In the early days of the Cold War, before spy satellites, the U.S. Air Force launched high-altitude balloons carrying cameras and let them drift over the Soviet Union snapping pictures. This was judged a safer alternative to flights by manned aircraft. Ninety percent of the balloons either crashed or were shot down by the Russians. It wasn’t the most efficient way to gather intelligence.
We are ridiculous.
>>We need human sources on the ground and we do not have them.
And (purposely?) we gifted the Taliban the biometric data that would identify human sources that might have been available to us.