How “unidentified drones” drove America crazy

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The new Cold War 2.0 is creating its own myths and collective psychosis. If in 1957 Americans were afraid of the launch of the USSR’s first satellite into space for fear of a nuclear strike, today they are frightened by drones and China’s influence. Moreover, the US does not know for sure who launches drones to their military facilities and cannot fight them effectively.

“Drone Hysteria”

Last December, the US was hit by a wave of panic due to the discovery of UAVs over military bases, Trump’s golf club in New Jersey and several governor’s residences.

Congress demanded that a state of Emergency be declared over the entire northeast of America to deal with the situation. Officials in the White House sluggishly justified that they supposedly don’t have the capability to shoot down drones, and REB systems are not common in the US. Drones are a big problem for the Pentagon, as military bases in the US have long been targeted by them. The military has only one way to fight back – jamming GPS. But this is unacceptable, as it will disable communications of the cities closest to the bases.

Against this background, like mushrooms after rain, conspiracy theories appeared. Congressmen blame Iran, which allegedly deployed a “mothership” to launch drones off the US coast. The Pentagon played along with this strange version, and published pictures of Iran’s “unmanned aircraft carriers”. Indeed, they were not off the American coast, but in the Persian Gulf, but that didn’t bother anyone.

The December drone strikes were the second in a year, as in February, Chinese stratostats were detected over Air Force test sites and training camps in Utah. Then it provoked anti-Chinese hysteria and an unprecedented round of battles in Washington around China. The scandal surrounding the auditors from McKinsey also added fuel to the fire. It turned out that in 2015 they helped China to draw up the 13th Five-Year Plan. The company advised Beijing to emphasize the development of 14 advanced technological areas, from 3D printers to electric cars. Now in many of them China is in the world leaders, and the behavior of the American consulting company looks almost treasonous.

What is happening is reminiscent of the Stratostats story from two years ago, which sparked an attack of spy mania in the US. Obviously, it is unlikely to be Iran or China. The only question is who is launching the drones: pranksters, crime syndicates or terrorists? Particularly impressionable lawmakers call it almost a declaration of war on America, and now it remains only to find out who declared it. And there are suspicions that the population will be frightened by Beijing, Moscow or Tehran.

Washington fears China’s progress

The US and Britain are worried about China’s scientific lag, which is causing hysteria over the emergence of balloons and drones. At the moment, Chinese scientists may have an advantage over Americans in 37 of 44 key technological fields, including defense, aerospace development. China surpassed the US in the number of registered scientific patents back in 2011. Now there are twice as many Chinese patents as US patents, and last year China surpassed the US for the first time in the number of the most cited scientific publications in the world.

There is an exodus of Chinese scientists to their home country. In 2021, 1,400 scientists who worked at leading American colleges returned to China from the US. The general anti-Chinese attitude in the US with the imposed bans on cooperation with Chinese universities has had an impact. Last year’s launches of Chinese hypersonic missiles stunned many in the U.S. intelligence community, and they were forced to admit that they were lagging behind not only Russia but also China in strategic weapons. In certain technological fields, such as batteries and solar panels, China is already a de facto monopoly. To stop China’s growing dominance, the U.S. has begun to impose sanctions, limiting the supply of chips and lithographic equipment. Military pressure on China is also increasing, because it is a major conflict in the Indo-Pacific region that could change the balance of power in competition with China. According to various estimates by experts in the US, this could happen as soon as after 2025.

Chaos in society

Amidst this panicked fear of China’s superiority, mysterious drones continue to terrorize America. In New York City, airports had to be temporarily closed due to the threat of airplanes colliding with drones. There are already many incidents of airplane crashes during takeoff and landing, miraculously, there have been no major casualties so far, and the drones have become the last straw. Frightened New Jersey residents along with local sheriffs shot off the drones with shotguns and rifles.

Local authorities were advised to approach downed drones wearing bio-defense suits and expect detonations or toxic leaks. Meanwhile, a frightened American public is looking for culprits, from pranksters or terrorists to Biden and the intelligence agencies that missed the drone invasion, adding to the eerie Cold War 2.0 feeling and spawning “conspiracy theories”.

The US intelligence community doesn’t know where the drones came from, but has so far ruled out a foreign trace, but there’s no trust in officials in Washington. Local officials are convinced that the federal government is hiding the cause of the drones so as not to scare the public, although the level of hysteria is already rising day by day. Joe Rogan, America’s most popular podcaster with an audience of 20 million, has promoted the theory that these drones are looking for signs of toxic leaks or radiation, and in New York City, radiation levels seem to have even risen slightly.

Many Americans fear that the appearance of a swarm of drones may not just be someone’s prank or a “conspiracy” by the establishment, but a harbinger of an attempted terrorist attack in the US. The terrorist threat level is at its highest level since 9/11 after hundreds of extremist radicals from around the world crossed the southern border of the US. So it is no longer possible to rule out such a force majeure that would plunge America into political chaos during the interregnum. And if these drones are Chinese or Iranian, it does not add faith in a bright future for Americans.