Early
yesterday it was reported a suspected Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon is hovering
over the United States.
US defense
officials said they believed the balloon was seen above sensitive areas in recent
days.
https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1621557627200196610
The Chinese
foreign ministry said they "regret the unintended
entry" into US airspace and that it was an accident caused by 'force
majeure'. They insist the balloon was "mainly for meteorological" purposes and warned
against “deliberate speculation.”
This
is an invasion of US airspace and a violation of international law.
The balloon
flew over
Alaska's Aleutian Islands and through Canada before appearing over the city of
Billings in Montana. Montana is home to one of America’s three nuclear missile
silo fields.
According
to U.S. officials, the balloon has now moved
over the Midwest and is now over "the middle of the country"
https://twitter.com/RogerMarshallMD/status/1621572987802599426
The Pentagon’s Press Secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder declined to divulge the balloon’s current location
https://twitter.com/dave_brown24/status/1621558961177509888
Defense
officials were reportedly
prepared with fighter jets, including F-22s, in case the White House
ordered the airship to be shot down.
However, Ryder insisted that the balloon “does not present a military or physical threat
to people on the ground at this time” since it was “well above the range of
civilian air traffic.”
Ryder
said that the US decided not to shoot down the balloon because of the danger
posed by falling debris to civilians and property.
If that was the case, why wasn't it shot down when it drifted over vast unpopulated areas of Montana.
Ryder
also added that the airship did not pose a risk to people on the ground as it
currently is "traversing the continental United States" and they will “continue
to monitor and review options”.
https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1621602979001389057
Ryder
said that the Department of Defense is seeing reports of another balloon
transiting Latin America.
If
the airship flies over California, Arizona, New Mexico, or Texas? That would be
alarming considering the number of military installations in those states.
https://twitter.com/AP/status/1621563932690235395
Experts say that balloons of this kind can be fitted with advanced technology spy cameras and radar sensors.
There are advantages to using balloons for
surveillance - the primary reason being it is relatively inexpensive and easier
to deploy than drones or satellites.
The fact
that balloons linger around make it easy to monitor the target locations for prolonged periods of time.
In contrast,
the movement of a spy satellite is restricted to its orbital pass.
Few have
considered the possibility that toxic chemical or biological substances could be
sprayed which may cause long or short-term harm to the population or crops
or property or military installations.
If this truly was an accident Chinese officials should have worked with US officials to either redirect or bring down the balloon and issued a groveling apology.
But instead, the Chinese officials issued terse statements about the balloon’s function without proof. There was regret but no apology. Worse, despite being at fault they issued warnings against speculation.
So the question remains why would the Chicoms engage in an act this blatant?
They
have could have sent another spy to honeytrap Rep
Eric Swalwell or various other US politicians
They could
have infiltrated the staff of US
Senator Diane Feinstein or any other prominent politicians or government
agencies.
They
could have hacked into various government websites.
Why
opt for a surveillance balloon which is so conspicuous?
Balloons are ancient in surveillance technology considering the rapid development in the field.
Yet they could be dangerous. The Japanese military used them to launch bombs in the US during World War Two. They were also widely used by the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
For powers such as the Chicoms, every action is a symbolic gesture.
The statement
here is that of domination.
The
presence of an uncontrolled foreign airship is an ominous sight for citizens.
It is
very likely that being spotted and being covered by the news and spreading paranoia
was the whole point of the exercise.
The
balloon was probably meant to demonstrate sophisticated Chinese technological
capability to penetrate US airspace without risking a serious escalation.
This
is the equivalent of a bully invading the personal space of his target. The
bully may not engage in a physical confrontation or verbally attack his target. But the fact that the bully made his target uncomfortable and his target failed to retaliate is symbolic of the domination
of the bully and cowardice and surrender of the target.
None
of this would have ever occurred without Biden’s hasty and unplanned withdrawal
from Afghanistan.
Yes, the US military presence in Afghanistan needed to be drawn down but the withdrawal
should have been strategic like the Trump administration had
intended.
Instead, Biden went against the advice of experts and declared to the world that he was
withdrawing from Afghanistan.
The withdrawal
on the ground was so abrupt that US allies in Afghanistan who had risked their
lives were not informed. They just turned up one morning to find that everyone
had left.
The
order of withdrawal should have begun with expensive advanced equipment and weaponry,
then key personnel, and finally the armed forces.
Instead, US officials were pulled out first, and millions of dollars worth of weaponry were left behind.
This
caused the Taliban to retake Afghanistan and declare victory. The
fact that the Al Qaeda chief Al Zawahiri was killed in Kabul shows that various
radical Islamic terror outfits in Afghanistan have made the country their safe haven.
Biden
squandered the efforts that cost the US roughly $2 trillion, hundreds of thousands of lives, and over two decades.
Biden’s
poor leadership and decision-making made the US look like an incompetent,
uncaring, untrustworthy, and unreliable ally who has no appetite for a fight anymore.
Real
toughness doesn’t mean entering wars but building the armed forces to such as
extent that it serves as a deterrent.
In
street terms, an individual does not need to enter into a fistfight to triumph over
every thug in the neighbourhood to prove superiority. The individual could show strength to such an extent that none dare to enter into a physical conflict.
This
is exactly what President Trump did during his tenure.
Months
after Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, Putin decided to militarily in
Ukraine and China began acting aggressively toward Taiwan.
Biden’s
support for the conflict in Ukraine cost the US almost
$111 billion and Zelensky is demanding more. There have been threats of retaliator
nuclear attacks on US soil from
Russia and even North
Korea.
This airship
seems to be a threat both literally and symbolically
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