[rustyp]

The Chinese are loving the fact that this is becoming political amongst ourselves rather than showing unity as patriots - who won? Congratulations.

[Aces4]

Originally Posted by rustyp

THe Chinese are loving the fact that this is becoming political amongst dividing ourselves rather than showing unity as patriots - who won ? Congratulations.

Am I supposed to hate Blueash and the others because we have different viewpoints? Guess I missed that class. There is a difference between disagreements and hating our fellow Americans.

[rustyp]

Originally Posted by Aces4

Am I supposed to hate Blueash and the others because we have different viewpoints? Guess I missed that class. There is a difference between disagreements and hating our fellow Americans.

No - I am saying we should stand up and respect the fact that thousands of people employed by us over the last week independent of political affiliation gave 100% to protect us while we continued our life in the bubble as usual.. When do these people get who actually do the work and gather the intelligence get the credit ? I will say it again - who do you think is protecting your bank account 24/7 ?

[blueash]

Originally Posted by Dotneko

That information is pretty useless as stated. When, where, how long? Who is stating this?
A 20 minute excursion over Hawaii is different than 5 days over the mainland.
What is their definition of 'brief'? I have no doubt the previous administration wouldnt have allowed days of violation of our airspace. Besides, with the rabid hate of him, the new agencies would have been calling for his head if it was for any length of time.
Color me sceptical.

I can only say that brief is not defined in the official Dept of Defense release. I am sure that Hawaii does not qualify as the Continental US which means the lower 48 states and Alaska. And pertinent to your comment, the present administration did not allow days of violation. POTUS ordered the military to bring the balloon down on Wednesday and was advised that it did not present a risk and that waiting until it was not over land was their recommendation. And that is exactly what happened.
Now we will get the material that landed in 20 yard deep water, much more intact than had it landed on the ground and the risk of falling debris hitting people or structures was avoided with this well thought out response.

I appreciate the comment above from Aces

[JMintzer]

Originally Posted by blueash

Hidden in the Department of Defense's release regarding the balloon which can be found HERE is this little gem... of interest to those who claimed previous CIC would never have allowed a balloon to even enter US airspace...

"The official said Chinese balloons briefly transited the continental United States at least three times during the prior administration. "

"Briefly"? This one took 4 days...

I read that they went over Hawaii.

But your "whataboutism" is duly noted...

[RICH1]

Ali-Baba … Asian Amazon

[Ele201]

Originally Posted by Aces4

You probably got lucky.

Why? Chinese food is tasty

[Worldseries27]

Originally Posted by daves

endless opinion in the press. How do we know it is chinese? How do we know it is a spy balloon? We regularly spy. Remember the cuban missal crisis the evidence was spy photos.
That was 50 years ago. Our photos etc are far better.

If, spying it is interesting to use a balloon. It is large, relative to the payload and it is slow.
Our press has claimed it is controlled as it dropped in altitude. If, is was controlled, would the controller not have a destruct control?

Shot it down with a missal? We perhaps needed a dramatic end. Bullets into the bag would have brought it down slowly and we could have recovered it.

why are we so gullible as to believe the chinese " balloon" was here to take photos only. I am not a mathematician so i leave it to others to do the math, but from 60k feet mirv'd nuclear warheads could at some central point above the usa have been deployed by the described 3 busses and achieved detonation not only over the silos but also our air force bases in the usa. The balloon could have been a first strike weapon including deploying emp warheads immediately after the first release therefore decapitating not only our icbms but also our communications. The warheads utilized are not as big as you may think. This first strike capability would have been delivered in seconds. We as a nation were failed by our leaders both political, past and present but shockingly also by our vaunted pentagon. I'm not interested in heads rolling. We want the truth. We can
handle the truth.

[Dantes]

Lets open the country up and charge admission to look at our secrets
I’m sorry admission is free on the southern border

[Steve]

Originally Posted by DAVES

Endless OPINION in the press. How do we KNOW it is Chinese? How do we know it is a SPY balloon? We regularly spy. Remember the Cuban Missal crisis the evidence was SPY photos.
That was 50 years ago. Our photos etc are far better.

If, spying it is interesting to use a balloon. It is large, relative to the payload and it is slow.
Our press has claimed it is controlled as it dropped in altitude. If, is was controlled, would the controller not have a destruct control?

Shot it down with a missal? We perhaps needed a dramatic end. Bullets into the bag would have brought it down slowly and we could have recovered it.

How do we know it's Chinese? Because the CCP admitted it was theirs, but tried to pass it if as a runaway weather balloon.

[MrFlorida]

Should have been shot down as soon as it entered our air space on the west coast....

[MandoMan]

Originally Posted by Taltarzac725

They did not seem to think the physics through if they wanted to recover anything. Maybe it was a deliberate attempt to placate the Chinese with that much weight hitting the ocean at a high rate of speed.

I speculate that the intent all along was to bring down the gondola in shallow ocean water so it could be easily retrieved and examined with a minimum of damage. Dropping it on land would damage it much more.

[airstreamingypsy]

Originally Posted by Dantes

Lets open the country up and charge admission to look at our secrets
I’m sorry admission is free on the southern border

No it isn't Sparky, Tucker is lying to you.

[rsmurano]

Misinformation. This balloon started in the Aleutian Islands near Alaska and then spent a week over many parts of the country. The prior administration would have called Beijing when it hit US airspace near Alaska to tell them to watch their monitors while he blew it out of the sky over the pacific. Both China and Russia want to see how far they can push us and now they know, Russia has known this for a year now

[PugMom]

Originally Posted by DAVES

Endless OPINION in the press. How do we KNOW it is Chinese? How do we know it is a SPY balloon? We regularly spy. Remember the Cuban Missal crisis the evidence was SPY photos.
That was 50 years ago. Our photos etc are far better.

If, spying it is interesting to use a balloon. It is large, relative to the payload and it is slow.
Our press has claimed it is controlled as it dropped in altitude. If, is was controlled, would the controller not have a destruct control?

Shot it down with a missal? We perhaps needed a dramatic end. Bullets into the bag would have brought it down slowly and we could have recovered it.

excellent reply