OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Joe Biden took heat earlier this month after news reports revealed that he allowed a Chinese spy balloon to traverse the country after it was initially spotted in the skies over Billings, Mont., before eventually being shot down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina.
But the news for the administration and the president has only gotten worse in the days since: Several more “objects” have been spotted in U.S. and Canadian airspace, with at least three of them having been shot down by U.S. fighter planes in just the past few days alone.
Combined with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine roughly a year ago — and now with China brazenly sending spy craft over the U.S. — questions are rising about Biden’s competence as well as his ability to prove to aggressor nations that the United States, under his leadership, is a credible check to their geopolitical and global ambitions.
The Western Journal noted:
On a Super Bowl Sunday when Biden & Co. were no doubt hoping for a break from a week’s worth of news about China’s aggressiveness that made the White House look paralyzed and weak — at home and abroad — the bulletins kept getting worse.
A “national defense aerospace” condition had to be declared over Lake Michigan, clearing the skies of civilian air traffic for a time because of an unidentified potential threat.
Then an “airborne object” was shot down over Lake Huron — and it turned out to be the same “radar anomaly” that had sent fighter jets scrambling the day before, the news release stated.
“Based on its flight path and data we can reasonably connect this object to the radar signal picked up over Montana, which flew in proximity to sensitive DOD sites,” said the release. “We did not assess it to be a kinetic military threat to anything on the ground, but assess it was a safety flight hazard and a threat due to its potential surveillance capabilities. Our team will now work to recover the object in an effort to learn more.”
The Western Journal’s op-ed noted further: “As former President Ronald Reagan understood, peace doesn’t just come through strength, it comes from the perception that that strength would be used. o serious strategist in the world doubts that the United States has enough armaments to destroy any enemy. But it’s a good bet that there are more than a few strategists among American rivals and potential enemies who have very good reason to seriously doubt Biden’s willingness to use American strength if necessary.”
Along those lines, former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, who served in the Trump administration, warned that Biden is now America’s “greatest threat” during an interview with Fox News host Mark Levin.
“So my question to you is, what has Joe Biden done to America’s national security?” host Mark Levin asked.
“Well, Mark, to your point, first on Afghanistan, I hope that it’s just something that has an impact for decades, I hope it’s not centuries. It’s the most profound loss for the United States certainly in our lifetime,” Ratcliffe began.
“But one of my concerns there, and this goes to your larger question about what has Joe Biden done to our national security, he has very clearly harmed it, but in so many respects beyond Afghanistan,” he continued. “We won’t know the consequences of how bad they really are for a long, long time to come, who he has inspired, and what groups morph out of what they see as a victory of epic proportions over the great Satan, the United States.
“So, that is just part of it. But to your larger question, Mark, you know, I wrote an article as the Director of National Intelligence saying that China was our number one national security threat, I did that as I was walking out the door based on the fact that I’m the person who saw more intelligence than anyone else in the country over the last year and China very much is that existential threat to our country,” Ratcliffe, a former GOP congressman from Texas.
“But if I had to write that op-ed today, I would tell you that I think the greatest national security threat, at least in the short-term, is Joe Biden and our national security apparatus. And the reason I say that I am not trying to be glib or hyperbolic, but Mark, they have literally gotten everything wrong for 8 straight months with respect to China, Russia, Iran, and throughout the Middle East, now including Afghanistan, it goes on and on,” he said.
