It's ok to try, but expect your shit to be shot down if you're a dick about it.
Nothing happened when the U2 was shot down. But I personally am ok with the Soviet Union shooting it out of the sky.
Why should the USA do nothing when a balloon, by a massive military power and the USA's new competitor, fly over the USA without a polite, "Hey, do you mind if we fly this "weather balloon" with cameras over your military installations?"
I admit Americans have, and have been shot down. Why is it so weird the other way around? Why are you defending China indirectly by trying to equate it with the USA? If the USA gets shot down, why is that not mentioned by you and others? What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
And, China certainly is getting weird about not having people sail ships through the South China Sea, despite it being ruled as international waters.
Googling with a date range filter set (to filter out recent Chinese balloon news) yields results like "Pentagon using spy balloons".
We'll have to see if China starts shooting down random civilian (or not) probes within a few months. Many countries try not to fuss about stuff other countries do to avoid unnecessary escalations and tensions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird
You think the US doesn't do that now? If you do, I'd like to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge.
"a United States U-2 spy plane was *shot down* by the Soviet Air Defence Forces"
Who says I'm giving China a pass? My point is that it's a balloon that was tracked from Alaska long before it crossed BC into Montana probably had its risk assessment done. It wasn't worth the hassle, and the potential risk of letting them get the telemetry on military hardware, and the cost to shoot one of those balloons; or to reveal the true operating envelope of a fighter and its armaments over a balloon that the US already was comfortable with it flying around from Alaska on.
If it was a serious threat to US national security, it would have been blown up over Alaska, or better yet, tell the Canadians to do it so that the risk isn't borne over American soil.
The point is that the USA, or any country, has the right to deny it's airspace to anyone. There is no rule that just because we let it fly through Montana that means the USA has to let it fly anywhere.
There are all kinds of instances of the USA being denied use of another country's airspace. I'm not quite sure on the exact situation as it was a while ago, but I think during Gulf War I, or maybe II, Turkey would not let the USA take off from Incerirlick Air Base to bomb Iraq.
Ah, here it is,they closed their airspace for a while in Gulf War II - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/mar/20/iraq.helenasmi...
It seems like you are giving China a pass to me.
>If it was a serious threat to US national security, it would have been blown up over Alaska
Nope. USA has the right to do it anywhere. We don't know the strategy. Maybe there was some global strategic reason or tactical reason, or who knows? Neither of us is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or are the Secretary of Defense. What do we know? All I know is that the USA can shoot down any aircraft, at any time, for any reason, if it doesn't file a flight plan and let the USA know the purpose. That I know. But you saying "If it was a serious threat to US national security..." is silly. You are not the Secretary of Defense. How would you know? Or anyone know, unless privy to that information?
That's how it works.
Today, the House voted UNANIMOUSLY, 419-0, to condemn China's balloon surveillance program as a “brazen violation” of U.S. sovereignty, a rare and swift bipartisan rebuke of Beijing as questions mount about the craft the U.S. says was part of a vast aerial spy program.
“This resolution, I believe, sends a clear bipartisan signal to the CCP and our adversaries around the world that this action will not be tolerated,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
Are every single one of the House, D and R, wrong and you are right? I'm pretty sure the Senate would vote the same way.
"In a Congress riven by partisan splits, the shared anxiety over China's stealthy balloon surveillance program and the reach of the Beijing's global military and economic force provided an unusual opening for bipartisan agreement in the debate."
I am extremely interested in your response.
Today, the House voted UNANIMOUSLY, 419-0, to condemn China's balloon surveillance program as a “brazen violation” of U.S. sovereignty, a rare and swift bipartisan rebuke of Beijing as questions mount about the craft the U.S. says was part of a vast aerial spy program.
“This resolution, I believe, sends a clear bipartisan signal to the CCP and our adversaries around the world that this action will not be tolerated,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
Are every single one of the House, D and R, wrong and you are right? I'm pretty sure the Senate would vote the same way.
"In a Congress riven by partisan splits, the shared anxiety over China's stealthy balloon surveillance program and the reach of the Beijing's global military and economic force provided an unusual opening for bipartisan agreement in the debate."
I am extremely interested in your response, especially your comment that pertains to the Brooklyn Bridge. Are you going to sell that Bridge to every member of the House? Everyone but you does not understand things?
https://news.yahoo.com/us-house-votes-condemn-china-16553744...
You can't send huge flying things across another country's airspace without permission and flight plans.
I don't know, maybe the USA should start flying planes over Moscow and Beijing. How do you think they'd react?
I don't get what the pushback against blowing up a balloon would be.
If I was president, I'd make sure I'd be flying balloons over China all the time, see how they like it.
shit, they are getting pissy about ships being in the South China Sea.
Fuck China.