The collapse of a $300 million floating pier within just two weeks has proven to be a significant embarrassment for America and the Biden administration. Adding to the humiliation, U.S. military ships have also experienced instances of being beached. The pier was announced in March by President Biden to transport much-needed humanitarian aid to Gaza. It was estimated to cost $320 million for the first 90 days.
Meanwhile the U.S. finds itself in one more conflict where U.S. servicemen and women are placed in harms way as the military industrial complex reaps the benefits as well as the NGO’s no doubt. As for Hamas? Did anyone think the Aid was going to make it to the citizens?
U.S. Central Command confirmed that the soldiers had been evacuated from the boats by Tuesday after the vessels broke free from their moorings on Saturday, though it was not immediately clear how long the troops were stuck on the shore. The update immediately followed earlier information released by the Pentagon that the soldiers were still aboard the grounded boats.
Along with the beachings of the Army boats, the storm also battered and broke apart the aid pier — a Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS, operation by the Army — leaving the future of the key U.S. humanitarian effort uncertain. The pier was set up to move hundreds of metric tons of aid to the area amid a brutal, months long Israeli offensive against Hamas.
Last week, Pentagon officials conceded that some of the first truckloads of aid were not making it to the Palestinians but rather into the hands of looters. Reporters also found that Israeli settlers have taken to attacking aid shipments at border crossings, and some aid groups have accused Israeli security forces of tipping off settlers to aid convoy routes — in turn, allowing them to attack or block them.
Of course there is no end date. There never is when the military gets involved. As for our military men and women? The days of mission accomplished? Maybe WWII?
Three U.S. soldiers assigned to the Gaza pier mission last week, including one whose injuries were serious enough to require a medical evacuation to Israel, according to the Pentagon.
The injuries mark the first such incidents for U.S. service members in the operation to bring humanitarian assistance to Palestinians via a pier off the coast of Gaza.
Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, informed reporters Thursday that the three service members sustained noncombat-related incidents at sea.
The best of the swamp.
After I posted this the Daily Caller came out with this:
‘Amateur Hour’: Biden Admin’s Floating Gaza Pier Problems Go From Bad To Worse
The JLOTS pier was a “horrible idea,” Michael DiMino, senior fellow at Defense Priorities and former CIA and defense official, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It’s a horrible idea due to the challenges that we just saw basically wreck the whole project.”
“It was never a sound plan to begin with… whether it’s accidents, or logistical hurdles, or risk to our troops and all these problems that have come to fruition. I don’t think that there should be any effort to try to continue this, or salvage it, or fix it,” DiMino said, pointing to safer, more effective methods of delivering aid to Gaza. “I think now is an opportunity to say this failed. Let’s wrap this up before we continue to tempt fate.”
BUNKERVILLE | God, Guns and Guts Comrades! 