Alok Mukherjee, The Way I See It

February 15, 2023

For days, we were told that China was all over the North American airspace with its balloons – spying.

The US President, Joe Biden, as Commander-in Chief of the US military, sent up his fighter jets and spent millions of dollars shooting them down.

Our Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, true to form, didn’t wish to be left behind. Ever the eager beaver, he seized on the third balloon sighted by NORAD and proclaimed that he had “ordered” it to be taken down. Just like Prez Joe, the C-in-C, who, too, had “ordered” the take-downs.

Except, the balloon over Yukon was destroyed by US fighters. Canadians couldn’t do it.

Then – my, oh my – a fourth balloon. This time over Lake Huron. Shot down.

Once again, Justin Baba (as some of us South Asians like to call him), tells us that he was safeguarding the safety of Canadian civilian population and airspace.

Well, it seems his US masters, for their own political reasons, have left him there in the air.

They have “concluded,” according to John Kirby, C-in-C Joe’s Coordinator for Strategic Communications in White Houses’s National Security Council, that, after all, the three “objects” – mind you, no longer a balloon and two unidentified objects – were “tied to some commercial or benign purpose.” Mr. Kirby is a retired rear admiral in the US Navy. We can expect him to choose his words carefully and accurately.

So, after all the excitement, China was actually right? No spy balloons over North America? No Chinese surveillance?

Well, could the Chinese have been so utterly stupid, to begin with? Or, is that what our politicians and mainstream media folks think they are? Or, are we itching so badly to start a hot conflict with China?

I am reminded of Norman Jewison’s incomparable and award-winning 1966 film, “The Russians are Coming. The Russians are Coming.” At the height of the “Communist scare” – a Russian under every bed – Jewison was brave enough to have some fun with the Russian scare.

Almost sixty years later – give or take a few – are we seeing a new movie? “The Chinese are Coming. The Chinese are Coming”? Except, not under every bed, but in every research institution in Canada’s universities and every balloon at the edge of Canadian airspace?

So, let’s get back to Justin Baba.

He has been left hanging in space, now that the balloons are gone. Just like when he was left holding the shit bucket after the US dropped all action against Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou.

An immediate consequence is that the prospect of Canada having good relations with China in its own interest, have tanked even more.

Justin Baba says he is standing up for the safety of Canadian civilians and airspace. So, an expensive search is going on to recover the debris of the fourth “object” in Lake Huron. It won’t happen. There will not be enough debris to do any kind of reliable and credible examination. In the meantime, the US has washed its hand of the whole matter and Janet Yellen is about to go to China to manage and promote the US self-interest.

Justin Baba needs to stand up for Canada, and put a leash on his urge to be an eager beaver “team player” in a cynical game. It doesn’t serve the Canadian interest.