OPINION:
A Chinese spy balloon is not the only thing President Biden just shot down. As the deflated debris plummet into the sea, the nation witnessed a gaping hole in the president’s credentials as a defender of the nation’s security. While voicing grave concern for the sovereignty of far-off Ukraine and Taiwan, Mr. Biden displays indifference to America’s.
The public watched in disbelief as China’s surveillance airship, disguised as a weather balloon, floated calmly for days across the continental United States, pausing above some of the nation’s most sensitive military installations. As a trial-balloon probe of U.S. defenses, it was a success — until an Air Force F-22 finally blew it out of the sky Saturday off the South Carolina coast.
Mr. Biden reportedly gave the go-ahead for the shootdown once the unmanned craft crossed the Canadian border, but the Pentagon left it unmolested to traverse the nation out of concern that its heavy spyware could cause casualties on the ground. No one has adequately explained why the balloon wasn’t destroyed days earlier as it neared Alaska.
Americans have learned in recent days that the U.S. has secretly allowed Chinese balloons to cross U.S. territory in the past. It is reasonable to assume the president would have likewise ignored this incursion had not a Montana newspaper photographer captured it on camera.
Of course, there are no bright lines in the sky designating the edges of U.S. airspace the way the border is marked on land. But that’s hardly an excuse in the age of modern surveillance for overlooking violations of national boundaries. Given the president’s indifference as millions of immigrants trample illegally over the southern border, he seems of a mind that U.S. sovereignty — on land or above — is henceforth to be honored in the breach.
Mr. Biden’s apparent disregard for U.S. security stands in curious contrast with his bold moves to bolster Ukraine with $50 billion in military and humanitarian aid meant to foil Russia’s yearlong invasion. Similarly, he has pledged support for Taiwan, which faces a likely invasion by mainland China within a few years.
Americans are left to wonder: Why border security for those nations but not our own?
The answer may lie with the trendy notion, shared in the progressive wing of Mr. Biden’s Democratic Party, of a borderless, stateless planet. Using and abusing the power of the presidency, he is arguably attempting to swap “one nation under God” for an idealized global culture. Sadly, Mr. Biden’s open-borders experiment is not leading to a peace-loving global citizenry. Rather, the consequence of the uncontrolled migratory influx is a rebirth of tribalism, with clashing ethnic identities tearing apart U.S. communities.
Where regressive imperialists Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping pursue conquest, the president defends the one-world fantasy with shipments of U.S. weaponry. If he has a clue how to dial back the resulting worldwide rise in nuclear tension, he hasn’t shared it.
The Chinese trial balloon saga demonstrates the foolishness of Mr. Biden’s border-security indifference. The Pentagon is set to brief the Senate next week on the embarrassing incident. The American people, likewise, deserve an explanation.
