99 "Red" Balloons

Is Red China psychologically breaching fortress America from above? Or is the balloon crisis just a paranoid comedy of errors?

Is this Invasion of the Red Balloons an intention Chinese psychological warfare operation?

In the Art of War, Sun Tzu does advise strategic ambiguity:

Be extremely subtle even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate.

Or is the balloon armada a series of accidents and coincidences--a tragically escalating comedy of errors as described by Graham Greene in his classic spy novel, Our Man in Havana? Real life does tend to fit Greene’s chaotic templet but our minds prefer order and planning where a master villain is orchestrating all from his or her lair. 

From a global perspective America is an isolated island of security set in the vast waste lands of two oceans.  Of course both the Mexican and Canadian borders have recently proved problematic but for the most part America has existed in splendid isolation with no fear of foreign invasions.

Nena’s smash hit from 1983, 99 Luftballons is simply translated as 99 (air) balloons.  In English “red” was added to the translation to match the three syllables in the German word. Today, the German lyrics to Nena’s anti-war pop song display an uncanny premonition of the current balloon frenzy gripping the United States. The song also demonstrates a cultural shift in Germany. Back during the peak years of the Cold War, no German artist ever got fired for producing an anti-war anthem.  Nowadays Nena would be accused of being Putin’s puppet for her dark and defeatist lyrics.

And so, if this balloon pandemic is an intentional psychological campaign by China, so far it seems wildly successful. What’s fascinating is how closely the current American experience tracks Nena’s lyrics, translated from German, which leans more towards the comedy of errors thesis:

Have you got some time for me?

Then let me sing a song for you

About 99 balloons

On their way to the horizon

Perhaps you are thinking of me right now

Then let me sing a song to you

About 99 balloons

And about how one thing leads to another

99 balloons

On their way to the horizon

Which people thought were UFO’s from space

That’s why a General sent

A fighter squadron after them

To raise the alarm just in case

But they were there on the horizon

Just 99 balloons

99 jet fighter pilots

Each one of them a great warrior

Reckoned they were Captain Kirk

There was a great fireworks display

The neighbours (other nations) did not understand at all

And suddenly felt under attack

So they shot at the horizon

At the 99 balloons

99 War Ministers

Matchsticks and petrol cans

They thought they were smart people

Sensed a big prize

Called for war and wanted power

Man who could have thought

That it could come to this

Because of 99 balloons

99 years of war

Leaves no room for winners

There aren’t any more War Ministers

And no more fighter jet pilots

Today I walk around

See the world lying in ruins

I find a balloon

Think of you and let it fly away