UPDATE: The Pentagon announced on Saturday that a US fighter jet shot down the balloon after it drifted over the Atlantic off the coast of the Carolinas.
After the Pentagon claimed there was a Beijing-operated surveillance balloon hovering over American skies, Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled his plans to visit China next week. While a Department of Defense official told the media it has "high confidence" the unknown balloon is a Chinese-operated surveillance craft, it has released no details on how the Pentagon reached that conclusion. Beijing issued a statement saying the balloon is from China, but it is merely a civilian weather balloon.
On Thursday, American defense officials revealed to reporters that the DoD has tracked a balloon for several days in American skies. However, the Pentagon admitted Beijing would gain little from such a surveillance device. "First, our best assessment at the moment is that whatever the surveillance payload is on this balloon, it does not create significant value added over and above what the PRC (People’s Republic of China) is likely able to collect through things like satellites in Low Earth Orbit," the official said.
The official added that the Pentagon did not shoot down the balloon, which is located in the skies above Montana, because falling debris could injure people on the ground. DoD spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said the balloon will not interfere with civilian aircraft and does not present a military threat.
The White House is reacting to the alleged Chinese craft by canceling a high-level diplomatic summit in Beijing. Had Blinken made the trip he would have met with the Chinese foreign minister and potentially President Xi Jinping.
A senior State Department spokesperson told reports on Friday, "[a]fter consultations with our interagency partners, as well as with Congress, we have concluded that the conditions are not right at this moment for Secretary Blinken to travel to China." The US is claiming that the talks are postponed and will take place at a later date, but did not indicate when that may happen.
China issued a statement on Friday saying the craft was a weather balloon for civilian scientific purposes. "The airship comes from China and is of a civilian nature, used for scientific research such as meteorology," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. Beijing claimed strong winds created a situation outside of its control that pushed the balloon into American airspace.
Beijing said it regretted that its balloon drifted into American skies and called for talks to resolve the dispute. However, talks will now be less likely as the State Department is keeping its distance from China.
Still, some in Congress are calling for more action. Senator Marco Rubio asserted the balloon was a Chinese surveillance craft that should be shot down. "It was a mistake to not shoot down that Chinese spy balloon when it was over a sparsely populated area. This is not some hot air balloon, it has a large payload of sensors roughly the size of two city buses & the ability to maneuver independently," Rubio Tweeted Friday.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
Seems to me the U.S. Propaganda machine Clearly wanted the Public to know about this Spy Device/Weather balloon. But ask yourself why? China is the only other nation that has sent a successful probe to MARS. It landed on the surface just like American probes have. I tend to believe that China’s Spy Satellites ate more than capable of getting the reconnaissance they need without the fanfare of a TOTALLY time era impractical Spy Balloon….
But when you need an enemy, when you need a villain, when you need more reasons to do things that seem unnecessary. Outrage and fervor are great tools to get the ‘winds blowing in the right direction’. Did u catch my drift.
Yup.
The GOP propaganda machine is spinning the notion that none of them want to cut Social Security and Medicare in any way or fashion. The Democrat propaganda machine is in crazy mode. Spy balloons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????
the GOP will eliminate SS and medicare and pretend that they didn’t
SS is where Democrats hid vast and vital programs for disability and for children who lost parents. More than half of SS goes to pay things that are not retirement pensions.
We did not want to acknowledge the programs or the cost of them. So they were hidden in the administrative definition of Social Security disability and early death benefits.
I suspect that is more the target than retirement benefits.
If so, then we should pay for SS by acknowledging these programs and paying for them outside the pension system.
As usual, great point!
“as usual!”
my mama and my daddy had social security “benefits” deducted out of their pay-checks. that money was deducted with the premise that they would get some of it back. are you suggesting that my mama and my daddy should not receive their retirement fund?
Your mama and your daddy got scammed.
That’s not a good thing.
It’s also not a reason to continue letting the scammers run their scam.
yes my mama and my daddy got scammed.
but they did collect some money every month after they got old. i see your photo there – do you collect SS ?
me, i have never paid into it so i will never get anything out of it.
No, I don’t collect Social Security. Even if I eventually choose to try to do so, I’m quite a few years short of being able to do so and by no means confident that the Ponzi will still be rolling along by then.
And you , like the rest of us, will have your ass down to your local SSI office or you’ll be signing up online.
Rather unlikely, but not impossible.
You’re not going to collect on something you’ve paid into? Or there won’t be anything to collect?
Check your premises.
Those “benefits” are as guaranteed as regular tax deductions benefitting you.
Read again. Not at all.
Seems to me your conspiracy nut. Everyone can see it. Had the government not said anything you’d be claiming secret aliens or some sh*t
i saw the china spy balloon on TV. when you see it on TV that makes it a reality
You’re right man, there is no balloon, your the only one smart enough to realise that, you should start a blog to spread the (goofy conspiracies) truth .
What a joke. We’re represented by a bunch of sissies.
What? What the hell does this mean, not tolerating other nations fly unknown thing in your air ways, makes you a sissy? Good lord.
The state department would cancel any kind of diplomacy over a Blinken hangnail. The balloon was such a godsend.
Blinken is spouting a line that only a Straussian neocon could appreciate or even understand.
Voltaire once said, “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
Definition of “spying:” “work for a government or other organization by secretly collecting information about enemies or competitors.” The Chinese are so dumb. How dumb are they? While they probably could “secretly” spy on the US, they sent a totally visible balloon. (Sarcasm alert)
Perhaps shooting down the ballon will release something in the atmosphere we wouldn’t want.
I can just imagine conversations in Montana….” I reckon that there balloon is plenty full of that China Virus!”
Sounds like a biological weapon of mass destruction on a NATO country.
That’s it for sure. Time to enact Article 5.
😉
Agreed. We wouldn’t want more absurdity leaking out of it.
A common-sense leak would be even worse. Imagine how much more difficult it would be for the neocons to conduct their war on the world if too many people were overcome by that.
Garland Nixon @GarlandNixon: “REPUBLICANS: ‘What kind of brainwashed lunatic would believe Russian gate.. I mean c’mon.. really?’
ALSO REPUBLICANS: ‘Oh no, a weather baloon,,, run for your lives, hide your women and children!'”
We should hack CNN, Fox and MSNBC and insert 15-second clips of Garland’s pithy comments twice every hour.
In 1950’s US sent a spy balloon over Russia, and when Russia caught it, US claimed it was a weather balloon. But, now there are satellites, plenty of them in Russia, China, and US, plus a number of other countries, that spy on each other. Using balloons for spying is a joke. Chinese reason makes a lot more sense, than the nonsense coming out of theUS officials like Blanken Blinken.
Just because there are satellites doesn’t other means spying bo longer exist, just because miss the US government, doesn’t mean you to be fool a d believe whatever the Chinese government says, Jesus Christ.
Say that in English.
LOL that is what passes for english nowadays
Maybe he indeed is a bot, programmed to spout a bunch of balloony.
+++
Yup, phone F’d that up. but my point still stands. Just because there are weather satellites, doesn’t mean other forms of spying no longer exist. Just because you rightfully mistrust the word of the US government, doesn’t mean, you should foolishly believe the word of the Chinese or Russian government.
“Say that in English” means I believe the word of the Chinese and Russian governments? Or are you just another troll with standard irrelevant replies?
“Just because you rightfully mistrust the word of the US government”
So, does that make you a Chinese and Russian stooge also? And did your employers not tell you that no negative talk about the exceptional nation was allowed? They might now dock your pay for that part of your comment.
No, it means miss trusting the US government, doesn’t trust the Russian government or CCP.
Maybe I am naive, but in matters that affect my life, I have come to disbelieve most of what other governments purport and all of what my government says unless verified. Especially concerning the Ukraine war.
LOL. Bots make more sense in gibberish. Except, when readers consume large amounts of vodka, or have pre-drilled holes in their heads for frequent brainwashing.
It’s a Chinese balloon to start fire in your neighborhood. Be scared.
No, it’s a Chinese balloon possible to spy on my nation, will capture and study it, not stupidly believe the CCP’s, it’s just a whether balloon bro, don’t worry about it. How can you guys be such globule morons, when it comes to the CCP and Russia?
In that case I suggest keeping your pants on when you sunbathe in the back yard.
Why, I’ll sunbathe naked in my backyard if I want too.
China had never invited Blinken to visit China in the first place, and have complained about the US talking one way and then acting the exact opposite after they leave. The balloon is just an excuse to cancel the trip because nothing would have been gained anyway.
Bingo!
Polish authorities are recruiting crews for German Leopard tanks supplied to the Ukrainian military.
“Protect the native Polish lands. Become a tank driver. Protect Poland in Ukraine,” reads the advertisement in the Polish metro.
The President of Poland claimed that in addition to the Leopards, he was ready to transfer the remaining T-72s to Kiev. Warsaw has already sent 240 tanks, more than 100 armored vehicles, self-propelled howitzers and ammunition.
And that has what to do with the balloon? Are you a BOT?
His comment was a reply to a comment about Poland. Are you oblivious?
No one hates quite as well as the Polish.
The way it is going – Russia will have to hit Warsaw eventually and hit it HARD.
What if it is just a wayward weather balloon? They actually do go off track quite often The idea one couldnt shoot it down is so convenient to the narrative…in the least populated area of the US….pull the other one.
If it was the Chinese would have just said so, and why shoot it to destroy it instead of capturing, God that would be a stupid unessesary move.
How stupid and craven this cancellation is.
Why?
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2023/02/03/washington-inflates-the-china-balloon-threat/
Nonsense, no country would toll0orat their air space violated, you guys have jumped from russian stooges, to chinese stooges, pathetic.
Your brain is so small that the only thing you can deploy against a policy argument is mindless McCarthyism. You are the zombie and don’t even realize it. BTW, re “no country would toll0orat [?] their air space violated.” Really? So you support Iran and Syria bombing Tel Aviv and Yemen droning Riyadh for the violation of their airspace?
“So you support Iran and Syria bombing Tel Aviv and Yemen droning Riyadh for the violation of their airspace?”
What? Hell no, why would I?
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Stop me! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
If China lost control of this research balloon, why would China not the tell the US and the press that there is a good chance of a balloon drifting over the US? If would seem like the safe thing to do? Why take the risk of the balloon falling on a US city without warning?
You act like there’s a huge team of Chinese scientists on standby tracking stray weather balloons. They even said it’s a civilian balloon? The government doesn’t even know about it probably.
First of all this is not some cheap weather balloon. It is clearly a very sophisticated and expensive balloon. So someone in China knew it was heading to the US.
Crazy how this guys all trust the word of the CCP right?
So what?
You act like the CCP would not lie, why do you believe their it’s just a civilian whether balloon bro, don’t even try to capture it, the government probably doesn’t even know about it.
I’m absolutely shocked by how all of a sudden, you guys are all of a sudden trust the (Chinese) government types.
Versus coming here, shilling for the known liars in OUR government?
Versus coming here, shilling for the Russian government and the CCP?
China is a technologically advanced nation with a population of a billion and a half people. It’s likely that no single entity or agency even knows about all the weather and other research balloons in use at any given time. And most of the people who would know about any single stray balloon would probably have no reason to think it might cause an international incident. Because . . . why would they?
And there’s almost no risk of a random balloon of that size falling on Americans without warning. Our military and civil aviation agencies, flaky as they sometimes are, would be unlikely to miss a large, slow-moving flying object, as indeed they did not.
Chill.
Amazing how your so willing to have the best assumptions of the Chinese. Just a whether a balloon bro, don’t even try to capture it, just destroy it.
Spelling weather wrong so many times is going to make your trolling less appealing. Not to mention your grammar. C’mon man, pick up your game. You do have competition.
Not believing CCP lies = trolling, we know who pays your bills, from russian stooge too CCP stooge, your moving up on the world, bro.
Oh yes, because the Pentagon never lies. Riiight.
Oh yes, because the CCP, Russia never lies riiight?
Being pro-war and propaganda -pilled on this site IS trolling. So…
And once again my comment didn’t insinuate that I believe “CCP lies”. You’re really poor at being a troll. Maybe you can take some pointers from our other resident trolls.
First of all, this clearly is a state sponsor peace of machinery. Secondly I am referring to the balloon falling on a US city without waring from China who lunched it. There is a difference. The story that is was accident is hard to believe.
Who keeps calling the economic/military war with China and Russia as “peer competition?” Are we competing with them on how dumb we can get? If we argue that a weather balloon can turn into a Pearl Harbor attack, then I think we won, hands down. (Sarcasm alert)
https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1346/RAND_MR1346.pdf
It has crashed already in the toilet of Tuckewr Clarkson releasing a lot of information about his desire to get US move away from white Russia and slam against yellow China . Ballon also talked to him . Now some guys from Montana got an opportunity to sound surprised disgusted and very patriotic same time.They usually don’t get all 3 .
This is embarrassing bro
Why have actual diplomacy when you can throw a hissy fit over a stupid off course balloon?
Countries don’t like enemy aircraft of any type flying or in this case floating overhead, especially ones filled with intelligent gathering instruments.
If any country has figured out how to steer a balloon at that altitude please let me know. It’s a balloon for God’s sake that floated off course.
This doesn’t mean diplomacy is over, the Chinese would throw a “hissy fit” over this sort of stuff, nation tend not like there air space violated.
The Chinese are not the ones cancelling high level diplomatic meetings planned for years and freaking out over a balloon. The Chinese came out and even apologized, despite their emphasis on face.
Again this doesn’t mean diplomacy is over, no reaction to being spied on is in invitation to keep doing it, and this was mild reaction at best.
The intelligence value over satellites is probably minimal,but its a good way to mock the US,testing the lack of backbone response.It would also be a good way to get an EMP device over the country,since our fool leaders did not respond.
Well Jake, the first thing the military did was to check for radiation coming from the balloon that would indicate an EMP device. That would not be hard to do.
Check Steve Quayle’s website re the rx.
Lack of backbone response? Lol what, the hell do you want the US fire missiles at it, instead of capturing it? God were lucky a baffon like you is not in power.
LOL Chinese spy balloon sound like Jewish satellites starting fire in California. Did China run out of spy satellites needing spy balloons?
Sounds like Saddam’s chemical weapons spewing drones being a threat to the continental United States.
Spy balloons are still used, moron
No, they aren’t Bot.
Yes, they are, CCP stooge.
Yes, they are, it’s happening right now, stooge
Does it make sense that the balloon has been over US territory for multiple days???? Montana is not that close to any ocean.
We did track it as it traveled over Canadian and US territory right???
I haven’t seen a track on a map, but reports say that it traveled over Alaska and Canada. It will certainly have been tracked most or all of the way.
Balloons move at the speed of whatever air mass they are in. At 60,000 feet, it would be above the jet stream, in the “upper-level winds.” I’m told, by people I think actually know, that wind speeds at those levels range between 20 and 120 miles per hour. So, yes, that balloon could take days to travel across the US.
Travel wouldn’t be straight east to west. The University of Wyoming has a map generator for upper-level winds.
http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/uamap.shtml
I suspect that is was track by the miliary. And civilians spotted first in clear skies of Montana.
Every single level-headed person with a basic understanding of current technology and the parties involved must have immediately thought it was probably a weather balloon. Everyone I’ve spoken with since the crazy accusation hit the wires definitely thought that.
The people in charge of our asylum are both crazy and stupid.
Spy balloons are still in used. The US used them in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are cheap compared to a satellites and at 100,000 feet can take better pictures for a longer time. The real question is not why to use a balloon for spying, it is why China would do this at this time?
At the moment, the real question is why you so readily believe that the Chinese would send a spy balloon over US territory. What do you think it would be spying on?
If you want better pictures of missile silos than you can get from satellites, you can rent a light plane and fly over them at 500 feet. Or drive up to one and launch your quadcopter. But there’s really nothing much to see. Certainly nothing Chinese intelligence doesn’t already know.
Before you use US activity in Iraq and Afghanistan as an example of the kind of spying you seem to think is going on here, you should do some research. It ain’t even as close as apples and oranges.
At the moment, why are you so readily willing to believe it’s just a whether balloon?
I am not sure “whether it is a whether” balloon. Just to be safe, US needs to send Tom Cruise up to shoot it down asap.
It could be a wether balloon. I heard that the Chinese are conducting high-level research on livestock transportation.
“US needs to send Tom Cruise up to shoot it down asap.” An incredible stupid action that no one in power wants to do, better to capture and study it. Only the stooges in this blog would want this, along with all the evidence to be destroyed.
First, good luck flying a light plane over a US military base at 500 feet. Secondly, read some articles about what spy balloons can do that a satellite can not do. There are plenty, so I won’t bother to repeat the information. You can do your own research.
So it still beg the question of why did China did this at this time? The chance of it being an accident is slim. It was an accident, why did not China alert the US that one of their balloons was head this way?
The missile silos are scattered around the high plains, mostly miles and miles away from the bases themselves. No one would pay any attention at all to light planes out there. Well the farmers and ranchers might notice, but as long as you don’t fly recklessly, you’ll be fine.
If you don’t have a plane, just drive up, grab your camera and hop out. As long as you don’t try to breach the security fence, no one cares. Here, take a look:
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.1742499,-103.2209814,446a,35y,39.06t/data=!3m1!1e3
But there’s really not much to see, almost certainly nothing that the Chinese don’t know about.
Well, i can tell you are not a pilot nor an air traffic controller cause your knowledge of airspace sucks.
You should at least review the airspace classification {FAA 7110.565) before you spew nonsense.
I think that order makes perfect sense. All 747-8s should be treated as heavy aircraft.
Keep it up, Don. If you win the Smug Moron of the Month award for February, you get pizza.
If it was such a threat why wasn’t it shot down over Alaska or before it got to Alaska?
i think they were spying on college football practice
100,000 ft really? how far up do you think the earth’s atmosphere is.
oh right, you think that it extends to 100,000 ft. also the guy who extended yall a ‘thumbs-up’ must believe that the earth’s atmosphere goes way up there. OMG you can’t make this sh*t up.
A balloon can float up to until the atmosphere surrounding it has the same weight as the helium in the balloon. This happens at about a height of 20 miles (app. 100,000 ft). So it is possible to get balloon to float at 100,000 feet. Now this balloon of course does not float that high. And for the record, the end of the atmosphere and beginning of space is called the Karman line and it is set at 100 Kilometers (62 miles or 328,000 feet.).
But the point remains that pictures taken at balloon heights will be better than at satellite heights.
Are there any regulations about where I can fly my high-altitude balloon? I mean, as long as it’s above the level where it might interfere with aircraft travel, whose business is it where it goes? Just as with my satellite (an older project that I made with a Heathkit package from Radio Shack). I keep it out of other people’s orbits and expect them to do the same. Beyond that, I’m free to view what lies below…
I assume that you are joking. LOL.
What info would they not know about our bases that could only be gleaned from intel on a weather balloon?
No, the people you’re talking about are morons like yourself who just make baseless assumptions, until we take a close look at this thing, best to show caution, not dismissed it as just whether balloon.
I would conspiracy nuts like you would think that, but I guest your conspiracy are only towards the west.
Speaking of conspiracy nuts. Welcome to antiwar.com.
At least, your aware lol.
Indeed. At least you admit it.
How did they get a balloon to hover? That is the most fascinating aspect of this whole thing. As far as spying goes, not need to resort to cameras they will just download the files they want when they want them.
Bro, you can’t be this dumb?
look at the balloon… look at the ballon… SPIES!!!
Entire US Population .. goes back to TikTok for 10 hours a day
No one is doing that, we’re paying attention to an unknown foreign balloon in our air space, as would any one.
Republicans are using this as an excuse to go full in on agression vs China, and hatred of Biden. They made it quite clear that they are only against Biden’s war in Europe, and want to divert resources to THEIR war in Asia.
There seems to be a universal US consensus for max military spending, with a robust and divisive battle over which conflict to spend it on.
Both sides think THEIR conflict is the crucial one, and that the other party is mishandling the conflict that it priotitizes.
Meanwhile we have the doofus-in-chief in Tel Aviv, itching to get in on the action with a special operation to destroy the people with the funny headgear in Iran.
Republicans are using this as an excuse to go full in on agression vs China, and hatred of Biden. They made it quite clear that they are only against Biden’s war in Europe, and want to divert resources to THEIR war in Asia.
There seems to be a universal US consensus for max military spending, with a robust and divisive battle over which conflict to spend it on.
Both sides think THEIR conflict is the crucial one, and that the other party is mishandling the conflict that it priotitizes.
The current studied show that the benefits of vitamin D interventions in patients hospitalised with Covid-19 are providing a protective effect against ICU admissions and mortality.
Further studies are needed to assess how valuable vitamin D is in reducing deaths for hospitilisations for patients with Covid-19.
Yeah, it’s well being overall healthy diminish your risk of death from, covid, the government should be encouraging to hit the gym, it should be requirement for all aged schooling.
What are the odds of a weather balloon floating 1000s of miles directly over military installations? Anyway, the balloon will eventually fall down on US soil or drift over an ocean. If it falls on land, the instrumentation will be recovered. If it gets over the ocean, the US will shoot it down and the Navy will recover the instrumentation. In any case, the instrumentation will tell if the balloon was a spy or a weather balloon.
“In any case, the instrumentation will tell if the balloon was a spy or a weather balloon.”
Well, the instrumentation will tell the US regime whether it was a spy or weather balloon.
What the US regime tells the public won’t necessarily match what the instrumentation tells the US regime.
Did the balloon even exist?
Did you see the pictures on TV? Did you see China announcement?
I saw Colin Powell show us at the UN the evidence of WMD’s in Iraq, None of it was true.
I saw 500,000 children brutally murdered because of these lies. I saw Madeleine Albright tell us the price was worth it.
The WMD’s in Iraq was a lie to take us all to war. What i didn’t see was these people go to the Hague when we all knew the truth.
Again, the balloon was spotted by not only the military, but ordinary US citizens. What happen in Iraq has zero to do with this balloon.
No, we’re all fools, you’re the only one smart enough to see there in fact is no balloon, congratulation on your brilliance
Are you under the impression the US military is going to tell you what they found attached to the balloon? And if they tell you, are you going to believe them?
No doubt. We already know what the US government will be telling us.
There is a third possibility other than “weather balloon” and “spy balloon.”
Or, rather, a variant of “weather balloon” that actually has bearing on military matters.
Suppose I anticipated a war with the US and wanted a good way to deliver weapons in a less immediately noticeable manner than launching a ballistic missile, and I didn’t particularly care how long it took to reach the target? I might want to test prevailing wind currents, etc., to see where a balloon would go, how long before it was noticed, etc. in preparation for such a contingency, which is not unheard of.
That is possible. In any case China is playing a dangerous game. The good news in all this is that maybe the US will start to think seriously how to successfully manufacture consumers goods in the US at a reasonable price.
We never play dangerous games. We just try to boss the world.
Cool story 😉
High altitude balloons routinely drift for thousands of miles. And they follow the windstreams they are in. It’s not at all unlikely that this could be a weather balloon.
As for “directly over military installations,” please. Those missile silos are scattered over wide areas surrounding the three bases from which they are operated. A fairly wide path could easily be described as directly over an installation.
And the chances that anything of value could be learned from balloon surveillance that couldn’t easily and effectively be learned by other existing means are minimal at best.
This is no ordinary weather balloon. If it a spy balloon as claimed that will be determined when it is shot down. Additionally the US will compare the tracking data with wind data from NOAA and determine if the balloon was indeed being steered over military installations.
Now it may be some sophisticated research balloon that got away from China. That can not be ruled out.
The only way balloons can be steered is by changing altitude to get into air masses moving in different directions. Fine-grained directional control is impossible. It would be an astonishingly-stupid way to attempt to spy on particular installations.
What are you talking about. It is not a hot air balloon, it is closer to a blimp in design. So yes directional control is possible. It might me astonishingly stupid idea, that you would have to ask China.
Directional control of a balloon is possible only in the way I told you. It matters not at all that it’s not a hot air balloon. It’s a balloon and it looks nothing like a blimp.
Well Red, the Pentagon disagrees with you as they has stated the balloon has shown some ability to be steered.
Well, Kenneth, why don’t you show me where the Pentagon says that a balloon can be steered in any way other than change of altitude.
Here’s what I think:
1. The Pentagon is relying on the fact that most people have no idea how various lighter-than-air craft work and is deliberately implying that this one is maneuverable in a way that no balloon can be.
2. The Pentagon is right. Most of you have no bloody idea. Successfully bullshitting you is easy-peasy.
I think the Pentagon knows a little more about aircraft of all types than you. There has been multiple reports that balloon is steerable. How and to what extent is the question. Is it just altitude control, like you claim or did if have thrusters? Well the Pentagon will know in a few days.
They “knew” Saddam had WMD in the form of a mushroom cloud too. Any “evidence” re the weather balloon would have already been loaded onto the retrieval craft before it left port.
…..by the wind.
Steered? How does one steer a balloon? Where do you get your information, Saturday morning cartoons?
Plus, we have military installations scattered all over the country. It would be hard for a wayward balloon not to fly over one of them.
The Chinese should have invited Blinken to take a balloon ride.
♪♫Up up and awaaaay ♫♪ ♫♪In my beautiful my beautiful balooooon♫♪
We’re not shooting it down because that would prove it’s a weather balloon and Blinken couldn’t use that as an excuse to cancel his uninvited trip to China. Obviously if we really thought it was a spy balloon it would have been shot down over Alaska or Canada. Just think about it and don’t go like rats to the tune of the Pied Piper.
This. Weather balloon or useful ratchet towards public panic and world war?
Shouldn’t we have scrambled some of our own balloons to intercept this balloon?
Get some parade balloons up there.
I wanna see Snoopy take on the Red Baron.
You mean the ABB’s – the anti-balloon balloons?
Indeed. Would be equipped with big, long needles.
LOL
A baloon incident?
Symptomatic of US foreign policy — full of hot air. Current geopolitical storm will blow it off course
Oh no – it’s Balloongate!
Oh, please no. Not another “-gate”. That trope should have died with Watergate.
“Amid Concerns Over a Balloon, US Cancels High-Level Meeting with China
Beijing said it regrets that one of its weather balloons drifted into”
Beta male Blinken is a disgrace to the world of diplomacy. Under Blinken the Department of State has become the de facto War Department.
Between allowing NEOCONs to run amuck and failure to use any diplomacy in Eastern Europe the Department of State has become a joke department. Victoria Nuland is allowed to honcho the overthrow of elected governments and the National Endowment for Democracy NED has become the dirty tricks wing of a hybrid CIA/Department of State group. The NED roams the world trying to destabilizing any country the NEOCONs don’t like in the name of American Empire.
That about sums it up, alright.
The US brought down the balloon exactly they wanted to. The critical payload landed in 47 feet of water. The missile did not destroyed the payload or smashed the balloon to tiny pieces. Instead the balloon acted like a bad parachute and help slow the payload plunge to the water. Interesting the Air Force used a heat seeking missile to hit the balloon. The sun heated the balloon to a higher temperature than the payload and thus missile home in on it instead of the payload.
Good job by the US arm forces.
The Chinese wouldn’t be stupid enough to “pilot” a spy balloon over the US and not know it would get shot down. That’s why it’s a weather balloon that went astray.
I most enjoyed the characterization that the balloon was discovered “hovering” over Montana. Pretty funny.
If the presence of the balloon over the US was intentional, one possible reason for it might be to see how far it got before it was detected. Not just public notice that it had been detected, but instruments to sense and report e.g. radar pings.
The US military used to run fixed-wing aircraft missions into Soviet airspace for exactly the same purpose — “how far can we get along this route before they know we’re here?”
You are assuming what the Chinese are up to. All indications are that this was a directed spy balloon. Why they did it? Who knows.
Yeah, they brought it down where there’s no chance anyone will know anything about it except what they’re told by US officials, who just happen to be engaged in a long campaign to demonize China.
Just confirms my existing view that the US government is overrun by idiots.
No, they have been telling you for days that shooting it down over land can have consequences.
The USAF shot down a passenger plane over Pensylvania back in 911. Do you really think they were concerned of damage on the ground?
They also shot down an Iranian commercial aircraft with 274 passengers on it. CIA/President Bush said, “The United States does not apologize” when they claimed it was all just a big mistake.
What? I heard some crazy conspiracy theories, this is the top ten.
A plane went down over Pennsylvania on 9/11/2001. While there’s a widely accepted version of how/why it went down, it’s not especially crazy to think that US forces might shoot down a known hostile-controlled aircraft when three others had been used to attack, respectively, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
I think it’s pretty likely that the reports of fighters scrambled to intercept the hijacked Flight 93 were accurate.
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna44459345#.VN2Y1PmUe7Y
Kenneth, if you’re not a CIA asset, why are you even here on an antiwar site? There’s already plenty of mainstream echo chambers that call for war with China. You’ll be welcomed there on Fox News or NYT, wherever, where everyone already echo chamber for wars with China and Russia and repeat the lies of the military industrial complex. Why troll around in antiwar community? You cannot be antiwar and support our government’s reckless escalation with everyone and hysteria over a stupid balloon.
Why read my comments if you believe that?
A balloon floated through Alaska apparently southeast to Montana, which was talked up because it went over sensitive military assets, and floated out to sea in the Atlantic.
First of all, if it WAS a spy balloon, we conveniently waited until it finished its mission before shooting it down. Second of all, you are bragging that we can shoot down a balloon???
This is a very sad time for the US, and the whole event, including the media hype about it, makes our nation seem desperate. If this counts as a win in your book then so be it. Yay we may be the US, but at least we can shoot down a balloon.
First, the danger of bring it down on the land is obvious so I will not bother to explain it. Second, how do you know it successfully completed it mission unless you know what the mission was? Third USAF jammed the balloon radio transmissions so no data could be transferred to the spy satellites.
I’m not bragging about shooting it down, that was easy. But knocking down without destroying the payload and having the payload land in 40-50 of water was not easy.
The “danger of bringing it down on land” is obvious only to people who (a) misunderstand the likely composition and mass of the payload, (b) don’t understand the geography of Alaska, western Canada and the US west from Montana to western Kansas, and (c) don’t know that research balloons, by design, routinely burst at predicted altitudes and the payloads descend to the Earth under parachute without incident.
Our trolls are made of the same stuff as the idiots driving US foreign policy.
Germany is sending 88 tanks to Ukraine!
88 is a Nazi number symbol for Heil Hitler:
‘H’ is the 8th letter in the alphabet.
Did Germany specifically provide 88 tanks to send a Nazi message to Russia?
And again that has what to do with balloons from China?
China does not like Blinken. In their first two meetings they felt insulted, and they responded in the meeting with hostility and near-insults.
Cancelling his visit may be seen as a good thing by China, certainly by some powerful portions of the Chinese government.
“China does not like Blinken”
Hmm
Well, Blinken is an idiot, so there’s that. In fact, I’d say he’s a Blinken’ idiot 😉
For Kenneth and Don, courtesy of B’s barflies:
Breaking news!!!!!! 😂
The US, along with close consultation with NATO allies, shot down the Chinese high altitude tactical airship (weather balloon) that was deemed a threat to national security and a clear violation of international law.
This was done off the Carolinas coast and the State Department is happy to announce that no civilian lives were lost in this high-risk, tactical operation that few countries would be able to achieve.
To quote someone from 20 years ago, “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!”
2 takeaways:
1) I’m glad the US didn’t use this as part of their training program for the Ukrainian military (on US soil) for Patriot Missile Systems because I’m sure one of those missiles would have taken out my house here in Canada. Of course Russia would have been blamed.
2) The only thing that could have topped this is for the Chinese to have borrowed one of Roger Waters’ Pig floats from his concert tour. Roger, please take note,
“This is not a drill” 😉 😂
Operation Full of Hot Air successfully. executed. And this one not caused by Trump.
Aww, a Tucker Carlson viewer too. Of course, he is pro Russia.
Blinken has said that a balloon is considered “a clear violation of US Sovereignty”. If that is true, would a US satellite looking down on Russia or China also be a clear violation of sovereignty?
Would shooting down a balloon capable of surveilling US territory set a precedent for shooting down a satellite that is providing real time intelligence and/or communications capabilities to forces attacking the Donbass or Crimea?
Is China exercising freedom of the skies in much the same way as the US Navy is exercising freedom of the seas in the Taiwan Strait?
Is the publicity of such a balloon being used to cause paranoia among American citizens?
Or is this just Blinken fabricating an excuse to do what he does best: refuse to negotiate with anyone who challenges his views?
The whole ballon fiasco provided an excuse for Blinken to cancel his trip to Beijing. He was never invited in the first place, and the two-faced approach of Blinken is well known to China. Say this and that while there, and then immediately do the opposite after departing.
“He was never invited in the first place” So he just decided to show up as a tourists?
I’ll take door number three, primarily because, as far as I’ve seen so far, Blinken is a blinken idiot.
Let’s see.
1. Yes, although I’m not sure precedent is important. Why wouldn’t adversary intelligence collection systems be legitimate targets?
2. Yes, the altitudes the balloon was at apparently don’t have any clear or generally accepted legal status.
3. Yes.
4. You betcha. 👍 Neocons don’t do no stinkin’ negotiations. They create their own reality.
Aircraft, flying or in the case floating at 60,000 feet is violating a country’s airspace.
That is not at all clear. If you think that’s incorrect, please provide citations to relevant, generally-observed international law and/or treaties, and/or applicable case law.
USSR shot down a U-2 at 70,000 ft. Are you saying that was illegal? Anyway it is a acceptable normal international principal that a country can defend its airspace. And since 60,000 feet is less than ceiling for many high performance combat jets and spy planes, there was no violation of the international norms. And you know that.
Now if you want to find a international law, etc said that is not true, good luck.
Kenneth, I’m never saying anything other than the words you see me post. You’re one of a handful of posters here who don’t seem to be able to understand that. Or, perhaps, you don’t want to understand it.
And you really need to learn how meaningful debate works.
I responded to DA’s post by saying, in relevant part, that that there don’t seem to be generally accepted laws or agreements governing the airspace we’re talking about. I said that because I looked, didn’t find any clear black-letter law, but did find various contradictory explanations and widespread murkiness.
You claimed:
I told you that it is not clear that your claim is correct and asked you to provide relevant citations if you think it is. That’s how it works. You made the claim, you provide the evidence. Simple.
Has anybody considered that, God forbid, China’s explanation that it was a meterological balloon was true?
Firstly, it makes no sense to spy with a balloon that moves with the winds when they have satellites which remain stationary. Second, had it been a spy balloon, it would have been shot down the moment it was discovered, collateral damage be damned; just like the civilian plane that was shot down over Pensylavania back on 911.
It was allowed to complete the trip over the US to whip up ant-China fervor and prepare the population for a war.
Yes, if they really believed the balloon capable of effective spying. it would have been shot down either before it crossed the Alaska coast or not long thereafter.
Note, though, that the satellites that deliver the best imagery are in low earth orbit, 1,200 miles or so and orbit the planet about a dozen times a day. And although there were at least a couple of fighters from the DC Air National Guard that apparently intended to intercept Flight 93, they never did. It seems pretty clear that the aircraft really did crash following a battle between the hijackers and a bunch of very brave passengers.
Because it did not act like a “lost” weather balloon. No planes were shoot down by the USA on 9/11.
Very few people are in any position to know whether any planes were shot down by the USA on 9/11. I suppose it’s possible that you may be a person who was or is in such a position, but most of us here aren’t.
It’s not a bizarre stretch of the imagination to hypothesize that the US armed forces would shoot down a known hostile aircraft over US airspace. Nor is it a stretch of the imagination at all to hypothesize that, given the number of innocent civilians aboard, the same government would then offer a more palatable story (heroic passengers force plane crash in all-out attempt to retake the airplane) as to what happened, if for no other reason than to preserve a “national unity” around the day’s events which would be dented by a US killing of many civilians, however necessary?
One website says it was a stealth jet. Oh my, the poor balloon never saw it coming.
GMTA
Everyone out from under their beds now!!! What a nation of sissies.
This song comes to mind. It says it all; 99 luft ballons…
I read they used a stealth fighter (we only use the very best) so that the balloon wouldn’t even know what hit it.
US media is desperate to start a war with China. The US military after being asked why would China spy on US with a balloon said he doesn’t know because they have very sophisticated satellites that are spying on US constantly. The next question should have been is it possible this was a weather research balloon that got caught in the jet stream. But you don’t question US military, as we are still suffering from Saddam’s nukes.
It’s the poison gas and bioweapons that get to me. I’ve had headaches and congestion since 2003.
Interesting fact about Anthony Blinken:
Trilateral Commission – Founded by David Rockefeller
Aimed at fostering closer cooperation between Japan, Western Europe and North America.
Carl Bildt: European Deputy Chairman
Notable member: Anthony Blinken US Secretary of State, Michael Bloomberg of Bloomberg LP, Mark Brzezinski CEO Brzezinski Strategies and Ambassador to Sweden, Zbigniew Brzezinski US National Security Advisor to the Carter Administration
A balloon. Seriously. All of this? The urge to turn ones face to the wall is strong with this idiocy on parade.