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Did Biden Use $400,000 Missiles to Shoot Down Weather Balloons?
Townhall ^ | 02/15/2023 | Katie Pavlich

Posted on 02/15/2023 8:38:28 AM PST by SeekAndFind

It's been days since President Joe Biden directed the Pentagon to shootdown a number of "objects" he claims were a threat to U.S. airspace and commercial aircraft. There are no photos of the "objects," which White House officials say cannot be classified as balloons, and still no recovered debris after they were reportedly taken out by F-16 pilots using $400,000 missiles.

As officials drag their feet on providing details about what exactly the objects were, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre won't say whether Biden scrambled fighter jets to shoot down benign and routine weather balloons.

REPORTER: "If it turns out...that the president and Mr. Trudeau sent top gun fighters to blow weather balloons out of the sky, does the president regret that? And is he embarrassed by that?"

KJP: "We just don't know yet." pic.twitter.com/02rljbp6fQ— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) February 14, 2023

During remarks to reporters Monday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin gave a preview of how additional "objects" could be handled. 

"We will evaluate each and every event on its own merits, and we'll make decisions based upon the recommendations of the NORTHCOM NORAD commander, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and they'll make recommendations to me, and I'll evaluate and make recommendations to the President," Austin said. "Again, these three events, each of them presented a risk to safety of flight. We don't know if they were actually collecting intelligence, but because of the route that they took, out of an abundance of caution, we want to make sure we have the ability to examine what these things are and potentially what they were doing." 

This is what's really going on here: The Biden administration royally screwed up by allowing the Chinese spy balloon into the U.S. after watching it approach. Americans noticed right before Blinken's trip to China and then government allowed it to traverse the whole country with surveillance equipment. Now, after creating a lack of deterrence nightmare, they're in damage control mode -- shooting down 'objects' while refusing to identify what they are.



TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; US: Alaska
KEYWORDS: airforce; dollardrunkpentagon; missiles; weatherbaloons
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1 posted on 02/15/2023 8:38:28 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Why, yes. That is true.


2 posted on 02/15/2023 8:40:09 AM PST by jdsteel (PA voters elected a stroke victim and a dead guy. Not a joke.)
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To: jdsteel

About the cost of the missiles, that is.


3 posted on 02/15/2023 8:40:36 AM PST by jdsteel (PA voters elected a stroke victim and a dead guy. Not a joke.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Why not? They used $1MM cruise missiles to make rubble bounce in Afghanistan.


4 posted on 02/15/2023 8:40:55 AM PST by bk1000 (Banned from Breitbart)
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To: SeekAndFind

$400K a pop?


5 posted on 02/15/2023 8:43:59 AM PST by GMMC0987
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s just your hard-earned tax dollars at work protecting you from outer space aliens....nothing to see here.
But hey, it’s better than giving it to the Ukraine to be laundered back to the pedoPIG and his vile spawn....LOL


6 posted on 02/15/2023 8:44:41 AM PST by lgjhn23 ("On the 8th day, Satan created the progressive liberal to destroy all the good that God created...")
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To: jdsteel

How dare Biden waste one of Ukraine’s Missiles! Doesn’t he know all US Weapons are earmarked for Zelensky? That same rocket could have brought down a Ruzzian jet? It could have saved a hospital full of children! (The preferred target of Ork air force).


7 posted on 02/15/2023 8:46:05 AM PST by Forward the Light Brigade ( Ride to the sound of the Guns!)
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To: SeekAndFind

As Steve Bannon often says “Stolen elections have catastrophic consequences”.


8 posted on 02/15/2023 8:49:57 AM PST by jospehm20
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To: SeekAndFind

F16 pilot at close range: “That’s not a balloon”.

Fighter pilots are known to have good eyesight!


9 posted on 02/15/2023 8:50:25 AM PST by steve86 (Numquam accusatus, numquam ad curiam ibit, numquam ad carcerem™)
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To: SeekAndFind

The Canadians put lots of holes in a balloon some years ago and failed to crash it where they wanted to. Also, the instrument package on this balloon was worth many times the cost of the missile. This article is misleading and misinformed.


10 posted on 02/15/2023 8:51:05 AM PST by Gen.Blather (Wait! I said that out loud? )
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To: SeekAndFind

SOP for Democrats....the collective memory forgets what Clinton did to keep Monica Lewinsky off the news cycles and how Clinton squandered millions in Cruise missiles to attack a empty pharmaceutical production facility and a tent city.


11 posted on 02/15/2023 8:55:49 AM PST by vetvetdoug
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To: SeekAndFind

Trust me, there is video of all the objects before, during, and after they were engaged.


12 posted on 02/15/2023 8:57:28 AM PST by Sparky1776
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To: SeekAndFind
The AIM-9 training version of the Sidewinder could have taken down any of the four "objects" shot down by US fighters.


13 posted on 02/15/2023 9:01:43 AM PST by equaviator (There's nothing like the universe to bring you down to earth.)
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To: SeekAndFind

So we’ve spent around two million dollars, for five four hundred thousand dollar missiles, to shoot down four balloons (one required two missiles, from, reportedly four F18s or F22 (they don’t seem to be able to discern the difference), which probably had escorts.

Prolly could have sent a Montana rancher in biplane with .300 mag. Just sayin . . .


14 posted on 02/15/2023 9:05:52 AM PST by MCSETots
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To: SeekAndFind

Anybody who’s not a far left sycophant or a mindless drone knows this is exactly what is happening.


15 posted on 02/15/2023 9:07:15 AM PST by DouglasKC
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To: Gen.Blather

What exactly in the article is misleading and misinformed? I think you’re confusing the Chinese balloon with the other three whatevers. We haven’t recovered an instrument package from the other shootdowns


16 posted on 02/15/2023 9:12:23 AM PST by sunny bonobo
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To: SeekAndFind

.


17 posted on 02/15/2023 9:13:39 AM PST by sauropod (“If they don’t believe our lies, well, that’s just conspiracy theorist stuff, there.”)
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To: SeekAndFind

“Did Biden use a $400,000 missile to shoot down a balloon”?

This is a military question, not a Biden question.
Biden can’t eat his own oatmeal, he has zero idea what military weapon to use.


18 posted on 02/15/2023 9:16:21 AM PST by HereInTheHeartland (Have you seen Joe Biden's picture on a milk carton?)
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To: equaviator
The AIM-9 training version of the Sidewinder could have taken down any of the four "objects" shot down by US fighters.

The rocket motors are inert. That is why they are painted blue. Interestingly, the seeker may be live, depends on purpose of the training.

Still, it would never leave the rail.

19 posted on 02/15/2023 9:20:51 AM PST by pfflier
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To: MCSETots

MCSETots wrote: “Prolly could have sent a Montana rancher in biplane with .300 mag. Just sayin . . .”

It was proven in WW1 that shooting holes in baloons doesn’t work.


20 posted on 02/15/2023 9:29:51 AM PST by DugwayDuke (Most pick the expert who says the things they agree with.)
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