US downs Chinese balloon, drawing a threat from China | AP News
Category: News & Politics
Via: perrie-halpern • last year • 128 commentsBy: ZEKE MILLER, MICHAEL BALSAMO, COLLEEN LONG, AAMER MADHANI and LOLITA C. BALDOR F (AP NEWS)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military on Saturday shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the Carolina coast after it traversed sensitive military sites across North America. China insisted the flyover was an accident involving a civilian aircraft and threatened repercussions.
President Joe Biden issued the order but had wanted the balloon downed even earlier, on Wednesday. He was advised that the best time for the operation would be when it was over water, U.S. officials said. Military officials determined that bringing it down over land from an altitude of 60,000 feet would pose an undue risk to people on the ground.
China responded that it reserved the right to "take further actions" and criticized the U.S. for "an obvious overreaction and a serious violation of international practice."
In its statement Sunday, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that "China will resolutely uphold the relevant company's legitimate rights and interests, and at the same time reserving the right to take further actions in response."
The presence of the balloon in the skies above the U.S. this week dealt a severe blow to already strained U.S.-Chinese relations that have been in a downward spiral for years. It prompted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to abruptly cancel a high-stakes Beijing trip aimed at easing tensions.
"They successfully took it down and I want to compliment our aviators who did it," Biden said after getting off Air Force One en route to Camp David.
The giant white orb was spotted Saturday morning over the Carolinas as it approached the Atlantic coast. About 2:39 p.m. EST, an F-22 fighter jet fired a missile at the balloon, puncturing it while it was about 6 nautical miles off the coast near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, senior defense officials said.
The spectacle had Americans looking to the skies all week, wondering whether the mysterious balloon had floated over them.
On Saturday, Ashlyn Preaux, 33, went out to get her mail in Forestbrook, South Carolina, and noticed her neighbors looking up — and there it was, the balloon in the cloudless blue sky. Then she saw fighter jets circling and the balloon get hit.
"I did not anticipate waking up to be in a 'Top Gun' movie today," she said.
The debris landed in 47 feet of water, shallower than officials had expected, and it spread out over roughly seven miles and the recovery operation included several ships. The officials estimated the recovery efforts would be completed in a short time, not weeks. A salvage vessel was en route.
U.S. defense and military officials said Saturday that the balloon entered the U.S. air defense zone north of the Aleutian Islands on Jan. 28 and moved largely over land across Alaska and then into Canadian airspace in the Northwest Territories on Monday. It crossed back into U.S. territory over northern Idaho on Tuesday, the day the White House said Biden was first briefed on it.
The balloon was spotted Thursday over Montana, home to Malmstrom Air Force Base, which has fields of nuclear missile silos.
The Americans were able to collect intelligence on the balloon as it flew over the U.S., giving them a number of days to analyze it and learn how it moved and what it was capable of surveilling, according to two senior defense officials said. The officials briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
The officials said the U.S. military was constantly assessing the threat, and concluded that the technology on the balloon didn't give the Chinese significant intelligence beyond what it could already obtain from satellites, though the U.S. took steps to mitigate what information it could gather as it moved along.
Republicans were critical of Biden's response.
"Allowing a spy balloon from the Communist Party of China to travel across the entire continental United States before contesting its presence is a disastrous projection of weakness by the White House," said Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., tweeted: "Now that this embarrassing episode is over, we need answers from the Biden Administration on the decision-making process. Communist China was allowed to violate American sovereignty unimpeded for days. We must be better prepared for future provocations and incursions by the CCP."
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was more positive: "Thank you to the men and women of the United States military who were responsible for completing the mission to shoot down the Chinese surveillance balloon. The Biden Administration did the right thing in bringing it down."
China has claimed that the balloon was merely a weather research "airship" that had been blown off course. The Pentagon rejected that out of hand — as well as China's contention that it was not being used for surveillance and had only limited navigational ability.
The Chinese government on Saturday sought to play down the cancellation of Blinken's trip. "In actuality, the U.S. and China have never announced any visit, the U.S. making any such announcement is their own business, and we respect that," China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
The Pentagon also acknowledged reports of a second balloon flying over Latin America. "We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon," Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement. Officials said the balloons are part of a fleet that China uses for surveillance, and they can be maneuvered remotely through small motors and propellers. One official said they carry equipment in the pod under the balloon that is not usually associated with standard meteorological activities or civilian research.
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a question about the second balloon.
This isn't the first time Chinese spy balloons have crossed into U.S. airspace in recent years, one of the officials said. At least three times during the Trump administration and at least one other time during Biden's time as president they've seen balloons cross, but not for this long, the official said.
Blinken, who had been due to depart Washington for Beijing late Friday, said he had told senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi in a phone call that sending the balloon over the U.S. was "an irresponsible act and that (China's) decision to take this action on the eve of my visit is detrimental to the substantive discussions that we were prepared to have."
Uncensored reactions on the Chinese internet mirrored the official government stance that the U.S. was hyping the situation. Some used it as a chance to poke fun at U.S. defenses, saying it couldn't even defend against a balloon, and nationalist influencers leaped to use the news to mock the U.S.
China has denied any claims of spying and said it is a civilian-use balloon intended for meteorology research. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized that the balloon's journey was out of its control and urged the U.S. not to "smear" it because of the balloon.
In preparation for the operation Saturday, the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily closed airspace over the Carolina coast, including the airports in Myrtle Beach and Charleston, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina. The FAA rerouted air traffic from the area and warned of delays as a result of the flight restrictions. The FAA and Coast Guard worked to clear the airspace and water below the balloon as it reached the ocean.
Television footage showed a small explosion, followed by the giant deflated balloon descending like a ribbon toward the water.
Bill Swanson said he watched the balloon deflate instantly from his house in Myrtle Beach as fighter jets circled around.
"When it deflated it was pretty close to instantaneous," he said. "One second it's there like a tiny moon and the next second it's gone." Swanson added that a trail of smoke followed the balloon as it dropped.
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Hypocrisy of the CCP at it's finest! If the situation had been reversed and it was a American balloon over China, they would have shot it down in a heartbeat and probably declared that the US had committed a act of war against China and the CCP!
In this instance it was the CCP in violation of international practices by sending the balloon over sovereign US soil to begin with.
Evening..just saw it on tv..
Nice shot USA..
China as usual now chucking yet another wobbly..
China plays the victim so well, time they gave them an academy award..
someone posted that this was tried some years ago and even after 1000 rounds fired it couldnt be done , guess this was the exception .
if the game of brinkmanship is to be played , why screw around ? politics ? Thats what politicians of any political stripe want .
i say fook that , if one is going to talk the talk even in a whisper , then be prepared to walk the walk . go straight to the rat killing and be done with it .
remember i took negotiation lessons from corbin dallas from the fifth element , why fuck around when one can get it settled quickly . anyone want to negotiate ? either shoot the fucker or let the fucker know your going to shoot them and likely alot more , and they think twice .
No more errors , no more accidents, no more well its a private entity , so fine , if air space is encroached , the nation being effected can take what ever measure necessary to remove even a perceived threat , lord knows the SR-71 was shot at numerous times at this level of altitude , they just couldnt get the job done in those cases .
I dont think we will ever be told what this thing really was weather or spy , dont care .
from now on , limited visas of any kind , cancel as many visas that already exist , be they individual , student , or diplomatic and throw the bums out with their tails tucked , limited flights and limited shipment will be accepted from mainland china , games can be played in more ways than one . when it comes to national security , there should be no screwing around . If the 2 biggest kids on the block are going to square off , then get it done
protest all one wants , reserve the right to protest , im sure not many really give a rats ass when they think their security is compromised ..
The powers that be should also prevent China from buying large tracts of land around sensitive military sites.
Like the Russians Greg?
They should have been prevented from buying any tracts of land in this country. Think they would allow us to buy any property in China?
Well IF shit hits the fan so to speak , and the property taxes are failed to be paid , the local/state governments will just take the land back for failure to pay taxes.
Maybe the US government can just lose or misplace the ownership and/or relevant property tax info and seize the property under eminent domain. Sorry China.
An interesting scenario but don't forget China owns around $900 billion of our debt and of course, they could if they so chose to nationalize US companies operating in China.
Then we could nationalize Chinese companies operating in the US and since we also own their debt we could call that in as well.
The point is that the US and CCP are very integrated in many ways and the financial end of it is huge.
Every action provokes a reaction.
IMO, both the US and CCP will do their best to make hay out of this situation but I don't believe that it will end anything of value between the two countries since either side would cause much damage to themselves as well as the other.
That is not to say that China isn't pushing the envelope with its spying et al, but the US has been doing the same for decades with China. Both countries want to be the pre eminent player in the world and only one can be.
Morning..
China the most accident prone country in the world when it comes to "weather balloons"...
It seems it is not whether they are but whether they can weather the storm of lost weather balloons.
The world can do with some free target practice...
It was mentioned here they have actually sent balloons over the five continents..no doubt they will all be "accidental"...
Of course.
Perhaps, but as any good Nutter would tell you, capitalism is the best.
it matters not to republicans who the highest bidder is ...
Did I just hear you approve nuclear war?
Would a nuclear winter reverse climate change?
A "nuclear winter" would make climate change irrelevant.
It would also make mankind (and most other species) irrelevant.
Just saw that 2 days after you asked and posted .
read it as you wish, but thats not what i said now is it ?
there will be a natural progression and escalation as is true in anything , the only limits imposed will be by those participating and it is they that will impose those limits on themselves .
Is nuclear confrontation the ONLY course of action left open to the participants ? i think not , so the slate is still pretty much open for whatever could transpire .
I try to find the positive in things. nuclear winter makes camo obsolete and maga hats stand out against the barren white background.
I guess they'll find out what kind of instrumentation it was carrying, and if it had any means of propulsion other than riding on the upper winds
Any balloon as big as "three school busses" is big enough to carry a bomb, chemical or biological agents, or a nuclear device.
The thing should have been shot down as soon as it crossed into US airspace.
Shoot it down before we had an idea of what it was carrying? Makes no sense. You'd want it shot down even if it was carrying a bomb, biological agents, nuclear device?
OK...shoot it down just before it enters into US air space so it lands in our coast waters....if it enters, then over sparsely populated areas.
It's not logical to let it float all the way across the country.
As if waiting to shoot it down would have prevented it?
If it had been carrying any of those devices letting it enter US air space would have been the height of stupidity.
Nope, just let it meander across the US freely gathering as much information as it can. If it is carrying a weapon of mass destruction let it reach it's target and go off. Brilliant!
If they knew about it before it entered Alaska; then they should have brought it down then. If not; then the military had better be doing a lot of damn soul searching; and come up with answers really damn quick on how to fix the gigantic hole in our air defense system.
Actually the military is now very pleased that they apparently gained a great deal of data from the balloon and more importantly how it was being transmitted.
This allowed them to go back in time and identify previous incursions in the last 6 years
(so far)
Bringing the equipment to the surface will bring further discoveries.
Exactly, now we know the way the wind blows.
At 240 mph and a temperature of minus 136,
I can't say I am interested in doing anything at 65,000 feet any more, lol.
The equipment should be relatively intact because it was a splash down. The DoD will go over it with a "fine tooth comb". It will be an intelligence bonanza.
The main reason the military waited until it was over water was to recover the instrument package. Had they shoot it down over land, there would have been crater and wreckage that would have been more difficult to reverse engineer. And crashing it into land could have endangered lives and property.
My hats off to our military for making a good call. Their patience will provide a plethora of intel and, thankfully, nobody got hurt (except some butt hurt Republicans on this thread).
Well I have seen several wrecked air frames pieced back together in hangars, so it's not impossible.
The debris field is large and the solar panels disintegrated pretty quickly,
Hitting the Water at 2,045 feet per second doesn't sound very survivable, but better than land I guess.
Yeah, the NTSB does a great job at putting puzzles back together. Butt, if it's a plane, at least they know what the puzzle is and they can identify lots of parts.
Hitting the Water at 2,045 feet per second
Hopefully the shredded balloon provided some drag. They probably won't reveal many of the details, butt, I'm optimistic that we will get lots of intell.
The first 3 balloons he shot down were classified.
LST=Large, Slow, Target
Things I'd like to know; Where in China was it launched from (East, mid-country, coast)?
When was it launched? Did we know/were we told?
How long were we tracking it? When did tracking, if any, start?
Was it intercepted and examined as is common with Russian craft close to our borders?
Was it communicating with any one? If so, by radio (a few 100 miles) or satelite (world wide)? Did we jam it?
Here's a video of the balloon being shot down.
This is NOT the first Chinese spy balloon to fly over the US.
Yes, Chinese Spy Balloons Flew Over The U.S. When President Trump Was In Office Too
Talking heads on cable TV are up in arms about the Chinese spy balloon that was floating across the continental U.S., before it was shot down Saturday afternoon . Conservative commentators have insisted President Joe Biden should’ve ordered the balloon be shot down earlier and that a foreign balloon flying over U.S. territory never would’ve happened under President Donald Trump. But it did happen under Trump, according to several new reports.
The Chinese government claims the balloon, which was first spotted by civilians on Wednesday over Billings, Montana , was actually just a weather balloon that was blown off course. But the Pentagon says it’s definitely a surveillance balloon and China had the ability to maneuver the aircraft.
“I can nearly guarantee you that that balloon would not still be flying if we were still there,” Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of State under Trump, told Sean Hannity on Friday .
But is Pompeo telling the truth? The Pentagon was quick to point out on Thursday that this kind of thing has happened before , though it didn’t get into specifics.
“Instances of this kind of balloon activity have been observed previously over the past several years,” Pentagon Press Secretary Pat Ryder said in a statement published online .
But several reports have been published in the past two days that give us a better sense of when spy balloons operated by New Cold War adversaries have sailed into U.S. airspace. Bloomberg News reported on Friday that Chinese balloons flew over the U.S. while President Trump occupied the White House.
“The balloon spotted this week over Montana was not the first time the U.S. has detected Chinese balloons over their territory—with previous incursions occurring during the Trump Administration,” Bloomberg reported .
But an unnamed source from the Trump administration insisted to Bloomberg in that same article that it wasn’t a big deal.
“One top national security official from the administration of former President Donald Trump said none of the Chinese spy balloons were near sensitive sites or had payloads as large as this one appears to carry,” Bloomberg continued.
And if you can’t trust an unnamed official who worked for Trump, who can you trust, right?
The Associated Press also has a new report that quotes a defense expert who said that Chinese spy balloons have been detected near sensitive sites in Hawaii, home to a large U.S. military presence, during the past five years.
“Craig Singleton, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said Chinese surveillance balloons have been sighted on numerous occasions over the past five years in different parts of the Pacific, including near sensitive U.S. military installations in Hawaii,” the Associated Press reported on Saturday .
President Biden has been in office for two years, leaving three years of Trump’s presidency in that window of five years.
The Wall Street Journal also independently reported that Chinese spy balloons have flown over the U.S. before, though didn’t specify the era.
“China has sent surveillance balloons over the continental U.S. on at least a handful of occasions, U.S. officials said,” the Journal reported on Friday .
And all of this still leaves open the possibility that other adversary aircraft have flown over the U.S. during the Trump years, aside from balloons. We still don’t know why swarms of drones were flying over Colorado and Nebraska in December 2019 and January 2020 . If you’ll recall, President Trump was president at that time and we never got an answer to who was behind that.
Trump himself posted a video to Twitter yesterday , rambling about how the University of Pennsylvania might be compromised by Chinese spies, an accusation for which he provided no evidence. Trump, a known liar and continued threat to the safety and security of the United States , also called for a the U.S. government to shoot down the Chinese spy balloon.
Ignoring the incoherent ramblings of Trump for a moment, the Chinese spy balloon situation still left plenty of valid questions about what should’ve been done and when. Pentagon officials reportedly considered shooting down the balloon earlier this week, but didn’t want to have debris hit anything on the ground. But the U.S. is a very large place with plenty of farm land. It seems illogical that there wasn’t at least a stretch of land where the military could’ve safely forced the balloon down.
Reasonable people can disagree on whether the waiting game chosen by the Biden administration was the right course of action. But the question of whether something similar would’ve happened under Trump appears to have been answered. It did.
And this morning Trump and a number of his top National Security heads have all stated that it did not happen during the Trump administration.
So trust but verify should be the word here. The DOD really needs to present the evidence of this to the pubic or this will just become another he said/he said situation that each side will use politically to bash each other. The American public deserves better than that.
Thanks but I read both of those. There's no evidence presented in them. It's all based on the word of a press secretary or an unnamed senior official. As we know well, press secretaries lie a lot and an unnamed source does not provide any evidence for truth.
As I said, the DOD needs to present the evidence to the public. A press release does not cut it due to the partisan back and forth we have all suffered under for several years now. And unless the DOD does present the evidence, this will remain a partisan club that each side will use to blast the other.
As I said, trust but verify. There's nothing to verify if all we have is somebodies word for it.
They all suck Biden.
Of course, the former 'president' would say that.
Of course, you believe him.
They all suck President Biden's what?
And of course you reply with snark and "nah uh". Maybe someday you will respond to the actual words written rather than the usual bullshit.
Right back at ya [deleted]
You have been told before to use my name and not a derivative. Don't be insulting to me.
As soon as you stop talking down to me and insulting me.
Prove it.
Prove what?
P.S., that's 'Nuh uh'
lol
Exactly, they've a history of troubles controlling their weather balloons.
You forgot to put quotation marks around "weather".
Another unnamed source from the press that lives for unnamed sources bashing Trump.
As for the drones. They were well researched- no damn proof that they were anything sinister. In fact in many cases no damn proof they even existed.
And the media wonders why their believability rate is worse than Congress.
No evidence of this happening. I guess we have to assume it happened during Obama's reign also.
“One top national security official from the administration of former President Donald Trump said none of the Chinese spy balloons were near sensitive sites or had payloads as large as this one appears to carry,” Bloomberg continued
Can anyone provide a modicum of evidence that Chinese spy balloons traversed the continental US during the Trump years? I don't mean coming close to Hawaii, I mean going across the country as this one did. Were they detected by the military? John Bolton and Mark Esper as well as others have denied that it happened under Trump.
"Trump-era national security adviser John Bolton didn’t categorically say the balloons hadn’t crossed the U.S., but told Fox News on Sunday that he not aware of any such incidents during his tenure."
As for the Pentagon: How is it that the balloon was first spotted when it was over Montana? Some say the Pentagon knew about the balloon as early as January 28th and they informed Biden on Feb 1?
Chinese spy balloons under Trump not discovered until after Biden took office
The transiting of three suspected Chinese spy balloons over the continental US during the Trump administration was only discovered after President Joe Biden took office, a senior administration official told CNN on Sunday.
The official did not say how or when those incidents were discovered.
I'm thinking they were pulled out of some ones ass to cover for Biden. It took milliseconds for the moronic left to start screaming trump after Bidens failure. It appears some still haven't learned that the Media is absolutely biased because it tells them what they want to hear.
Chinese spy balloons under Trump not discovered until after Biden took office | CNN Politics
It's obvious.
Sounds like that was pulled out of someone's ass to cover for the former 'president' #45
What was pulled out of whose ass?
What was "discovered" after Biden took office was documentation hidden by the Trump administration about those 3 balloon crossings.
Of course you have proof of this.................................
Yup. Looking at the documents right now. Just happened to visit Mar-a-Lago several months ago and was given them as a door prize. All I had to do was call him "comrade" and got half a dozen folders.
See comment 6.5.1
Last Tuesday President Biden asked the DoD to provide options for dealing with the balloon. He authorized the military to shoot it down. It was their decision to wait until it was over water and no longer was a threat to lives and property on the ground.
Republicans would have criticized Biden no matter what was done about the balloon.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the GOP critiques "premature" and "political."
"Our friends are playing politics with US intelligence. We sent a clear message to China that this is not acceptable. We protected civilians. We gained more intelligence while protecting our own sensitive information. And the bottom line here is shooting down the surveillance balloon over water wasn’t just the safest option, but it was the one that maximized our intelligence payload," he said.
From a CNN newsletter
The President is Commander in Chief. It's his decision, no matter if he wants to pass the buck for political cover. He certainly had no problem ignoring military advice when it came to the Afghanistan withdrawal.
The withdrawal was negotiated by Trump. Here is his "deal" (remember - Trump made the best deals).
US–Taliban deal
Biden pushed back the date that was set by Trump. He wanted to give us more time for the withdrawal.
Trump planned the surrender in Afghanistan when the US met with the Taliban in Doha in the summer of 2020.
The Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan , commonly known as the US–Taliban deal or the Doha Agreement , was a peace agreement signed by the United States and the Taliban on February 29, 2020 in Doha , Qatar , to bring an end to the 2001–2021 war in Afghanistan . [1] [2] Negotiated by Zalmay Khalilzad , the agreement did not involve the then Afghan government . [3] The deal, which also had secret annexes, was one of the critical events that caused the collapse of the Afghan National Security Forces . [4] Adhering to the conditions of the deal, the US dramatically reduced the number of US air raids, leaving the ANDSF without a key advantage in keeping the Taliban at bay. This resulted in 'a sense of abandonment within the ANDSF and the Afghan population'. ANDSF was ill-prepared to sustain security following a US withdrawal, which allowed for the Taliban insurgency , ultimately leading to the Taliban takeover of Kabul on 15 August 2021. [5]
The agreement stipulated fighting restrictions for both the US and the Taliban, and provided for the withdrawal of all NATO forces from Afghanistan in return for the Taliban's counter-terrorism commitments. The US agreed to an initial reduction of its force level from 13,000 to 8,600 within 135 days (i.e. by July 2020), followed by a full withdrawal within 14 months (i.e. by 1 May 2021) if the Taliban kept its commitments. The United States also committed to closing five military bases within 135 days, and expressed its intent to end economic sanctions on the Taliban by August 27, 2020. The agreement was supported by Pakistan, China, and Russia, [3] and unanimously endorsed by the UN Security Council . [6] India also welcomed the pact. [7] [8]
Insurgent attacks against the Afghan security forces, however, surged in the aftermath of the deal, with thousands killed. However, withdrawals per the agreement continued. By January 2021, just 2,500 US troops remained in the country, and NATO forces fully evacuated by the end of that summer. The US completed its full evacuation on August 30, 2021, as the Taliban took control of the country by force .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US–Taliban_deal
First, Biden changed the date for withdrawal, it’s silly to argue he was bound by trump.
second, that has nothing to do with my point.
Yes, Biden changed the date to give us more time to get out as many people as we could.
And, yes, he could have said fuck it, Trump was stupid and he could have torn up theDoha Agreement. Then he would have had to send in thousands of US soldiers and re-start the fucking war. Do you seriously advocate that?
He could have set a later date. Pretty easy.
Yes.
Trump "could have set a later date. Pretty easy."
Since it was Trump's deal.
Which became Biden's to implement and decide the date to leave.
Certainly Trump could have done better.
So could have Biden.
Trump's "deal" (he's the greatest deal maker in history) included the pull-out date
Timeline of U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan
Key decisions by two administrations determined to end America's longest war
By Eugene Kiely and Robert Farley
Posted on August 17, 2021
The blame game has begun over who lost Afghanistan.
The fact is, President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump, were both eager to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan and end what Biden referred to in his Aug. 16 speech as “America’s longest war.”
The Trump administration in February 2020 negotiated a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban that excluded the Afghan government , freed 5,000 imprisoned Taliban soldiers and set a date certain of May 1, 2021, for the final withdrawal.
And the Trump administration kept to the pact, reducing U.S. troop levels from about 13,000 to 2,500 , even though the Taliban continued to attack Afghan government forces and welcomed al-Qaeda terrorists into the Taliban leadership.
Biden delayed the May 1 withdrawal date that he inherited. But ultimately his administration pushed ahead with a plan to withdraw by Aug. 31 , despite obvious signs that the Taliban wasn’t complying with the agreement and had a stated goal to create an “Islamic government” in Afghanistan after the U.S. left, even if it meant it had to “continue our war to achieve our goal.
Biden extended the timetable by four months.
The only alternative would have been to send in thousands of US troops and continue the longest war in US history.
Is that what you advocated?
That's absolutely amazing.
Trump approved the Keystone pipeline, Biden killed it.
Trump had stay in Mexico. Biden killed it.
Trump pulled us out of the Iran deal. Biden killed it.
But for some reason you all believe Biden was obligated to keep this? But didn't pull out on the date trump specified, and yet it's still trumps fault for an agreement that Biden didn't keep according to trumps terms?
I realize we hold the mentally handicapped to different standards, but he is the one that was elected to do the job. exactly when does he become resposible for what he does?
I see you don't hold trumpturd to any standards.
Shocker!
oops! Forgot about that!
I doubt it would have gone any more smoothly had trmp been re-elected. It was a cluster fuck to begin with
What exactly the fuck did you read in my comment that led you to ask such an asinine question?
Trump made the deal. He could have done better.
It became Biden's responsibility to execute it. Biden set the date, and Biden could have done better, too.
I can't believe that I have to explain that BOTH men fucked up.
Take the blinders off for a second.
It is a pitifully weak-ass argument designed only to throw all blame on Trump for something Biden executed. Can't be telling the truth about Biden here, it is frowned upon by some liberal sycophants.
It's like the stupid fucktards that raced to publish that there were 3 ballons under trump and he did nothing..... before realizing that their "facts" were just complete bullshit....The medias lack of integrity isn't even in question anymore, and now even here we see the Biden apologists posting that the Chinese violation of Americas airspace is just a joke, it's sad and pathetic what lengths some will go to, party over country.
Speaking of fucktards and bullshit . . .
It has to be expected now. If they can't tell lies about Trump, well, the nation might, just might, start focusing on the idiot in the WH today.
NEXT WEEK.....Coming to a military base near you...
Have a I got a funny story about Chinese lanterns, alcohol and aliens
I have one about cheap chinese drones , crackheads and meth cookers too.... damn hobby drones with those strobe lights .....
Let's go get a beer
Don Junior had a suggestion:
Trump Jr. Shares Chinese Balloon Joke That His Dad Might Not Be Too Happy About
Joining social media buzz over the Chinese spy balloon that was shot down in U.S. airspace Saturday, Donald Trump ’s son on Sunday shared a joke about the incident, showing the former president’s infamous portrayal as a giant, angry, diaper-wearing baby wielding a smartphone in its tiny hand.
“Not gonna lie... this is funny,” Trump Jr. tweeted.
The “Trump Baby” blimp, which now lives in the Museum of London , was created for Trump’s 2018 visit to London, when tens of thousands of demonstrators protested his visit to the city.
The 20-foot balloon made several more appearances during his presidency, including at anti-Trump protests in Argentina and in Washington, D.C .
Trump Jr. had waded into the Chinese balloon debate last week with an unusable solution that earned him a roasting on Twitter. As the balloon flew over Montana, he suggested that residents in the state could shoot it down themselves with guns.
trumpturd, jr. is just as big a fucking moron as his father.
He really has no idea how guns work does he?
the balloon ordeal is another demonstration of why republicans don't need to be anywhere near national intelligence agencies...
Ya! You got that right.
[deleted]
crap. I hate it when I post something so offensive it disappears, and even worse when I can't remember what I said...
Meanwhile the intrepid Aussies in a show of being Yankee's bestie have launched Danny Morgan in 'retribution'.
Morning...
Sorry but that one has gone right over my head.. 😂😂
Who is Danny Morgan?
Will have to check that out..thanks Hallux would be a good movie on a cold wet winters day..🐨
... and she will like it too.
Just read that China has admitted to another errant innocent "civilian company" owned weather balloon is now traversing across South America. What a coincidence!
It was spotted by Columbia a few days ago.
crap. I need new glasses. does that name on his helmet say mave rick or have dick??
either way they're both lies
well, yeah...
A couple of hours ago two USAF F22's intercepted and photographed another "UFO", an unmanned craft off the coast of Alaska
After some observations the craft was "shot down" and the debris field is located on landfast sea ice.
Helicopters are in the process of retrieving the "remains".
This is a developing story...
An important one.
Let me be the first to give the military & the Biden team a WELL DONE!
eeeeek!!! shoot it down!!!
We shot that shit down in 2020.
We may get another shot in 2024.
let's wait for him to come in for a landing in new jersey. that's more poetic...
oh, the inhumanity...
>splat<
Those Jersey landings are hot!
“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” ~Herman Melville
Some trolls even manage to fail in imitation.
“Originality is independence, not rebellion; it is sincerity, not antagonism.” ~ George Henry Lewes
enthusiastic TDSing gave him brain damage...
“Originality is also independence, and rebellion; it is even insincerity, and antagonism when dealing with trolls.”
-> al Jizzerror
looking forward to the footage of you in your backyard blasting away at a white dot in the sky...
What the fuck does he shoot with?
The balloon was 60 - 65,000 ft high.
That is over 11 miles high.
hey mannnn...., don't harsh on my gig, mannnn...
Sorry mannnn.....
somehow I think he'd be more familiar with a german 88...