US jet shoots down 'unidentified object' over northern Canada, Trudeau says
CNNFeb 12, 2023
An unidentified high-altitude flying object was shot down over Canada's Yukon territory by a US F-22 fighter jet on Saturday afternoon, in an operation coordinated by the joint US-Canada North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
This was the third time in the span of a week that an American F-22 has shot down a suspicious craft over North America, with Canada's Minister of Defense Anita Anand claiming it was similar to the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon shot down on Feb. 4 off the coast of South Carolina.
Shooting down this unidentified object was the right decision — it violated US and Canadian airspace and posed a credible threat to civilian flights. As the nature and origin of the two latest objects to be shot down over North America remain unclear, it is crucial to recover them and determine whether they are related to the Chinese spy balloon.
Unable to deal with political infighting, and seeking to enhance its credibility among allies, the US is desperately trying to look mighty by deploying its allegedly invincible F-22 to shoot down meteorological balloons that are harmless to US national security. If Washington wants to show its strength rather than humiliate itself, the capital should confront Russia on the battlefield instead of cry wolf about China.
There's a 19% chance that there will be a US-China war by 2035, according to the Metaculus prediction community.