In the long run and with regards to our national security and leadership this may very well turn out to be one of the best things to happen in a long time.

The icing on the cake would be if there was a "Boycott China" grassroots movement. It would not be successful, of course. Over the past thirty or so years, we've allowed ourselves to become dependent on cheap Chinese crap. Just try and remove all Chinese made goods from your home and your life. Good luck with that.

I am not a military strategist however, if the balloon was detected before it entered USA airspace, why not drop it within US limits offshore from the west coast? Dropping it after it overflew the US is better than nothing but seems like the horse already left the corral.

I have been thinking what General George S. Patton Jr. would have said about the cluster surrounding the balloon.

Predictive FJB response

Next time might I suggest:

Meanwhile some Twit from China is trying to troll us via Twitter. F her.

quote:

Originally posted by apprentice:
Next time might I suggest:

I was thinking the same, then I realized no tether, so it would have to be this...

I would think the missle would destroy evidence, and that 60 rounds from the guns would deflate it plenty fast.

You know, if we really wanted get China's goat by playing on Asian racism, we could point out that the Japanese did this almost eighty years ago...and actually got a few kills from it.

Discussion and memorial photo here

I've read where some folks are saying that the Chinese are laying they ground work for an invasion.....well only if Biden manages to do the Chinese a solid by getting all those semi automatic rifles away from Americans.

We elect them, they take an oath to uphold the constitution, and in times like these, they are only concerned with turning us, the U.S. citizens into dependent sheeple. Everything the left proposes lowers your independence and even freedom of movement to make the citizenry easier to control. Biden's in China's back pocket and will serve us up on a platter to maintain his money and stature. He and his would gladly cave to Communism if promised a "sweet deal". I'll be making a lot of noise before I go under the bow.

quote:

Originally posted by r0gue:
I would think the missle would destroy evidence, and that 60 rounds from the guns would deflate it plenty fast.

Yup. At this point, after the balloon has crossed the entire continent and recorded or transmitted whatever data it obtained, the urgency for it to be downed quickly dwindles.

Might as well poke several 20mm holes in it, hoping that it comes down slow enough to preserve some physical evidence for evaluation.

Watching the video of the missile balloon shoot down, it's plainly clear that it occurred within visual distance of civilians to observe and record it from their phones, so obviously the Biden regime's excuse of trying to prevent harm to people is pure BS.

Biden comments...Gen. Keith Kellogg clarifies...

quote:

Originally posted by apprentice:
Next time might I suggest:

Baloon is flying at nearly twice the service service ceiling.

quote:

Originally posted by AKSuperDually:

quote:

Originally posted by apprentice:
Next time might I suggest:

Baloon is flying at nearly twice the service service ceiling.

F-22 service ceiling is 60K feet. Same as what they said the balloons altitude was.

What worries me is that the Chinese might not be worried about political fallout since they are about to start something else, Taiwan Blockade is my bet, and figured hey let's get one really good last look to check on US assets before we start.

Ops to the platoon: "Why in all that is green and holy do you not have the Bravo Alpha 1100-N secured to your gear? Go down to supply and get fit for a Bravo Alpha 1100-N with a Sierra Tango ring. and for fuck's sake make sure it fits on your MOLLE gear before you leave!"

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:

quote:

Originally posted by Lefty Sig:
It is entirely possible that this is a normal weather balloon that went adrift and because it wasn't a threat the U.S. did nothing but track it. Shooting it down would create an "incident", so the military said, let it go.

Then, why did representatives of the US military come out and say that it was a spy balloon? You're claiming that the military is covering for old Joe by making a false claim which would anger the Chinese government.

quote:

Once people saw it, they decided to make up a "spy balloon" story TO DIVERT ATTENTION from Hunter's admission that the laptop is real, the fact the Joe is nearly broke and took a $250K equity line on his home because there is no more 10% going up to the "big guy". And because Republicans in the House will investigate Joe's China ties and potentially expose the endemic Biden family corruption.

It's impossible to count the number of times this "distraction" argument as been put forth in this forum. Almost always, these are nothing but pure speculation. What you're suggesting is ludicrous. I understand being skeptical of anything coming out of the Biden administration, but not only is there not a shred of evidence to validate your claim, this affair has painted the Biden administrationi]and[/i] the US military leaders in a bad light. On top of that, the stories about the Hunter Biden laptop are not going away, not even with fifty balloons.

Respectfully, the thing in my mind is that nothing really adds up. I was speculating, but there is not a lot of evidence either way. Once the wreckage is recovered, and I think they shot it down over water to allow the Coast Guard to collect it and not any civilian, then they have evidence and hopefully we get real info about it.

So they say they know it was a spy balloon and not a weather balloon but they wouldn't shoot it down until after it passed over the entire country from Northwest to Southeast. If they knew it was a spy balloon there is absolutely no excuse for not downing it immediately. They kept it quiet and did nothing until citizens could see it themselves and reported it. Then they were on the hook once people saw it. Then it was publically called a spy balloon and STILL they don't shoot it down until after it reaches the east coast?

Do I think the other comments about collusion with the Chinese to allow it to finish it's mission before downing it have merit? No that's a big stretch, and literally high treason by the collaborators.

But then, complete incompetence is the nature of this administration so they are apt to screw up anything they do, and they have already many times, so this is par for the course.

Like you said with COVID - too many lies and you don't believe any of it anymore. I don't believe anything Biden and his people say for good reason, they have lied too many times. Miley's performance in the Afghanistan pullout should have resulted in his resignation or firing, and if he was against the manner of the pullout before hand he should have resigned in protest before it happened.

But you're the boss so I will refrain from similar speculation. I hope you are right that this should be a wake up call to a lot of people.

quote:

Originally posted by Lefty Sig:
But you're the boss so I will refrain from similar speculation.

You're entitled to your opinion and I'm entitled to balk at it.

Maybe they wanted to be able to examine whatever the balloon was collecting?

flashguy