Yes, I can easily say that could be an airplane. I really cannot accept anyone insisting this was a missile, unless they are a missile expert. I don’t think anyone else has a basis to get all worked up about it.
As for the aged former under secretary of defense, I think he was glad someone asked him a question.
That's not at all what I saw. I saw them trying to get him to say it was a missile, and him acknowledging that it looked like one, but not saying that's what it was.