Two retired military officers told Newsmax Friday that the United States’ response to a Chinese balloon hovering over the nation was “pathetic.”
“This is first and foremost a test of [U.S.] resolve and the absolutely feckless, pathetic response where they can’t come to the intuitive conclusion to defend American airspace,” Retired Col. John Mills, former director of cybersecurity policy for the Department of Defense, said during “The Chris Salcedo Show” Friday. “Did this actually escape and evade through our existing radar system? And then once it’s there, we can’t come to the intuitive conclusion to engage? If this was [a U.S. balloon] over China, they would shoot it down in a nanosecond.”
Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters Thursday that the Chinese balloon, traveling across the continental United States “at an altitude well above commercial air traffic [that] does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground,” was spotted several days ago, but has not been engaged by the military due to concerns about debris injuring people on the ground, the Associated Press reported.
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