Breaking News... That Chinese Spy Balloon. Thoughts?

squatting dog said:
Not sure I agree with that. As commander in chief, a head of state (president) is the supreme command of a country's armed forces, I would say if the president gives the orders, the officers better follow through.
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What I have experienced is that the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs, along with any other consultants they feel should be included, would meet and after discussion, they would come to a recommendation that would then go to the President. He would then sign off on the order to do whatever action was decided upon. The Secretary of Defense has a lot of input in this type of issue and also has the power to sign that type of order in certain situations.

If you remember, during 9-11 Rumsfeld had the power to order a shoot-down of any planes, including our domestic planes, if he felt the plane or planes were threatening to hundreds of lives. There is always (I use the word “always” with hesitancy) a backup plan if the President is out of position. On the day when 9-11 happened, Rumsfeld happened to be in his office in the Pentagon. If Rumsfeld were to sign off on an order, he would most likely do so with the President’s authorization.

Speaking of 9-11, that was a very scary time for many Americans. We really had no emergency plan in place for what happened that day. I don’t know if the powers to be never gave it a thought that the towers would come under attack or what. The Office of Emergency Management was built next door to the towers. This proved to be a huge mistake because communications had been knocked out in that area when the towers were attacked. Not everyone, fire departments, police, the Port Authority were receiving the same information and instructions, which caused a lot of confusion. Since then, the OEM has been moved.
 

People believe what they want to believe and there are widely varied opinions. Some found the humor in it and nothing else. Others think shooting the spy craft down will cause a war.

Our weapon systems change and China likes to have the latest info so they will continue to update their databases however they can and the US does the same.

What will be will be and I don't think there is a lot any of us as individuals can do to be ready for a war with China whenever it comes other than keep this in mind at the polls. Hopefully, acknowledging that our individual influence is mostly at elections is not too political. :)

Personally, I do believe war with China will come some day but not over shooting down this 200' tall spy craft that was carrying an airliner size load according to the BBC. There's a few other things the next one could be carrying and lots of stories out there about that.
 
Disgustedman said:
Yeah I trust CNN like I trust a elephant in a peanut factory.
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This was reported by AP. Follow the link for more:

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that after Biden took office, the U.S. “enhanced our surveillance of our territorial airspace, we enhanced our capacity to be able to detect things that the Trump administration was unable to detect.”

https://apnews.com/article/biden-po...ake-sullivan-d7a981b058d2c195ccc01912d805ae08
 
I read a lot of different sources on this... believe it or not, the only one that seemed to just give facts and not twist was Al Jazeera. Mainstream media (often) turns "flew close to Hawaii" into "flew over US land"... I get so freaking sick of the spin, on ALL sides. In the meantime, Al Jazeera reported the following that I didn't see anywhere else:
The Chinese foreign ministry in its first reaction said it was working to verify the facts around US claims that Beijing flew a spy balloon over its territory, warning against “hype” over the issue.

“Verification is under way” over the reports, foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular briefing, adding that “until the facts are clear, making conjectures and hyping up the issue will not help to properly resolve it”.

"Working to verify US claims" .... was that even reported at other news outlets? Or did they just report that China was mad as a hornet and automatically denying it all? I've lost total respect for the media over the years.
 
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I do remember Gen. VanHerck, who was in charge of NORAD during the last 4 or 5 years did mention that an unidentified balloon did pass over part of Florida. If it was there and gone like the General stated, it may not have been enough time to scramble a few fighters to scope out the balloon before it left U.S. Airspace. Had they been able to identify it as foreign before it left our airspace, we could have chased it out over open waters.
 
This last string of comments made me laugh.

When it comes to the Sullivan quote the fact is that that he said it. Whether someone believes it's true or not is a different thing. 😂
In that case there may be some conflicting or substantiating comments out there somewhere.
 
We have heard of these things for the past several years. Spy balloons are not a new fixture sent on by the CPC or whoever. There is nothing more for anyone to see than what they already are seeing from satellites in the upper atmosphere. But it does make good news and gives everyone something to talk about.

By using a spy balloon, it gives China something to hang their hat on, so that they can tell the world they infiltrated the U.S. Airspace.
 
Gaer said:
Come on. This is silly! We each have news sources we trust and other's we listen to but give no trust.
Honestly, I think we have heard so many lies from so many sources, it's difficult to know what to believe!
Let's not let this interesting thread dissolve into name calling. O.K?
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OK with me.
 
Gaer said:
Come on. This is silly! We each have news sources we trust and other's we listen to but give no trust.
Honestly, I think we have heard so many lies from so many sources, it's difficult to know what to believe!
Let's not let this interesting thread dissolve into name calling. O.K?
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There is a Chinese news source that can't be trusted. They claim there were mice up there with binoculars. ;)
 
Been There said:
We have heard of these things for the past several years. Spy balloons are not a new fixture sent on by the CPC or whoever. There is nothing more for anyone to see than what they already are seeing from satellites in the upper atmosphere.
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Apparently the balloon has some advantages over a satellite. It can be steered, the photos it takes are of higher resolution, and it‘s cheaper than a rocket launched satellite. We should consider cancelling trade and/or TikToc, and It looks like we are increasingly serious about defending Taiwan. Let’s hope this thing doesn‘t get out of hand and turn nuclear.
 
Murrmurr said:
Pepper isn't saying trust all sources, she's saying it's wise to check them out.
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I think we both know that allegiance to CNN or Fox has little or nothing to do with accuracy. In referencing a source I personally prefer to look elsewhere and steer clear of obvious bias.
 

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