[2023-02-07] 华尔街日报 - 社论：8500亿美元国防预算，连个鸡巴中国间谍气球都监测不到？
![]() The U.S. Navy is fishing fragments of a Chinese spy balloon out of the Atlantic Ocean, and each fresh detail about this episode raises new and troubling questions. A striking example is the news from the Biden Administration that previous Chinese balloon incursions into the U.S. appear to have gone undetected. This suggests there’s a major hole in U.S. defenses that needs closing.
美国海军正在从大西洋捕捞中国间谍气球的碎片，这一事件的每一个新细节都引发了新的令人不安的问题。 一个突出的例子是来自拜登政府的消息称，此前中国气球入侵美国似乎没有被发现。 这表明美国的防御存在一个需要弥补的重大漏洞。
A senior defense official told reporters on Feb. 2 that a balloon incursion “has happened a handful of other times over the past few years, to include before this Administration. It is appearing to hang out for a long period of time this time around, more persistent than in previous instances.”
一名高级国防官员在 2 月 2 日告诉记者，气球入侵“在过去几年中已经发生过几次，包括在本届政府面前。 这次它似乎停留了很长一段时间，比以前更持久。”
The Biden Team was leaking over the weekend that balloons had snuck into U.S. airspace during the Trump Administration, and the obvious implication was to absolve President Biden of political blame. More than one media outfit took the bait. But then Trump officials started denying on the record that they’d ever heard of such an event—from former national security adviser John Bolton to Defense Secretary Mark Esper to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
拜登团队周末爆料称，特朗普执政期间曾有气球潜入美国领空，言外之意是为拜登总统免除政治责任。 不止一家媒体机构上钩了。 但随后特朗普官员开始公开否认他们听说过这样的事件——从前国家安全顾问约翰博尔顿到国防部长马克埃斯珀再到国务卿迈克庞培。
The Administration’s attempt to muddy responsibility is bad enough, but the revelation that at least three past balloon flights evaded U.S. notice is alarming. “I will tell you that we did not detect those threats,” Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck of U.S. Northern Command told reporters on Monday. In Pentagon argot for the ages, he called it “a domain awareness gap.” The U.S. government ostensibly pieced the puzzle together later with the help of the intelligence community.
政府试图混淆责任的做法已经够糟糕了，但过去至少有 3 次热气球飞行逃避了美国的注意这一事实令人震惊。 “我会告诉你，我们没有发现这些威胁，”美国北方司令部空军上将 Glen VanHerck 周一对记者说。 在五角大楼多年来的行话中，他称之为“领域意识差距”。 美国政府后来在情报界的帮助下表面上拼凑了这个谜题。
This after-the-fact discovery isn’t reassuring, since in a war there would be no chance for do-overs. The balloon was hardly a birthday party fly-away: Up to 200 feet tall, with a payload weighing more than 2,000 pounds, and potentially with explosives to self-detonate if China so chose.
这种事后发现并不令人安心，因为在战争中没有重来的机会。 气球几乎不是生日派对的飞翔气球：高达 200 英尺，有效载荷超过 2,000 磅，如果中国愿意，它可能带有自爆炸药。
These details are supposed to support the Pentagon’s case for waiting to shoot down the object until it crossed into the Atlantic, but the Biden team is lucky the balloon didn’t come down sooner in a populated part of the country.
这些细节本应支持五角大楼等到该物体进入大西洋后再将其击落的理由，但拜登团队很幸运，气球没有早点在该国人口稠密的地区坠落。
Congress now has an opportunity to conduct productive oversight, including assembling a detailed timeline of events that can better explain when this Administration first detected the balloon, how it did so, and why it didn’t shoot it down over Alaska’s wide-open spaces. Would the Administration have even told the public about the balloon if it hadn’t been spotted by civilians looking up at the sky in Billings, Mont.?
国会现在有机会进行富有成效的监督，包括制定详细的事件时间表，以便更好地解释本届政府何时首次发现气球、它是如何发现的，以及为什么它没有在阿拉斯加广阔的空地上将其击落。 如果不是蒙大拿州比林斯的平民抬头发现了这个气球，政府还会告诉公众这个气球吗？
The Administration’s talking points also need stress testing. The Pentagon is saying the balloon wasn’t collecting better intelligence than low-earth satellites, but could the Beijing blimp hover longer on areas of interest and collect better pictures? Why would Beijing risk the diplomatic blowback from sending the balloon on the eve of an important diplomatic visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken if there was no surveillance benefit?
政府的谈话要点也需要压力测试。 五角大楼表示，气球收集的情报并不比近地卫星更好，但北京飞艇能否在感兴趣的区域停留更长时间并收集更好的图片？ 如果没有监视的好处，北京为什么要冒着外交反弹的风险，在国务卿安东尼·布林肯 (Antony Blinken) 进行重要外交访问前夕放气球？
These columns are among many voices warning that the American homeland is vulnerable to attack—from balloons to hypersonic weapons to cyber intrusions on the electric grid or water supply. Americans are now tuning in to this fact, and Congress and the Administration can use the moment to better protect 330 million civilians on U.S. soil.
这些专栏是许多警告美国本土容易受到攻击的声音之一——从气球到高超音速武器再到对电网或供水的网络入侵。 美国人现在正在适应这一事实，国会和政府可以利用这一时刻更好地保护美国领土上的 3.3 亿平民。标红字体均为楼主更改，与原文作者无关。举一个简单的例子，我相信很多开车的榴友都经历过：当你的车被别人磨蹭且对方车主担责的时候，对方车主都会来说：“就掉了一点漆，没多大的事儿。” 说这种话的心理前提就是知道自己犯傻逼了，但又想找理由减轻自己的傻逼程度。当然，你抽出砍刀的时候，对方马上就又一副怂逼的面孔：“大哥，这点事至于嘛，多少钱我赔，您这干嘛啊！”
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我个人对这件事的看法反倒是很正面，如同武汉肺炎传播到全世界后世界各国意识到去中国化的全球化是多么重要一样，这件事给美国人上了一堂生动的爱国课程：过去很多美国人觉得中国威胁论是天方夜谭，隔着半个地球呢。如今，中国的飞行器就在其头上漂浮，对那些人的震撼程度可想而知。恰逢2024年是竞选年，届时中国威胁论无疑是重头戏之一，两党将比着谁对中国更强硬，谁对中国更下死手。想到这，还有点小激动呢。
有反贼说，中美关系始于小球，终于大球，未免有点危言耸听，但至于未来走向究竟如何，大家拭目以待！
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