A different kind of alien

Neither a masked ICE agent nor a cloaked Zorro vigilante would dare lay a hand on this strange-looking visitor from afar. Neither would a border patrol cop nor a horse-riding civilian buckaroo from Arizona.

In fact, only a special kind of guardian with the heart of a paladin would have the grit to lock horns with this alien intruder. Time to call in the Men in Black and the Avengers. Bring in the Caped Crusader, as well. (The Man of Steel is technically not from this world so…)

As a famed philosopher once said, desperate times call for desperate measures.

In chronological terms, things took a desperate turn not when Mr. Bibi Netanyahu, with America’s backing, ignited the flames of Iranian apocalypse a few weeks ago but earlier when former President Barack Obama revealed, in a national podcast interview last month, that aliens are “real but I haven’t seen them…”

Yes, it was a bombshell admission regarding the existence of aliens (the space-journeying kind, not the border-trekking variety).

In a sense, it was like a “truth is out there” eureka moment but with little fanfare (sorry, X-files fanatics).

According to Obama, aliens “are not being kept in area 51.” He also said that “there’s no underground facility, unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.”

After this bombshell of a revelation, another semi-gargantuan reveal occurred when current President Donald Trump sort of confirmed Obama’s admission by saying, in response to a reporter’s question, that Obama “gave classified information; he is not supposed to be doing that.”

Although Trump didn’t specify which part of Obama’s remarks was classified, he claimed that Obama “made a big mistake.”

He also said he didn’t know if aliens “are real or not,” ostensibly trying to avoid the same “mistake” that Obama had committed.

From a historical standpoint, it wasn’t the first time a former or a sitting American president had sort of confirmed the existence of extraterrestrial beings.

Back in 1987, former President Ronald Reagan, while delivering a “universal peace” speech at the UN, had sort of made an implied admission by blurting out: “And yet, I ask you, is not an alien force already among us?”

It didn’t help matters that a former Canadian defense minister, Paul Hellyer, had made a series of candid “admissions” during his lifetime regarding the existence of at least four species of aliens surreptitiously visiting the Earth for ages.

The fact that these “revelations” came from the mouths of well-respected government leaders added fire to the already smoldering pit of UFO controversy.

After Obama’s remarks, Trump announced that he would order the Pentagon and other government agencies to begin identifying and releasing government files related to UFOs and aliens, although he didn’t say if classified information would be included.

Interestingly, upon realizing his gaffe and presumably to cool down the UFO information overload generated by his controversial remarks, Obama subsequently issued a clarification that he was merely talking about the statistical probability of alien existence in general and that he saw no evidence of alien contact during his presidency.

Was Obama trying to shove the cat back into the bag? Perhaps, but the truth has always been out there, anyway.

Or maybe it hasn’t.