David Ignatius: “The general public spectacle of a spy balloon floating over America has been a humiliation for the Biden administration, to make certain. However the administration can declare that it waited for essentially the most opportune second to destroy the balloon and seize its secret payload — and that the unusual affair was a internet intelligence plus for america…”

“The secrets and techniques a part of the story ought to be clearer if the Pentagon recovers the intelligence-collection pod that the balloon was carrying, as officers anticipated on Saturday can be potential. The pod apparently fell into the Atlantic largely intact, the official stated, and it ought to present a helpful alternative to look at and reverse-engineer Chinese language intelligence and communications programs.”

“Thus, from an intelligence standpoint, Pentagon officers imagine that the unusual week-long balloon voyage was finally of extra profit to america than to China. By ready till the balloon was over U.S. territorial waters, the Biden administration was in a position to maximize the probability that the pod may very well be recovered whereas minimizing the chance that People can be injured by falling particles.”

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