Chinese Nationals stopped by U.S. Border – photo by U.S. Border Patrol
There is a running debate, do we secure the American border, counter Chinese worldwide influence operations, or do we deter China from launching the more overt, kinetic phase of World War III in the Western Pacific? The answer is clear and intuitive – yes. All must be done simultaneously. Borders matter, countering influence operations are important, and visible, demonstrative deterrence actions (which sometimes include dramatic teaching points through direct action) around the world are also the priority. When defending our incredible Constitutional Republic, we must walk and chew gum at the same time. I give my best national security advice and recommendations regardless of who is in office. If a non-America First Administration smarmily rips off the idea, re-titles it, and implements it, that’s a victory. If an America First Administration, does it (which they likely will do anyway without having to be named and shamed) that’s a victory also.
Buried in the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (Conference Report edition) is Section 1013 which starts with the following pre-amble:
SEC. 1013. DISRUPTION OF FENTANYL TRAFFICKING.
(a) DEVELOPMENT OF STRATEGY TO COUNTER FENTANYL TRAFFICKING.—
(1) STRATEGY.—Not later than 120 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Attorney General and in coordination with appropriate Federal, State, Tribal, and local law enforcement agencies, shall develop and submit to the appropriate congressional committees a strategy to address threats to the national security of the United States caused or exacerbated by fentanyl trafficking.
There are additional paragraphs of implied and specified tasks to the Departments and Agencies, but the gravity of the Section should not be derided or dismissed – this is the starting point to address the bloodbath of Fentanyl in the American homeland.
An Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) doesn’t and shouldn’t come out of thin air
Fentanyl is now killing 10,000 Americans a month. In 2021, 70,000 Americans were killed by Fentanyl. That is more than the combined American service member deaths in 40 years of combat in the entire Vietnam War along with all of the American combat losses during the War on Terror period. Likely everyone reading this article knows personally someone killed or affected by the scourge of Fentanyl. There might be an instinctive reflex to dismiss the numbers and any thought of action other than therapeutic counseling due to the inbred bias over the perception of the War on Drugs during the Reagan years. There is a dramatic difference this time. Fentanyl is not a drug, it is chemical warfare designed to kill and maim on scale. It is Chinese Unrestricted Warfare on a scope never seen before and is designed to de-stabilize and topple America. With such a grave threat to America, an AUMF is in order, and visionaries like Representative Mike Waltz and Dan Crenshaw have proposed a pathway toward an AUMF to deal with Fentanyl – but their AUMF was put on the table before the Chinese direct command and control of production in Northern Mexico was understood (at least publicly).
There is a component of the Chinese military not really understood. It is the bland, vanilla sounding “Strategic Support Force (SSF)”.These are not logisticians or maintenance technicians, this is the People’s Liberation Army version of the U.S. Special Operations Command – except they have no pretense of moral or legal bumper cushions. This is their Advance Force Operators on steroids (literally and figuratively) who will use all means available to destroy America and all who oppose the Chinese Communist Party. Costello and McReynolds did a very good job in describing the SSF in their 2018 National Defense University document (likely meaning cumulative research from years earlier), but I would suggest there is now a far more nefarious and sinister component of the SSF, these are the ones now overseeing Fentanyl production, distribution, and related crimes such as human trafficking done by the legacy drug cartels in Mexico. The Chinese SSF Special Operators are now the masters and the violent drug cartels in Mexico work for them. In Countering Violent Extremists 101, to fight the network, the network leadership must be eliminated – and the leadsership is the Chinese SSF Special Operators in Northern Mexico and now coming into America with the bonus feature of muscling in on “legal” cannabis operations. Section 1013 must be implemented with alacrity to inform an updated AUMF that targets the SSF command and control (C2).
DOJ/DHS has begun to identify the Chinese overseers of Fentanyl production in Northern Mexico
The Department of Justice has put a marker into the ground with their broad indictments of Mexican Cartels for Fentanyl production, along with several Chinese Nationals. To be able to transit the Cartel zones of influence in Mexico without any harm implies a special superpower ability of these Chinese nationals. In the violent pecking order, this means they are special – and likely Special Operators from the SSF who have been put on a pedestal by all of the Mexican Cartels.
The DOJ has followed up with the companies and personalities of the Fentanyl chemical pre-curser providers inside of China which is very important. Anytime a Chinese national is identified by public releases from Federal Law Enforcement and/or Intelligence, they have this curious habit of disappearing, which addresses the individual, but not the action, which normally is carried out by the next portfolio owner. These actions by DOJ and DHS are welcome and good and are also important incremental steps on the continuum toward an AUMF. What will an eventual AUMF look like after all the steps of NDAA Section 1013 and the laborious and bureaucratic inter-agency process are done (which are slow and painful, but part of the process of our Constitutional Republic)? Part of the optic is the public announcement of the debate and process itself – which the Chinese watch and study with extreme detail. But the first time a singular targeted JDAM is placed on an SSF led meeting in Northern Mexico as a dramatic teaching point and life lesson, much of the SSF C2 network will scurry – whether in Mexico or already across the border inside the U.S. Again, the Chinese are very perceptive and fearful of dramatic teaching points.
If 10,000 dead Americans a month is not compelling, I don’t know what is
The ravages of Fentanyl inside America cannot be dismissed apathetically by even the most jaded of progressive, Howard Zinn educated mush heads. The cash heavy largesse of “legal” cannabis operations are the vanguard of the tip of the spear of Fentanyl activities. Like Sylvester Stallone in Tulsa, the craziness of these cash heavy operations with cash that can’t be banked are perfect for skimming for other uses, in real life by the Chinese special operators funding the crazies of Antifa re-branded as Palestinian activists or the latest outrage of the day. The carnage on the American Street is real, the purpose is the collapse of America through Unrestricted Warfare from China, and the Chinese SSF Operators are the logical C2 network to address once an AUMF has made it through the tortured, but necessary process.
Source material can be found at this site.
