which is wishful thinking, here is a pretty good article on why there is more to think about in regards to shooting down the balloon:
https://www.businessinsider.com/shooting-down-chinese-spy-balloon-harder-than-it-seems-2023-2
The fact is that none of us keyboard warriors has any of the information that the military does. If they game'd it out and decided that the risks outweigh the benefits, I'm inclined to believe them. It's not like they don't want to shoot their guns, that's the whole fvckin' reason they are in the military to begin with.