The Pentagon is wrong if they are saying the satellite never functioned. It contained sensitve data gathered from, well, sensitive hostile military areas where intelligence satellites take photos.
If one is a US citizen, they should be thankful that Raytheon has the missle technology to shoot down an object flying at a high speed in the earth's atmosphere.
This time it was a malfunctioning satellite. Next time, it could be something else altogether. We proved in a non-military ( non-hostile) situation that we have what it takes.
One can choose to see the glass as half empty or half full, whichever a person wants to. I see it as a demonstration of what our military missle defense can do when called upon, even when it is to save both sensitive technology, which this satellite DOES contain, and the secondary goal of protecting the human population from hazardous fuel.
