For pure drama it rates right up there with teargassing women with children on the Southern border.
United States and Canadian fighter jets were scrambled to intercept two Russian strategic bombers heading for the North American coastline. That might sound like the opening minutes of a Hollywood thriller. But the fact it did happen should set off concerns about what message it was meant to send by the Kremlin. After all, things of this nature do not just happen, they are used to foster a larger theme at play.
Two F-22 and two CF-18 jets identified the Russian nuclear-capable aircraft when they entered an area near Alaska patrolled by the Royal Canadian Air Force. That information was supplied by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). That organization patrols the skies above the US and Canada using radar, satellites and fighter aircraft . The US Air Force sent planes from its air base in Alaska.
This is not the first time such an incident has occurred. In September US Air Force fighter jets were twice forced to intercept two Russian bombers off Alaska.
The reason this matter dovetails with what was posted just hours ago on this blog.
Today on Face The Nation there was a short, and perfect summation about how Trump is missing the larger and very serious national security concerns by focusing on racial fears for partisan purposes. David Sanger, reporter for The New York Times, nailed the ineffectiveness of Trump when thinking about the national security needs of the nation.
And especially in light of the news breaking today about Russian jets.
I think– perhaps the most important, was the strategic cost. It really revealed, apart from the President’s sort of huge– uselessness of the exercise, it revealed an inability by this administration to prioritize about what our true security threats. Think of what Mick Mulvaney said to you. He said, “The President takes seriously– takes security at the nation– of the nation as his highest priority.” Well, on Tuesday, his intelligence chiefs are going to go out and do that annual exercise of laying out the security threats to– to the country, right, in an unclassified briefing. If it’s like the past five years, you know, cyber is number one, terrorism is number two, nuclear proliferation, rise of China, aggressiveness by Vladimir Putin, you get to border issues around page fourteen of last year’s, and, yet, he has spoken very little about the others.
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 