In an NBC News interview that aired on June 19th, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is under the impression that the US should forget about the spy balloons. Talking with Janis Mackey Frayer in Beijing, he believes “that chapter should be closed.” In his mind doing so, along with his visit, would represent an “important start” towards stabilized relations with China.
Excuse me?
Forget the Chinese have been spying on the American people using weather balloons? Or forget President Biden did nothing about them despite having easy access to take them down and instead allowed them to fly over top-secret facilities across the US? Either way, the answer is no, and it will remain that way.
Since February, when the balloons were first announced, they only served to confirm what ordinary Americans had already discovered; something was there that shouldn’t be, and they needed to come down ASAP. President Biden didn’t share that same enthusiasm.
First, they were civilian toy balloons that simply drifted off course and were of no concern to the American people. Then they were Chinese weather balloons, and of course, still no concern to the American people. Suddenly new high-res images were released, and they were, in fact, Chinese spy balloons, but reportedly they had no steering and were subject to the whims of the earth, so nothing to be alarmed about.
It was only right around the time that they were shot down that the administration was honest with us. These were high resolution, remote controlled, satellite data uplinked, spy balloons sent to see whatever secrets the US might have hidden. From its military bases to missile launching stations to genuine American life, they wanted to see it all, and they got to. All thanks to President Biden.
While Biden tried using some lip service to make things sound better by first telling people that there wasn’t capable of being shot down without a risk to civilians, that was quickly dismissed as it was first sighted over remote Alaska and remote Montana as well. These areas are designed for taking this kind of wide damage path destruction, with little to no people actively living along the balloon’s path. Given the precision-targeted attack systems the US military has, there was no excuse for allowing it to remain airborne.
As Blinken tries to sit there in China and tell the American people that we overreacted, it is impossible to wonder just how far up the river he and Biden are willing to sell the American people. “We said what we needed to say and made clear what we needed to make clear in terms of this not happening again, and so long as it doesn’t, that chapter should be closed.”
This chapter isn’t closed, and it won’t be for a long time. The American people know full well what can happen when Communism, like China, is allowed to go unchecked. We have watched it unfurl itself, and given the propensity of the Chinese to try and play tricks with their horrific tactics, there is little for Blinken to gain by trying to convince the American people that this is okay.
Blinken and Biden have made it abundantly clear to the American people that when the shit hits the fan we are on our own. They won’t be using the military to try and give us help in defending against foreign attackers. Instead, they will simply tell us that it’s a misunderstanding or that we need to work together with our new partners.
At this point, this is becoming like a bad Simpsons episode, and it’s not healthy for the country. Between spy balloons, their aggression towards Taiwan, and their cooperation with Russia and North Korea, they are incapable of being an ally to America. It’s time Biden draws the line in the sand and stands up for the nation or stands down and lets someone with a spine run things.
