Is the whole weather balloon/UFO thing just another false flag by the US?

[msc545]

I am wondering about these "UFOs" the US keeps shooting down. Are they in fact made and launched by the US to drum up more acceptance of military operations and acceptance of the ever-increasing military budget?

[FilmGuy93]

That's kinda the vibe I'm getting. You know, when I was very young, I used to see balloons as my friends. I was 6 or 7, and I would absolutely bawl my eyes out when I lost balloons. Well now I know I had good reason to be scared. My friends would become targets for the USAF and NORAD

[jshm2]

Yeah, the USA has made the same mistake as the Soviet Union - overspent on a crap military.

[Anonymous]

The US military is undergoing a massive overhaul not seen since the 80s. That means replacing most of their equipment and designs from the cold war era. So that means f15s, f16s, f18s, A10s, harriers all replaced with f35s and possibly more f22s or a new Stealth fighter as well as more drones. The B2 spirit is to be replaced by a new Stealth bomber. The B52 may go if they find something more cost effective and better that van do the same job in a modern aviation package like a a C17.

The US Army wants new tanks to replace the Abrahams designs, that's 3000 in active service and 4000 in storage which is why it's no big deal giving them to Ukraine. The Army is replacing all its m4/m16 5.56 small arms for the new M7 firing the 6.8mm, they are getting rid of the SAWs and designated rifle weapons for versions of the M7. Possibly they will be using 6.8mm cartridges that are made of plastic making them 3 times lighter meaning they can carry 3 times more. The Marines are adopted the IAR for their m16s, m4s, designated marksman rifle and squad automatic weapon. The IAR will function as all 3. The Marines have also got rid of all main battle tanks. The military is investing in smart scopes for rifles that calculate the range and adjust automatically for a rifleman.

The black hawk helicopter is being replaced by the Bell V-280 tiltrotor aircraft and maybe the SB-1 Defiant, the Marines already started with the Osprey to replace their helicopter fleet. The Humvee is being phased out by the JLTV. It looks like us combat vechiles will all RCWS on them which can basically mount any kind of machine gun on them, grenade launcher, mortar systems, rocket launchers and the machine gunner doesn't have to sit up in an exposed postion, the system can fire more accurately with a mounted 50cal machine than a sniper can, nightvision, thermal optics, motion sensors means there's nowhere for an enemy combatant to hide. Range fingers and computers adjust and compute the ranges automatically. Essentially they are doing for the ww2 era 50cal what was done for ww2 era bombs when they added a bit of technology and turned them into smart bombs. There's probably a lot more that I'm missing but basically nearly everything from the cold war is going.

Point is this all costs money so the Ukraine war, south east China Sea thing and these balloons are justification to spend the money.

[msc545]

No, the real point is, why the hell do taxpayers have to foot the bill for all this expensive crap? I would rather have the money spent on education, jobs, and food. This is simply socialism for the military-industrial complex at the expense of the rest of us who have to live with predatory capitalism.

[Opinion Owner]

No this is capitalism. America has an Empire. That empire has to be maintained. America is basically living off the resources of South America, Africa and the Middle east.

[msc545]

This cannot last forever.

[Opinion Owner]

Empires don't last forever but they do need to be maintained and backed by military power. The only good thing I can see about it is that the US military may help encourage the government to invest in the infrastructure of the country, the only reason the freeways were even built was because president eisenhower having seen the autobahns in Germany during ww2 argued slyly that freeways would be needed to move nuclear rockets around and us military forces quickly.

[msc545]

The empire is ruining the lives of ordinary citizens and killing democracy.

[Opinion Owner]

At the height of British empire's power you'd find the same poverty in London as you would on the streets of calcutta. Extreme capitalism with all the wealth in the hands of a few

[msc545]

I feel certain the British citizens were also unhappy

[lightbulb27]

not if china is saying it's theirs.

But is it used to do that, probably. we need another war in taiwan, one is not enough I guess...

[exitseven]

Since Biden botched the handling of the Chinese spy balloon, letting it traverse the whole country and doing flyovers of many military bases, he is shooting down anything that flies to make the public think he knows what he is doing.

[AngryCarl2]

Didn't China say they are their balloons? And not to shoot them down please?

[WindAtMyBack]

Not false flags. The US has no reason to do such a thing. They don't need to make up excuses to justify the military budget.

[msc545]

Yes, they do. People are complaining about it.

[WindAtMyBack]

Yes they do what? They are complaining about what?

[msc545]

People are complaining about the size of the military budget, and the endless wars that accomplish nothing.

[WindAtMyBack]

People always complain about that. Nothing new there. People will complain no matter what. The military does not need to make things up. They have plenty of legitimate stuff to spend money on.

If the balloons are a legitimate threat, they will want money to counter it. But they don't need to make stuff up. I think at this stage they are only trying to figure out whether there really is a threat. I think they have too little information to even make decisions on it.

[msc545]

I don't think the military makes things up, but the weapons manufacturers certainly do.

[WindAtMyBack]

So weapons manufacturers sent up balloons as a false flag so they could increase their sales by 0.0001%? It would not even pay for itself.

Yea, military contractors have salesmen. Like all other companies have salesmen. And non-profits have salesmen. And the government has salesmen. And yes, salesmen are not known for being completely honest. It's the job of the customer to see through all the sales BS.

[msc545]

The weapons makers got 858 billion dollar of taxpayer money last year. Your math is bad.

[WindAtMyBack]

"weapons makers got 858 billion"

First of all, no they didn't. They didn't get anywhere near that much.

How much profit would they get for shooting down a few balloons? And what would it cost to run a false flag? They would lose money.

A false flag just sounds like typical conspiracy nonsense. It never makes sense.

[msc545]

Do you actually live in the us? False flag operations are a staple tactic of the US government in starting the last three or four Wars

[WindAtMyBack]

Make up your mind. First you say it's the government. Then you say it's not, it's the weapons industry. Now you are again saying it's the government.

I countered both of those, so now you are trying for a second go around. The government doesn't need to make up stuff like this to get a minuscule amount of money to counter this. Seriously, whatever funds they use to counter this is nothing. And for private industry, it's just not worth the cost and effort.

You are talking about something elaborate and costly with no payoff.

[msc545]

@Slingblade1126 I know for a fact my math is right. Google it.

[msc545]

@Slingblade1126 Breaking it out by various costs doesn't change the fact that it is money spent on the military.

[msc545]

@Slingblade1126 I don't know what percentage went to weapons makers vs the military itself and that is not the point. Picking at detail doesn't invalidate what I said.

[msc545]

Your obsession with the details of my original statement is the typical modified gal-gish response of a right-wing debater with nothing of substance to actually say. Won't work on me. Have a nice day.

[msc545]

Also, you are not going to end this with your tortured logic crap. I am ending it.

[NostalgiaSenpi]

Wouldn't doubt it.

[Guardian45]

Nah, I doubt it.