And the reason we didn’t shoot (them) down?
We can't shoot down ANY missile launched from the near Pacific coast when they are headed out west towards the sea. Sure, we have limited, partially-tested ABM capability being developed to (maybe!, under good conditions, and IF the ship in in the right place!) to shoot SOME ballistic missiles from SOME! - a very few - USN ships.
But do you think any were positioned off the coast of LA at the exact right moment to go to a war footing - off our own coast! - and get permission from Obama to actually shoot down an unknown ???? smoke plume ???? that suddenly appeared off the coast?
Just getting word to Washington just to start getting permission would take too long.