What the hell is going on? For years we lived with only rare UFO sightings, and now they are seemingly everywhere. And no, Stephen Speilberg is not making a sequel to ET. I initially considered at least three possible explanations:
First, we’re really seeing an increase in balloons and other unidentified things flying unintentionally into our airspace from other countries.
Second, we now choose to publish and tear down things that we previously ignored and allowed to pass unhindered.
Third, those wily Chinese are doing an aerial surveillance reconnaissance route to see how we react and collect data on various responding units in preparation for a threatened attack.
If you ask defense contractors and many members of Congress, the answer is most certainly number three. And we need more Cowbell.
But then I heard from a source who works closely with NORAD. The answer is number two. General Van Herck, who commands NORAD, now tags anything that enters US and Canadian airspace and orders assets to shoot it down. In the past, General Van Herck and his staff would not order a combat response unless they had clear evidence that the balloon or object was hostile or posed a lethal threat. This is what happened with the first balloon – NORAD decided the balloon was not a threat and did not order it to crash.
Van Herck’s decision was subsequently overturned when the Biden White House learned that there was a big fat target that could be shot from the sky and make “The Big One” look strong. General Van Herck got his ass kicked and was warned not to be so quick to judge something as non-hostile, even if it was “non-hostile”. Van Herck, like every other bureaucratic creature, lives to serve the Master. Something like Gollum from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I suspect plans are underway to replace Van Herck soon and install someone more inclined to shoot first and ask questions later.
So now we have a situation where we’re spinning tens of millions of dollars in air assets just to chase down some floating junk that we previously ignored. Oh yeah. I almost forgot another purpose. Use the unknown to scare the crap out of the American public. Nothing sets people off better than forgetting that some of those objects we’re shooting at could be a malevolent alien or a super-secret Chinese weapon. Then again, maybe not.