The US does not forget about crimes perpetrated against Americans

Looking over the political polls from the past few months, it's clear most Americans have become fed up with the Biden administration for a multitude of reasons. He has appeared to bumble his way through many meetings at home and abroad with foreign leaders. There have even been questions regarding as to who is actually running our government from behind the scenes, and people from his own party asking him not to run again.

However, over the past two weeks, the Biden Administration has proven twice they still have the ability to accomplish challenging issues and are not afraid to act.

The first mission was the attack against Ayman al Zawahiri. We may never know where the information came from, but on Sunday morning July 31 at 0618 hrs. Kabul, Afghanistan time, an American drone strike killed Ayman al Zawahiri with a Hellfire missile. It was a surgical strike that came from over the horizon killing the Al Qaeda leader as he stepped out onto the balcony of his home. According to reports no one else in the home was killed or injured.

Reuters News Service states Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid called the attack “A violation of principles.” Whether it was a violation of principles or not, what matters most is that the man that was involved in heinous and deadly terrorism plots throughout the world has finally been dealt with. He was the mastermind behind the attack on the U.S.S. Cole that killed 17 Americans, the World Trade Center that killed nearly 3,000 Americans and the 1998 embassy bombings in Africa that killed 12 Americans and wounded nearly 4,000 more.

The attack proved to the world that the United States does not forget about crimes perpetrated against Americans, and still has the will, and the technological ability, to strike any time or any place with 100% accuracy.

The second mission was sending Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan. We do not know what was behind the trip, or what messages she was supposed to carry for the United States. However hoping to bring discouraged democratic voters back to the voting booths in November may have had something to do with it.

Nevertheless, Immediately after the trip was planned, China began sending out messages that were meant to give the Biden Administration cause for concern, and a reason to cancel the trip.

Hu Xijing who writes for the state run Global Times replied to a CNN news story about Pelosi's trip, “The Chinese army has the right to forcibly dispel Pelosi's plane and the U.S. fighter jets, including firing shots and making tactical movement of obstruction. If ineffective, then shoot them down.”

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “those who play with fire will perish by it.”

There was never any doubt that China's president Xi Jinping was never going to do anything to harm Speaker Pelosi. He is the big bully on the block that wants the world, and especially the United States, to fear him. His government has taken drastic measures of building islands in the South China Sea, while occupying formerly unoccupied islands, to build military installations that form a defensive ring around China and Taiwan. Like the Japanese in World War II, Xi has recognized that islands make good unsinkable aircraft carriers that can extend China's defensive capabilities far out past the coast line without needing ships to project their power.

He has announced on numerous occasions that China will take Taiwan by force in order to bring it back under Chinese rule.

Certainly China has the military might to invade Taiwan and possibly force it back under its rule, but the Taiwanese have the military might to fight back as have the Ukrainians against Russia. And just maybe Pelosi was carrying a promise to the Taiwanese government regarding how the United States will back them in such a situation.

Xi has lost this round in his bid to be seen as the big bad bully, while the United States will be looked at as still being a positive world power that's still unafraid.

— This is the opinion of Gerry Feld, whose column is published the second Sunday of the month. He writes about issues from a conservative perspective and is a published novelist.

This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: The US does not forget about crimes perpetrated against Americans