'I Haven't Ruled Out Anything.' U.S. General Doesn't Eliminate Aliens As UFOs Mount

[Polybius]

Source: Time

A U.S. fighter jet shot down a high-flying object above Lake Huron Sunday after it flew near a sensitive military site, the Pentagon said.

The shoot-down, which came on President Joe Biden’s order, is the latest in an unusual series of aerial incidents that began last week when a suspected Chinese spy balloon traversed the continental United States.

At 2:42 p.m. Eastern time, an F-16 launched a heat-seeking AIM-9X missile at an unidentified “object” flying at around 20,000 ft. above the Great Lake. It was the fourth time in eight days that the American military has been called upon to destroy a mysterious craft in midair, including three in the last three days.

Other than the first balloon, which China has acknowledged was theirs, the Pentagon doesn’t yet know what the objects are or where they came from. Asked directly, a senior military official did not rule out the possibility that their provenance could be extraterrestrial.

Read more: https://time.com/6254959/military-ufo-shootdown-lake-huron/

[FoxNewsSucks]

1. It's only been four years since the alien fly-by

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alien-extraterrestrial-oumuamua-space-object-whizzed-by-earth-harvard-professor/

Maybe space aliens really are preparing to invade. Looking at the lunacy they must observe here, it can't be ruled out at this time.

[Polybius]

2. Maybe this is what they think:

[hay rick]

3. We can only hope.

I for one welcome our alien overlords. How much worse can it be than America circa 2023?

[Fritz Walter]

27. They might just want "To Serve Man"

a la Twilight Zone:

[Lokilooney]

50. Maybe there was just some space dust on it

&ab_channel=FreshSpawns

[AkFemDem]

4. I'm as prone to wondering about this possibility as

Anyone else… but one thing that strikes me is why is it these objects are seemingly only appearing over North America? Surely if this were alien probes or whatever, our European allies would be reporting similar sightings. That these all seem to be first crossing over Alaska which is reasonably close to Russia, China and N Korea makes me think there’s a far less intergalactic explanation.

[Qutzupalotl]

7. We have only recently acquired the ability to detect these things.

It's quite possible that other countries don't have the capability, don't announce the takedowns, or just that they aren't the prime targets that we are.

[Midnight Writer]

5. I just hope it wasn't Baby Jesus coming back.

[3Hotdogs]

6. If it was Jesus, Republicans would be scared, the most. But back to aliens. Balloons?

Aliens, who have figured out how to cross space are gonna investigate us, using balloons?

[Polybius]

9. Only the first, Chinese one was 100% a balloon

All the others that followed are unidentified.

[Eyeball_Kid]

12. Makes no sense. That comment by a general was beyond stupid.

I'd feel relieved if I mistakenly heard the statement for something other than it was.

[chowder66]

21. +1

[Irish_Dem]

22. Yes very odd comment from a US military general.

[thesquanderer]

43. If they have no idea what it is, how can they rule anything out? Comment was reasonable.

Apart from the metaphysical, I think you have to be open to any possibility (i.e. anything that does not contradict empirical knowledge).

It does not mean he thinks it's likely, by any means. But if it's a one-in-a-billion chance, you still can't say you can completely rule it out, right?

[Irish_Dem]

47. It's odd because the US military tells us there are no such things as UFOs.

So now for a US general to talk like this is odd.

[thesquanderer]

48. Not odd. He was asked if he could rule it out. The answer was he can't rule out anything.

Also, there definitely are UFOs...literally, Flying Objects that are Unidentified. It doesn't mean they're alien, just that they're unidentified. The popular alternate interpretation of that acronym is why you now see the term UAPs... Unexplained Aerial Phenomena.

Also, AFAIK, the military has never ruled out that there could be alien intelligence, or that they could one day appear here. They only deny reports of things that some people claim have actually already happened.

[Ligyron]

42. This is what cracks me up every time.

Aliens, advanced beings who have figured out how to cross millions of miles of space, for some odd reason need to use bright lights to see anything at night?

Please.

If they had the technical skills to travel all this way, (why they'd want to study us is an even bigger mystery), but if they could somehow do that...then they could no doubt observe us worldwide to right up our collective rectum, all while remaining completely invisible, i.e., cloaked like the Klingons..

[chowder66]

8. JFC is this General a TFG nutcase?

[Polybius]

11. General Glen VanHerck:

Gen. Glen D. VanHerck is Commander, United States Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command. USNORTHCOM conducts homeland defense, civil support and security cooperation to defend and secure the United States and its interests. NORAD conducts aerospace warning, aerospace control and maritime warning in the defense of North America.

Gen. VanHerck is a graduate of the University of Missouri and commissioned through the Reserve Officer Training Corps program. He has a diverse background that includes operational and training assignments in the F-15C Eagle, F-35A Lighting II, B-2A Spirit and B-1B Lancer aircraft. He has served as an instructor pilot and flight examiner in the F-15C, B-2A and T-6A Texan II. Additionally, he served as a U.S. Air Force Weapons School instructor in the F-15C and the B-2A.

He has commanded at the squadron, group and twice at the wing level, including the 325th Weapons Squadron, the 71st Operations Group, the 7th Bomb Wing, the 509th Bomb Wing. As a major general, he commanded the U.S. Air Force Warfare Center. His staff assignments include tours as the Chief of the B-2 Program Element Monitor at Headquarters Air Combat Command, the Director of Operations at Headquarters Air Force Global Strike Command, the Director of Plans and Integration at U.S. Strategic Command, the Vice Director of Strategy, Plans and Policy (J5) at the Joint Staff, and the Vice Director of the Joint Staff.

Prior to his current assignment, Gen. Glen D. VanHerck was the Director, Joint Staff, the Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia. In this role, he assisted the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in his role as advisor to the President and Secretary of Defense, coordinated and directed the activities of the Joint Staff in support of the Chairman and served as the Staff Inspector General

General Glen VanHerck

I can't find much about his politics, but he's no small cheese.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

28. The dancing and and weaving from answering questions is worthy of a top flight boxer!

A future at Fox?

[NJCher]

14. There's been a quiet revolution

In how our country thinks of this phenomenon. If you haven’t been following it, you have a boatload of catching up to do. This individual is not out of his mind and once you do your catching up, you’ll see this would pretty much be the average opinion among people at that level.

[Irish_Dem]

23. What is the current thought?

[NJCher]

54. the U.S. government has

acknowledged that there are unknown aircraft but goes no further than that, i.e., nothing about actual extraterrestrial beings.

[stopdiggin]

32. and this was far from any sort of affirmation

rather it was textbook deflection and non-answer. (to a specific question)

Would agree that there has been a change in thinking and openness - (and this non-statement would fall in line with that) - but knowledge and 'answers' have really not moved significantly.

[James48]

10. Darn good thing that we invented "Space Cadets"

Or whatever our space force is called now.

I keep forgetting.

[Best_man23]

31. Maybe its time to stand up SHADO

SHADO = Supreme Headquarters Alien Defense Organization.

And if the sub crews have these fishnet outfits, count me 100% onboard.

[AllaN01Bear]

37. i wanted one of those net shirts so bad as a kid , then i found out how expensive they were .

i loved the ladys in the either pink or blue hairdoos . 2nd season became space 1999

[William Seger]

13. I think I've seen this movie

The Air Force will declare that it was just a balloon after all and there will be some photos of it, but then the alien autopsy rumors will start ...

[Alexander Of Assyria]

29. PHOTOS, I want the damn PHOTOS! Taxpayers paid for hose missiles!

And if aliens…how long until they shoot back?

[Ray Bruns]

35. Anyone who denies the existence of aliens is part of the government conspiracy to deny the existence

Of aliens.

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS1010US1010&hl=en-US&sxsrf=AJOqlzV34QiZUtUnpR53_UsYvRlQo3tvoQ:1676295047301&q=history+channel+aliens+meme&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjB3tTWzZL9AhWoFFkFHVPZCYgQ0pQJegQICRAB&biw=390&bih=669&dpr=3#imgrc=SJAPc2GZO4Uc_M

[GenThePerservering]

15. If it's aliens

and they have a good idea of what's going on, they'll just roll up the windows and keep going.

[Irish_Dem]

24. Our own species brutally kills each other everyday. Why would aliens come here.

[FoxNewsSucks]

39. To make better use of what we are destroying and letting go to waste.

[KS Toronado]

16. Could this be Russia or North Korea

floating jamming devices over our airspace hoping to land some nuclear bombs over here so
that we couldn't detect and respond to in a timely matter?

[NullTuples]

18. I'm sure our electronics planes are scanning *everything*?

[KS Toronado]

19. The 40,000 footer over Canada

the pilot that shot it down reported problems with his electronics and blamed it the balloon.

[Irish_Dem]

25. Maybe not. These things have been not detected previously we think?

[Irish_Dem]

26. KS, yes it could. Russia, China, NK.

[CentralMass]

33. I believe in the past there have been efforts to "light up" our defenses to learn their capabilities

[NullTuples]

17. At 20,000 feet, do they have better options for retrieval than blowing them to bits?

( I get that the first one was much higher )

[Stargazer99]

20. When some of the parts of the balloon were in english I doubt it was aliens

[Polybius]

40. Only the first was confirmed to be a balloon

The other three are unidentified.

[purr-rat beauty]

30. They are UFOs until identified

but more likely of the terrestrial sort

If these things were in abundance during trump's tenure then there's hell to pay

[stopdiggin]

34. part of the article addresses 'detection'

and what 'previously' NORAD was looking for. These things could have been around for a while - and we might not have been 'picking them up', or ignoring them as 'clutter.'

[Stuckinthebush]

38. 99.9% likely terrestrial sort

The alien speculation is fun but not realistic. If aliens could get to this planet for observation and they could zap people up into their craft for propes and research, then I doubt they'd be shot down by an inferior earth weapon. Unless some alien was asleep at the controls!

And yes, I am sure TFG allowed or ignored many such observation craft during his time in the white house.

[AllaN01Bear]

36. dang nabbit, ever since the balloon shoot down happened this plays in my head.

[Marthe48]

41. Extraterrestrial could mean space junk?

Other DU posts mentioned that the 2nd, 3rd, 4th items were possibly junk coming out of orbit around the earth and falling.

Hoping there aren't toxins or other sickening material in the things they are shooting down.

[Bayard]

45. That makes the most sense to me

As much as I wish it was ET's (the benevolent type.)

[Marthe48]

46. Yes, benevolent

Always hope for the best

[Polybius]

51. They weren't falling

They had to be shot down, so no, not space junk.

[Marthe48]

53. I was thinking of things spiraling down

like Space Lab. Seemed like it made several orbits, getting lower and lower. I knew the Chinese balloon was floating, didn't see details about how the 2nd, 3rd, 4th were moving.

[area51]

44. I'm not saying it was aliens ...

[Chainfire]

49. So a civilization is far enough advanced for interstellar travel,

but can't avoid being seen gathering information on a lower tech civilization. They are only interested in North America and they can't avoid missiles. It is absurd that the general would not have scoffed at the question.

My hero, Carl Sagan, claimed that the most important tool that he could give his students was a functioning bullshit meter.

[Polybius]

52. He has access to lots of classified videos that we won't see for years, so maybe he knows somethins

I don't think it's aliens either, but the reason you mentioned can be argued. Maybe they are beyond war and can't understand why anyone would use violence. Or maybe it was a decoy.

My guess is that it's a mad scientist of sort, making advanced drones for fun.