U.S. Appeals to Fear and Hysteria About a Wayward balloon

 

By David Starr

 

While there have been plenty of news reports on the China balloon “scandal,” this article will present another view on it. Bottom line: because of this incident and many others, the U.S. as an empire is morally bankrupt.

 

As soon as the balloon was publicized, the western media, especially the U.S. media, went into a feeding frenzy of negative propaganda. There were consistent reports highlighting the assumption that the Chinese employed a “spy” balloon to float over the continental United States to get information about U.S. military installations. But there was no evidence that it was.

 

China made a statement asserting that it was a weather balloon and it had blown off course. But regardless of it was or not, the media reflexively bombarded the public with red scare assumptions. You see, China committed the ultimate sin against capitalist rule by practicing some degree of socialism. Thus, it is considered a “rogue nation” to the United States, especially. And there are war hawks in Washington that want to provoke China into a war.

 

An infantile move was made in dealing with the balloon. Donald Trump called for the balloon to be shot down. Both Democrats and Republicans agreed and U.S. President Joe Biden gave the word to shoot it down. It was an obvious over-reaction, an example of overkill. But that is, unfortunately, a part of the U.S.’s imperial objectives.

 

To add to media and government hostility in the attempts to demonize China, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled his scheduled trip to the socialist nation. It would have been decent that he had gone, but diplomacy and peace are apparently not high on the U.S. agenda.

 

Weather balloons have been used repeatedly over the years by various countries. Andre Damon wrote the following on the World Socialist Web Site: “NASA has launched dozens of balloon missions similar to the [China balloon] destroyed by the US Air Force. According to a NASA presentation by University of Hawaii Professor Peter Gortham, ‘Balloons offer flight opportunities for unique science investigations that require, or can be done, in near-space.”’ Further: “According to the web site of NASA’s Arctic balloon program, ‘Scientists use scientific data collected during balloon flights to help answer important questions about the universe, atmosphere, the Sun, and the space environment.’” 

 

Regarding spy balloons, the United States has used them. In 1956, the U.S. sent spy balloons over both the Soviet Union and China to gather information. So, U.S. leaders are in no position to judge China, or any other nation for that matter. In utilizing spy balloons, the U.S. at first sent 512 of them on January 10, 1956. But the Soviet Union caught on and protested against this interference in its airspace. The program was suspended a month later. That did not stop U.S. intelligence and the military from recovering at the least 54 of the balloons. The information from the balloons revealed photographs of 1.1 million square miles of the Soviet Union and China combined. 

 

Scott Ritter, former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer, was interviewed by Global Times reporter Yu Jincui. Ritter came closer to facts than the media. 

 

When asked why a balloon would scare U.S. citizens, Ritter replied, “I think what we have to recognize from the start is that American people collectively aren’t very sophisticated when it comes to international relations. What I mean is that they are very susceptible to non-nuanced points of view about nations that are at odds with the policies of our own government.” Ritter went on to say that people in the U.S. generally believe the anti-Chinese, (and anti-Russian), propaganda coming from the media and government. This ignorance influences people to the point where they will accept the propaganda without question. 

 

To emphasize his point, Ritter said, “Again, we have a situation where Americans have been programmed to fear China. We’ve been told to fear China virtually in every aspect of our lives. We’ve been told to fear TikTok. We’ve been told to be afraid of Chinese exports and Chinese control of supply chains. We’ve been told the Chinese are stealing our secrets. Chinese are stealing our intellectual property. China is Bad.” And this has been going on for decades. 

 

In conclusion, Ritter said, “This balloon is not a national security threat. This balloon is not a real threat. It is a politicized issue where nothing has been made into something, which will turn back into nothing. As time passes, something else will happen. The politicians will move on that. This is not the beginning of a new cold war.” During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union were attempting to make agreements on reducing nuclear weaponry. This was based on the MAD idea. Mutually Assured Destruction. Now, this seemingly does not exist between the U.S. and Russia. There are provocations, mainly by the U.S. as an empire. And the fear it will lead into a third world war. Hopefully, saner individuals will prevail and prevent the new cold war that Ritter was talking about.

 

Another conclusion was made by Mel Gurtov, writing in the LA Progressive: “The Chinese balloon was not a significant security threat, the incident should not have been treated as though it was one, and the entire matter should instead have been put on Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s agenda when he visited Beijing as scheduled. That’s what diplomacy is all about: heading off crises.” The problem is that MAGA fanatics and “Third Way” Democrats are not seeing diplomacy as a top priority. It is to point the accusing finger at any leader or nation that does not go along with the dictates of the current world order, led by the U.S. empire.

 

And that gets back to how morally bankrupt the empire is. Despite its degree of democracy, it has proven to be the biggest threat in the world today. After the Soviet Union dissolved, the U.S. establishment, and its’ allies, thought they found a chance to maintain and expand the rule of capital. That is the main driver behind inequality and injustice in the world.