Hacker News Reader

Comment by JCM9 | Hacker News Reader

You’re missing one of the key strategic reasons… that it was a huge embarrassment to China on the international stage.

Was it? Because a -->balloon<-- was already over US mainland. I would say the embarrassment is on US side for not shooting/detecting it down much earlier.

Why? They said in the beginning they didn’t want to shoot until it was off the coast. Biden planned shooting it down once it was off the coast again. It was planned days in advance and I’m not why they would risk hurting someone. IMHO a death would cause much more media outrage.

Shooting it down when it enter us-waters? You know before it entered land?

>IMHO a death would cause much more media outrage.

Perfect! Chinese-killer-balloon kills US-Citizen on it's on US-Ground, FOX would love that!

Not sure what you mean. The first one had already passed Alaska and a good part of Canada before it was picked up by the news. Meaning it been over land for a good amount of time.

>Meaning it been over land for a good amount of time.

That's what i mean. Why not shoot it down when it enters US-Waters...BEFORE it's over US-Land, is that so hard to understand?

For the same reason we'll let a suspected spy in sometimes or not expell them: by watching we can learn a lot about what they care about.

It's a balloon with instruments, not a human.

You are comparing two completely different games and you know it.

(a) they wanted to shoot it down in a location in which it would be easily recoverable, and (b) they didn’t want to risk damaging persons or property.

>they didn’t want to risk damaging persons or property.

In Alaska...please shut up.

>they wanted to shoot it down in a location in which it would be easily recoverable

Like yesterday the car sized ufo in alaska?

I don't really get the vibe that China cared. But we have 2 derailed trains and so far the media has given more attention to weather balloons instead.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com