Right now, several U.S. military ships are en route to arguably the most dangerous region in the world, and our commander-in-chief seems to be making it up as he goes along. Fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters — America’s sons and daughters — kissed their loved ones goodbye as they embarked on their journey to the coast of Hamas-controlled Gaza. In return, the Biden administration can barely cobble together a plan for their defense — let alone a coherent strategy for mission success.
The US service members, who could soon number over 1,000, are tasked with constructing a floating pier to help deliver humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. Though recent reports indicate that the Israel Defense Forces will provide a "security bubble" for our American military during the 60-day project, much has yet to be revealed about what that actually means. It seems that President Joe Biden is quick to deploy America’s most precious resource — our troops — but slow to develop a plan for their defense.
In fact, when Pentagon Press Secretary Gen. Pat Ryder was asked about the threat of Hamas attacking U.S. service members, he replied "Look, I mean, that’s certainly a risk." His remark reflects a level of flippancy that no military family wants to hear as their loved ones are squarely within range of enemy weapon systems. This is especially true just weeks after an Iran-backed terrorist group killed three U.S. service members in a drone attack in Jordan.
Even worse, Ryder went on to say that, "if Hamas truly does care about the Palestinian people, then again, one would hope that this international mission to deliver aid to people who need it would be able to happen unhindered."
This statement alone ought to be disqualifying. There shouldn’t be an open question remaining in the mind of any national security official about whether Hamas cares about anyone or anything other than the destruction of Israel. These are barbaric terrorists who use innocent Palestinians as human shields. Any fantasy that they would suddenly play nice with American service members is absurd.
Of course, even beyond the security question is whether the project will actually achieve its purported aim of delivering aid to Palestinians. The pier is projected to help deliver 2 million meals per day to Palestinian civilians, but it’s unclear how and if ever the meals will be distributed to them.
Contrary to Hamas propaganda, the primary reason that so many civilians are starving is not simply because of an absence of aid. It’s also because aid hardly ever reaches the people who need it most.
Even Secretary of State Anthony Blinken admitted that, "you have situations where aid goes in and then people immediately charge at the trucks, and you see looting. You see criminals get in the act." Though Blinken, for some inexplicable reason, failed to mention Hamas by name — both the U.S. and Israel have expressed concern that Hamas steals much of the aid intended for Palestinian civilians.
There is simply no guarantee — or even a current plan — for how the aid distributed through the Gaza pier project will be any different. But don’t let that get in the way of a political win for Biden.
Indeed, it’s an election year in which Biden could lose huge swaths of voters in key states like Michigan. Desperate to pacify the anti-Israel wing that dominates the Democrat party, the president hastily announced his pier project for the first time during his State of the Union address. Though the announcement might have bought him some goodwill among voters, our American troops shouldn’t be expected to pay the cost.
A dangerous mission with such a high level of complexity demands precise and detailed planning: something that this administration has historically struggled to deliver. One would hope that Biden learned a valuable lesson about the importance of strategic planning following his botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, which resulted in the death of 13 American troops in 2021. Yet three years after the tragedy, President Biden seems poised to make the same mistake twice.