Yesterday, two Russian fighter aircraft intercepted and destroyed an expensive unmanned American aircraft in international air space over the Black Sea. This was not, as the Pentagon would have us believe, an incident caused Kremlin pilots’ recklessness or unprofessionalism.   

Rather, it was a deliberate act, designed to discourage the U.S. military from conducting legal and valuable intelligence collection against hostile powers with unarmed assets. It was also an ominous leading indicator of the erosion of our deterrence to acts of aggression. 

Russia isn’t the first to thus demonstrate that America no longer operates from a position of assuring peace through strength. After all, the senior member of Vladimir Putin’s “no limits partnership,” the Chinese Communist Party, has been endangering even manned U.S. aircraft in the Pacific. Team Biden’s feckless responses to date invite further testing of our perceived weakness – and worse. 

 This is Frank Gaffney.