EDITORIAL - The great balloon crisis

One spectacle that is going on in the US as of this writing is the chaos being caused by a huge balloon that is making its way across the country.

While China has claimed ownership of the balloon and said it was for weather research and had been blown off-course by high winds, US authorities are thinking more sinister motives; that it was an espionage balloon launched to gather data.

In response they have tightened security measures in areas the balloon passed by and even shut down airspace in areas where the balloon passed.

Authorities also mulled shooting down the balloon but have held off for fear of hurting anyone on the ground or, as some said, releasing harmful chemicals it may be carrying. Others also said they should not bring it down yet until they are sure to be able to access any monitoring equipment it may be carrying --that way they can determine if it was really gathering weather information or something else.

This balloon meandering across the US is creating a rather unprecedented security scenario. Is this really a threat or is everything just a bag full of hot air?

It may be just as China says it is; just a regular weather balloon gone out of bounds. But the Pentagon said there is another runaway balloon making its way across Latin America. Is this just a coincidence or is China really planning something?

It’s unlikely the balloon is a spying device given how sophisticated Chinese espionage technology has become. But if China did mean to disrupt US operations one way or another then they just stumbled upon a very cheap yet effective way to shut down US airspace and cause panic. Just launch a balloon the size of three buses then watch the enemy ground their planes, hide, and fiercely debate what they just saw.

We are sure others who may have nefarious plans are paying attention.

When you think about it this incident of a balloon getting loose and making its way across a country and drawing varied reactions from pure amusement to extreme paranoia is actually a funny story, one for the offbeat pages, as journalists might say.

It would have been funny if it wasn’t such a sad reflection of how paranoid and on-edge the world has become.