Lawrence Hall, HSG
The Great Canadian-American
Balloon Shoot
Last week Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau stated that he
had ordered an American fighter aircraft to shoot down an unidentified flying
object over northern Canada.
The Canadian prime minister can give orders to the American
military?
One’s initial response might be to quote a character in
John Wayne’s flawed but visually interesting film The Alamo who asks the
rhetorical question, “Who do he think he am? Andy by-God Jackson?”
But in fact, yes, under NORAD agreements and duties
shared by The Dominion of Canada and the United States of America there are
occasions when Canada has strictly delineated and limited authority over U.S.
military forces just as there are occasions when the U.S. has strictly delineated
and limited authority over Canadian military forces.
Tilting the point-of-view of a globe (a flat map won’t
do) from the north shows that the quickest routes for hostile attacks on Canada
or the U.S.A. from some nations is over the polar ice. NORAD is a sine qua non
for North America’s safety.
It's just that one does not imagine Mr. Trudeau ordering
anything more militant than a vegan takeout.
But then, much the same obtains for our national
leadership, which seems to have taken its methods of debate not from Major Roberts
but from Cruella deVille.
As of this writing, the United States has shot down (maybe)
off the coast of South Carolina a balloon following its leisurely tour of North
America, a “cylindrical object” (maybe) over Deadhorse, Alaska (which may
explain why the poor horse is dead), and, per the orders of Prime Minister
Trudeau, another cylindrical object (maybe) over the Yukon. Sergeant Preston
has not yet found the downed object.
On Sunday afternoon Mr. Trudeau said that Canada will recover the object. Canada. Leave Canada’s stuff alone [Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) / Twitter]. Mr. Trudeau ordered the United States to shoot down the UFO (that may or may not exist) and then Mr. Trudeau ordered the United States not to recover it. Yes, sir, Mr. Trudeau, sir.
The United States claims to have found parts of the
balloon, but the cylindrical objects, like North Vietnamese patrol boats in the
Gulf of Tonkin long ago, seem to be unsolved mysteries.
A fourth “radar anomaly” was seen or not seen over
Montana on Saturday night [Montana congressman says mystery object detected above Havre
remains above US | Daily Mail Online]. Mr. Trudeau has not ordered
the United States either to shoot it or to stay away from it.
And, as your ‘umble scrivener ends this on Sunday
evening, the news reports another mysterious something shot down over Lake
Huron. Maybe.
We should all ask Representative George Santos of the 3rd
Congressional District of New York for the truth of the matter.
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