A Time For Choosing/ Whitney Pitcher
In the past month, Russian bombers have twice been involved in arctic
war games near U.S. airspace around Alaska. The first time began on the
same day as a meeting between President Obama and Russian Prime
Minister, Vladimir Putin, on June 18th and continued until June 25
th.
An article at the Free Beacon
notes that two key Alaskan sites may be potential targets in
exercise—the missile defense base at Ft. Greely and the Trans Alaska
pipeline which is responsible for transporting about 11% of America’s
oil.
The article later goes on to quote Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas
McInerney, a former Alaska North American Aerospace Defense commander:
“The Russians continue to exercise our air defense
identification zone, which shows Mr. Putin loves to let President Obama
know that they still have global capability,” McInerney said in an
interview. “So much for reset.”
McInerney also said the Obama administration kept the encounter
between the bombers and U.S. fighters secret because “they obviously
don’t want the world to know that the exercise was done deliberately to
coincide with the Obama-Putin summit.”
Just as concerning as Russia’s building of a new bomber is its eagerness to flaunt its old ones. Since 2007, Russia’s Air Force has increased the number of exercises it conducts near U.S. air space around Alaska, and according to Bill Gertz,
American and Canadian Air Force fighters intercepted two Russian
bombers that crossed into the U.S.’s 200-mile air defense identification
zone around Alaska on July 4. Prior to this, Russian war games held in
the same area in mid-June included 30 bombers, and may have been
designed to test cruise missile attacks on U.S. missile defense
facilities.
The AEI article notes that a new Russian bomber will be ready 5 years
earlier than anticipated and references the second time that the
Russian Air Force came near Alaskan air space on July 4
th in what a
U.S. Defense official called “Putin’s Fourth of July Bear greeting to Obama”.
Governor Palin shared the Free Beacon article on her Facebook page a couple weeks ago, noting:
On the campaign trail four years ago I talked about
Alaska’s strategic location on the globe, the potential for future
conflicts over arctic transportation lanes and resources, and the
crucial need to keep our eye on Putin’s activities. Later I spoke out
against Obama’s egregious decision to cut back Alaska’s missile defense
systems. Please take a look at this article about Russia’s arctic war
game exercises earlier this month. This shouldn’t be a surprise to
anyone who was paying attention four years ago. Maybe now we should ask
the President if this is what “more flexibility” means.
Indeed. Governor Palin took office in December of 2006. When Russia
began to increase their exercises in 2007, she was in office. So while
she was mocked for saying that Putin “rears his head” in Alaska air
space during her
interview with the Perky One during the 2008 campaign,
she was privy to that defense information regarding Russia’s arctic war
exercise starting in 2007. In fact, the Alaska Air National Guard was
recognized as an
Air Force Outstanding Unit in March of 2008
in part because they “maintained North American air sovereignty by
detecting, monitoring and escorting 22 Russian bombers from within its
area of operations”. Who was the commander-in-chief of the Alaska Air
National Guard at that time?
Governor Palin.
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