So with that introduction, this is interesting:
U.S. officials are scrambling to explain a possible missile launch off the coast of Los Angeles, but a day after a vapor trail was caught on tape the incident remains a mystery, a Pentagon spokesman said on Tuesday.
The apparent missile launch was caught on tape by a KCBS news helicopter on Monday evening. Video shows a billowing contrail apparently rising from the water about 35 miles west of Los Angeles and north of Catalina Island. It is not clear whether it comes from land or sea.
"So far we've come up empty with any explanation," Colonel David Lapan told reporters. "We're talking to other parts of the U.S. government. We're doing everything we can to try to figure out if anybody has any knowledge of what this event may have been."
So while I have no means of analyzing the video in the film in this linked article, if I was in charge of China, I might like to send a message by launching something close to our shores just to prove I could do it.
I eagerly await further news. Suspicious minds want to know.
UPDATE: Even as I wondered if China could have pulled this stunt while President Obama is in Asia (ignoring China while there, too), I did have my doubts about whether China could sail one of their nuclear subs that far (let alone whether we would not have detected it and followed it in), I did wonder if a Chinese merchant ship could have dumped a capsule with some type of unarmed missiles just to mess with us and send a message.
But what I'd do and what does happen are very different things. Via Instapundit, some links that persuasively argue that it was indeed a plane contrail with the atmospheric conditions making easy to see a missile launch if that is what you are looking for. I defer to those far more knowledgable than I am and put away speculation.
Still, if I was in charge in Peking, ...
UPDATE: Of course, if I had a thing for Mr. Stark as she does, this might be the way I'd speculate, too.
