A Chinese balloon about the size of three school buses was seen wandering over the U.S. early last month at an altitude of 18,600 meters. The balloon flew over Montana, which holds many military bases with sensitive information. It drifted across America till it reached the Carolina coast, where the military shot it down on February 4 on orders from President Biden.  

Biden delayed his decision for a few days; although many of his advisers argued that the Chinese were using the balloon for surveillance, others counseled him not to destroy it due to its size.

Meanwhile, it drifted over several other sensitive areas.

There is controversy over if shooting the balloon down was a good idea. Some say our government did the right thing by ensuring that no American civilians were harmed. Some believe that the balloon should have been shot down when still over Montana -to put an end to the threat. Balloons have a history. During World War II, Japan launched thousands of hydrogen balloons carrying bombs, and many ended up in the  U.S. Most were ineffective, but one was all it took to kill six Americans.  In May 1945, six civilians died when they found one of the balloons on the ground in Oregon, and it exploded. In the aftermath of the war, America started to deploy its own balloons for various purposes. 

Do you believe our government did the right thing, or do you think they could have done something differently? 

To learn more about this issue, visit Kelly Gallagher’s: article of the week — Kelly Gallagher. (2023). Retrieved 3 March 2023, from http://www.kellygallagher.org/article-of-the-week