Biden's call for a floating pier for Gaza is a recipe for disaster
Biden’s Gaza pier: Ill-conceived plan would put Americans in harm’s wayIt is difficult to question Israel’s need for a major military response to the horrific attack on Oct. 7 — the worst suffered by Israel and the Jewish people since the Holocaust. As with most military operations, the cost in terms of collateral damage has been high, largely because Hamas has used the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as human shields and has taken hostages.
After months, President Biden — or at least the staff writing what he says — has decided to enter the fray. His plan, announced in his State of the Union address, was to call for a floating pier for Gaza aid. While this sound bite may have been intended to give Mr. Biden a boost in his sinking poll numbers, it is a recipe for disaster as an operational concept.
To do this, the U.S. must put “boots on the ground,” and some will very likely come home dead. Apparently, no one briefed Mr. Biden before his speech on this, or no one who approved his speech had the slightest idea what they were talking about. Just another sound bite for “Old Yeller” from the West Wing staffers.
Even if aid arrives ashore, there is no plan for moving it to the Palestinians who need it. Missing from this ill-conceived plan is a mythical fleet of trucks to move the aid. Would they be driven by Hamas operatives or others “approved” either by Hamas or the Israeli military? Here, the Pentagon’s Gen. Ryder had no answers.
So far, the U.S. Army has sent a single ship to Gaza, and it will take several weeks for the 37-year-old ship to make it from Virginia to the eastern Mediterranean — a boat that can’t even break 12 knots fully loaded.
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