Cold Reality

The forced landing of an American P-3 Orion spy plane on the airstrip of a Red Chinese military base Sunday, which combined with the unwillingness of the Red Chinese to either release the crew or allow our ambassador to talk to them now has the United States in something of a bind, the stakes of which could be much higher than anyone originally thought. It has also succeeded in showing the American people at large the cold reality of the Red Chinese and their true colors and intents.

Flight Route

What happened was this: During a routine reconnaissance flight Sunday (shown right), Chinese fighters routinely intercepted the P-3 and in the process this time, they bumped each other, damaging the P-3 and sending the fighter in a tail spin of some sort in that the Chinese have not been able to find either the fighter or its pilot. The damage to the Orion was such that they had to make an immediate landing, and there were no ‘friendly’ landing sites close enough for a safe landing.

In the military, the first thing I learned was that in a crisis involving a hostile power, we were to preserve our lives first while doing our best to prevent either any information or technology from falling into enemy hands. After ensuring the safety of the crew, my guess is that the P-3 driver told his crew members to break out the sledge hammers and destroy any and all equipment that might enhance the enemy’s ability were the equipment to be captured intact. More than likely, the remainder of the crew (other than the pilots) were happily venting themselves and going hammer-crazy making sure that nothing worked, to include destroying the radios as they landed on the Chinese airstrip. The Chinese have held them and the Commies are not letting our diplomats talk to our men.

There were 24 men aboard the aircraft – 22 Navy, 1 Air Force officer and 1 Marine. They are being held by the Chinese military, and if memory serves, the Red Chinese are not exactly known for their gentle handling of prisoners, which is exactly what our men are - prisoners.

One has to wonder what kind of morons we are dealing with here – referring to the Red Chinese, of course. Just last year, Congress gave these idiots Most Favored Nation Status, otherwise known as Permanent Normal Trade Relations, and now they pull this kind of crap on us. What was a good faith accident should have been treated as such, but the Chinese know that this accident has exposed them for what I have always known them to be, and that is an avowed enemy to the Government of the United States and her people.

Our military establishment knows this, and with Clinton no longer in office giving away all our secrets and selling the rest of the store to either the Red Chinese or the Soviets, the American public will start to see the full extent and scope of the dangerous and treasonous actions of that SOB Bill Clinton – but that is for another column on another day.

If the Red Chinese think that we the United States are going to take this lying down, they are wrong – dead wrong! Since I am no longer in the military, I do not have access to sensitive information – especially on this matter. However, basic intelligence would reason that more than likely there have been some high-altitude passes by an SR-71 Blackbird pinpointing the exact GPS location of the grounded Orion. With that knowledge, the United States could fire a well-placed cruise missile or two and utterly destroy the plane, thus preventing the Commies from ever getting into the plane to begin with.

Sec. Powell

President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell (left) see things in this situation much differently than Bill Clinton and Madeline Albright ever would. Powell’s gift to the military and to all of America was the Powell Doctrine, and that is to not only defeat your enemy, but to annihilate them. This action kills two birds with one stone, in that it sends a message to all your enemies that we don’t take crap from anybody.

Presdient Bush

Bush (right) will not stand for this for long. If it were me, I’d give Red China an ultimatum: Have our flight crew returned unharmed to the United States ambassador within 48 hours without so much as a hair on their heads harmed, or unrestricted land, air and sea warfare would be waged against the Chinese mainland. By letting both our enemies and others who would do America harm know that we mean business and that America would rather be respected than liked on the world stage, the message we will send the world will be one that will leave no room for misunderstanding.

Now that we have a leader in the White House who would rather be respected than liked, we as a nation are in a position to better ensure that American interests are protected and preserved both at home and abroad. Americans can now travel more freely outside the U.S. knowing that if something were to happen to them, that their interests will be protected and their safety ensured in the event of an incident. They will not be hung out to dry by the Great Appeaser, but looked after by a leader who has sworn to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

I don’t know about you, but it sure is nice to have that back after the last eight years of you-know-who.

• Map illustration courtesy of The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/)
• Photo of Secretary of State Powell from the State Department Official Web Site (http://www.state.gov/)
• Photo of President Bush courtesy of Reuters
• With files from The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/)

Copyright © 2001 by Timothy Rollins.
All Rights Reserved.

-Published with permission