Today, there has been been breaking news that a Chinese made spy Balloon is flying over the air space of the US.

Here's a report on that:

Here's a full Pentagon press briefing on this incident:

Several government officials and leaders have called for it to be shot down. The Pentagon has said that doing that can cause debris to come down damaging buildings and people. I'm surprised the US was not better prepared here....imagine if a hostile UFO entered our airspace.


For Debate:
1. Did the U.S. drop the ball here by having a poor response to this incident? (Latest reports are that the spy craft is still flying over the US)?

2. Should we shoot it down? If so, when?
 
Here is a Democrat's perspective on this issue:

Here is a perspective that's more aligned to Republicans and Fox News:

And just an update...a second spy balloon has been spotted flying over South America:
 
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1. Did the U.S. drop the ball here by having a poor response to this incident? (Latest reports are that the spy craft is still flying over the US)?
I think the United States military and those in charge of handling this situation have dropped the ball here, big time. Just think for a second, an opposing nation is able to brazenly fly into the airspace of a country that is supposed to have the most advanced military in the world. If that isn't considered a dereliction of duty then I don't know what else to call it. Our response for much of this situation has been to let it happen. Sure, we can say that China already spies on us with satellites, but that doesn't mean you let them spy in an even more brazen way.

This craft or balloon should've been detected before it even entered the continental US, and from there it should've been brought down. If the government is saying that these incidents have happened before, then that gives even more reason for why they should've been better prepared.

2. Should we shoot it down? If so, when?
I believe we could've shot this down over any sparsely populated area. Then again, the time to do that was before it started getting close to the continental US.
 
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Sure, we can say that China already spies on us with satellites, but that doesn't mean you let them spy in an even more brazen way.
I think this is a key issue.

If China embarrassed us in a light-medium way, in tit-for-tat style, we embarrass them in a light-medium way. We might even privately tell them that and give them a heads up of exactly what we’re going to do. Why? Because it’s in our interest not to let the thing escalate.

Meaning, let’s continue to play skillful poker. If we make a mistake, or they do, that just becomes texture for the next hand.
 
Right now sitting in a bar in Houston area, Monday 9:03 pm . . .

The Fox News big bottom scroll— “The Pentagon is Obviously Lying About [Chinese Balloon]”

Wow.

It’s like what “the left” may have said about the Pentagon during the Vietnam War.
 
Let's start with mapped timeline of balloon flight path:
AA17aJXN.img
 
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Right now sitting in a bar in Houston area, Monday 9:03 pm . . .

The Fox News big bottom scroll— “The Pentagon is Obviously Lying About [Chinese Balloon]”

Wow.

It’s like what “the left” may have said about the Pentagon during the Vietnam War.
Yeah, that conclusion by Fox News is premature, and it may just be exaggerated to be an eye catcher.

I've tried to listen to the Democrat and Republican side. On the Democrat side, I've only seen mostly Congressmen Jim Himes (D-CT) trying to give President Biden the benefit of the doubt but he then acknowledges that there are a lot of unknowns. Here's a recent interview with him on this issue (skip to the 2:05 minute mark):

The best points I've seen given in one interview was done by CNN's interview of national security adviser, John Bolton (he argues that it should've been shot down sooner, and brings up other problems):

From all of my reading and watching of reports, I think there were definitely some mistakes here. The biggest mistake seems to be that the balloon was not shot down as soon as it could've been done, like being done before it reached land. I'm assuming that the US military was able to detect this spy balloon before it reached land, and were able to determine the path it would take (just as meteorologists were able to), as well as knowing that the balloon was carrying equipment to spy. If they weren't able to detect that early on then that presents another big problem.

The next big mistake is the lapse in communication. Why wasn't the president notified about this immediately? It seems that he didn't know about the balloon until some days later. Why wasn't the public or even Congress notified about this? Did it take ordinary citizens catching this balloon in flying over Montana to trigger the military to finally say something to anyone, including the president of the United States? If so, that is very very troubling.

While the Republicans may be quick to blame Biden, but I'm not so quick to do that if the military failed to inform him in a timely matter. Although, I would've liked for him to come out and speak directly to the American people. So maybe there's a lack of communication on his part, as well.
 
I’m not sure it was detected before Montana
New details are coming out daily. Apparently, the US military or Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) were aware of the spy balloon even before it entered over US airspace:
Washington CNN — A day before the suspected Chinese spy balloon entered US airspace over Alaska, the Defense Intelligence Agency quietly sent an internal report that a foreign object was headed towards US territory, military and intelligence officials familiar with the matter told CNN.
The spy balloon entered the continental US on Jan. 31:
On January 31, the balloon had crossed out of Canada and into the Lower 48. And concerns that the balloon had been sent by Beijing explicitly to spy on the mainland US were confirmed when NORAD observed the balloon “loitering” over sensitive military facilities, multiple sources familiar with the intelligence told CNN.

However, senior officials and the president were not immediately made aware of it:
Sources familiar with the report said that the White House was not made aware of the DIA report, and President Joe Biden was not briefed on it.
Senior administration officials appear not to have been made aware of the balloon until on or near January 28, when it crossed into Alaskan airspace, including America’s top-ranking general, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley.

Biden, according to senior administration officials, was not briefed until three days later, on January 31, when the balloon crossed out of Canada and into the continental United States. At that point, Biden asked the military to present options “immediately” to shoot the balloon down, officials said.


BUT, what I've been wanting to know is when and why was the spy balloon deemed a threat. Apparently, it was not deemed a threat by some officials while it was hovering in Alaska, but that assessment changed once the balloon made a sharp turn heading to the continental US:
Instead of treating it as an immediate threat, the US moved to investigate the object, seeing it as an opportunity to observe and collect intelligence.

It wasn’t until the balloon entered Alaskan airspace, on January 28, and then took a sharp turn south that officials came to believe it was on a course to cross over the continental US – and that its mission might be to spy on the US mainland.
All of the excerpts are from CNN reporting.

I would argue that a spy balloon is a threat, in terms of national security, when it crosses any where into US territory. The problem here it seems that the balloon wasn't taken seriously, as if there's nothing significant about Alaska to gather intelligence on. I would've shot it down just for violating our airspace, esp. knowing that it's from one of our adversaries. They would've done the same to us!

But I think the a big reason it wasn't shot down was because of this:
Once it was over US territory, officials have argued that the benefits of gathering additional intelligence on the balloon as it passed over far outweighed the risk of shooting it down over land.

The US sent up U-2 spy planes to track the balloon’s progress, according to US officials.

For now, I think that some US officials are being dishonest or not being upfront. If it's the case, they should just acknowledge that the spy balloon was not shot down over the Pacific ocean or Alaska because they did not want to bring it down yet, and instead preferred to observe it to gather intelligence. But to not even notify the president until days later is also problematic. If i were Biden, I would acknowledge that some of the errors or deficiencies when it comes to lapses in communication and action. I don't think we could put up with another response that allows another balloon to float through American airspace without notifying the public, the president, and subsequently shooting it down as soon as possible.
 
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