI, who is analyzing the recovered components, to tell is this balloon is from North Korea. Or Russia. Or some crazy meteorologist graduate students with grant money to burn. Oh but wait, can we trust the FBI? Like many, I have my doubts.
Anything is possible, and most Americans tend to believe whatever they are told. After COVID-19, we learned that many of the tings we had been told were “conspiracy stories” and “misinformation” were neither. Hmm. Maybe we should be listening to those on the fringe, or at least keep an open mind.
Other Secrets
But while the Chinese have apparently been sending balloons with listening equipment over the U.S. and other parts of the world for years, the U.S. may have been running a secret project of its own. Namely, slipping divers into the ocean and blowing up the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines that could otherwise carry gas from Russia to Europe. The story seems likely, although it’s hard to believe investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, who published the story on Substack, didn’t bring it to the New York Times or Washington Post. Maybe there just too many unattributed quotes and too much speculation to meet even the increasingly weak journalistic standard of these once-mighty publications. He says Substack gives him freedom. Yeah, but it also brings a lack of credibility.
Still, it is a story that hangs together. True or not, it is just plausible enough to convince the Russians. Now we have to wonder if they will strike back and blow up some pipeline, underwater communications table, or send an EMP bomb our way in a balloon built with parts they acquired from the Chinese.
War Drums
Either way, it sound to me like war is coming and the government is trying to get the population ready for it. Will the country ever be ready for it? No. Will our military? Maybe.
We better hope the coming war is something “shock and awe” can win in a few weeks because I don’t think we are ready for a long drawn-out war in the trenches. Our boys will want to fly in, knock out their radar and antiaircraft missiles, dominate the air war, bomb their command and control back to the dark ages, and fly out again, making way for the next sortie and the waves of cruise missiles. We need a war where smart bombs beat dumb artillery. So line those Russian tanks and rail cars up so our A10s and attack helicopters can knock them down like bowling pins. Just don’t try guerilla warfare. We suck at that.
Whatever happens, you’d better prepare like we’re going to see World War III, because we may, and it won’t be fought with balloons.
