As the world continues to turn ever more tumultuous, and the threats to civilization as we know it continue to mutate, there appears to be a bit of a need for America to exert her authority a bit more bluntly than before.
Our nation had long operated under the ethos of walking quietly with a big stick in tow. And this worked well for decades, up until the point in which the authoritarians began waving their nuclear arsenals around and threatening to blow up anybody who looked to prevent them from doing anything silly.
This is perhaps why the United States sent a few ballistic missiles skyward this week.
The U.S. Air Force launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile test in California early Wednesday in a show of nuclear readiness.
The operational test launched at 1:13 a.m. from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, some 60 miles north of Santa Barbara, the base confirmed on Twitter.
Military leaders attempted to downplay the test.
Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder first announced the missile test from the Pentagon on Tuesday and said, “This ICBM launch will validate and verify the effectiveness and readiness of the system.”
“This launch is a routine test, which was scheduled far in advance and consistent with previous tests,” he told reporters.
Wednesday’s test comes less than a month after a previous test was also launched.
While Russia and North Korea and other tyrannical regimes tend to send a vast number of rockets skyward in any given year, this sudden uptick in frequency from the United States will almost certainly raise eyebrows.
