What Are We Thinking

So let me get this straight. We allow a Chinese surveillance balloon to pass over the entire continental United States from west to east, including a flyover of strategic missile sites in Montana, while we dither over what to do about it. Military officials actually congratulated themselves on figuring out the balloon’s true mission when they observed it “linger” over sensitive sites. Idiots. And it’s not like we didn’t realize it was coming. Why not shoot it down while it was over the Pacific Ocean after it violated our territorial waters?  No, that would make too much sense. Instead, we allow it to make landfall, then argue that we can’t shoot it down as the debris would pose a risk to population centers. And when asked by reporters about the precise location of the balloon, a pentagon official advised us that its location is “confidential.” When pressed further and asked if the public is not entitled to information as to the balloon’s location, that same official responded that we are welcome to “look up in the sky and see where the balloon is.” What a phenomenal level of arrogance to deflect from an equally astounding level of incompetence. Finally, after allowing the surveillance balloon to traverse the country and undoubtedly transmit reams of data back to the CCP, we shot it down off the coast of South Carolina. Geniuses. So rather than capture the electronics intact and find out precisely what it was and what data it was collecting, we obliterate it with a missile fired from an F-22 and spread the debris over an area measured in square miles in water 45 feet deep. Bravo, we scramble a state-of-the-art fighter jet to shoot down a dirigible so we could make a huge Chinese jigsaw puzzle. So now the Chinese can keep claiming it was a civilian meteorological instrument, you know because it’s important for China to know what the weather is like in Montana, they likely gathered all the surveillance data they needed to complete the mission, and they determined that when provoked, this administration will do absolutely nothing in a timely fashion. But tough guy, Joe from Scranton, got to puff out his chest and, with that steely-eyed look in his eyes, claim that he issued the order to shoot it down. That was after he had his pudding. But come on, man, Biden was in congress in 2001 when the Chinese forced down one of our  EP-3 surveillance aircraft after a collision with a Chinese fighter jet over international waters. They detained and interrogated the 24-man crew for a week, stripped the plane of its electronic surveillance equipment, and only allowed the aircraft to be returned after it was disassembled and shipped home in crates. Does he not recall this event, or is something else happening here?  So far, chalk this one up as a win for China. They get valuable intelligence, and we get scrap.