What the hell is going on? We have lived for years with only rare sightings of UFOs and now they are seemingly everywhere. And no, Stephen Speilberg is not making a sequel to ET. Initially, I considered at least three possible explanations:
First, we really are seeing an uptick in balloons and other unidentified things unintentionally flying into our air space from other countries.
Second, we are now deciding to announce and shoot down things that we previously ignored and allowed to pass unmolested.
Third, those crafty Chinese are doing an aerial Surveillance Detection Route to see how we react and collect intel on the various units that respond in preparation for a looming attack.
If you ask the Defense contractors and many members of Congress the answer most certainly is number three. And we need more Cowbell.
But then I heard from a source working closely with NORAD. The answer is number two. General Van Herck, who commands NORAD, is now flagging everything that comes into U.S. and Canadian air space and ordering up assets to shoot it down. In the past, General Van Herck and his staff would not order a combat reaction unless they had clear evidence that the balloon or object was hostile of presented a lethal threat. That is what happened with the first balloon — NORAD decided the balloon did not pose a threat and did not order it to be brought down.
Van Herck’s decision subsequently was countered when the Biden White House found out there was a big fat target that could be shot from the sky and make the “Big Guy” look tough. General Van Herck got an ass chewing and was warned not to be so quick to judge something as non-hostile even if it is “non-hostile.” Van Herck, like any other bureaucratic creature, lives to serve Master. Sort of like Gollum from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I suspect plans are afoot to replace Van Herck soon and put someone more inclined to shoot first and ask questions later in charge.
So now we have a situation in which we are spinning up tens of millions of dollars in air assets just to chase down some floating junk that we previously ignored. Oh yeah. Almost forgot another purpose. Use the unknown to scare the shit out of the American public. Nothing spins folks up better than letting slip that some of those objects we are shooting at might be a malicious ET or a super secret Chinese weapon. Then again, maybe not.