Nothing is going right for the Biden administration. The worst possible scenarios for a president in an election year are happening. And thank goodness.
One such disaster is a piece of the $320 million floating pier designed and constructed off Gaza’s shore that has broken off and landed on an Israeli beach. The Saturday disaster is the latest setback for the US humanitarian aid effort, after three US servicemen were reported injured aboard the pier two days previously, including one gravely.
The makeshift piers built on President Biden‘s order have gone well over budget and caused numerous problems since USAID began supplies, prompting some senators to question the operation’s value.
It is believed by most
Representative Michael Waltz (R-FL) told Fox News Digital, “At the end of the day, it’s unnecessarily putting our people in harm’s way. It’s costing a lot. It’s pulling assets that should be used elsewhere, and I just don’t think it’s going to accomplish anything near what he’s promised.”
During his State of the Union speech in March, President Biden committed to building a temporary pier in the Mediterranean Sea off the shore of the Gaza Strip to increase humanitarian aid delivery to the enclave, as millions remain homeless and Israel hunts Hamas.
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELThe Pentagon claimed that the piers, one of which would remain several miles offshore and the other serving as a causeway onto the Gazan shore, had been finished around May 9, but deployment proved difficult the next week.
Waltz stated that the project cost more than $300 million, with some sources estimating a price as high as $320 million, which would be double what early projections showed, Senator. Roger Wicker (R-MS), told Reuters, saying of the operation, “This dangerous effort with marginal benefit will now cost the American taxpayers at least $320 million to operate the pier for only 90 days.”
Waltz pointed out that the listed expenses only apply to the first few months of operation: “The longer it’s there, the more those costs are going to skyrocket.”
“We’ve been briefed that two Navy destroyers are assigned to patrol the waters around the pier,” Waltz added. “Are those being included in their sustained fuel operating costs? The cost of their crew? That’s unclear … and then there’s opportunity cost, right? Those destroyers and other assets, air assets or what have you, are being dedicated to secure this thing from any type of drone or land attack that could be rested and refit in the U.S. and could be used elsewhere.”
According to Waltz, the key difficulty is not the distribution outside of Gaza, but what happens once the aid crosses the border, when it meets the same issues as land-based delivery.
“It’s going to run into the exact same problems the land routes have faced once it gets across the border,” Waltz said. “The trucks get ransacked. They get attacked. When they do make it to the warehouse, it’s Hamas controlling the warehouses.”
“It’s going to run into the exact same problems the land routes have faced once it gets across the border. The trucks get ransacked. They get attacked. When they do make it to the warehouse, it’s Hamas controlling the warehouses.” Waltz said.
“Because of corruption and because they’re being run by a terrorist dictatorship that is going to use aid to, one, feed and arm and resource itself, with more nutrients and medical supplies and fuel and what have you,” he continued. “Then, secondarily, use it as a lever to make sure the Palestinian people don’t rise up against them.”
Deliveries have not met the intended level since the docks began exports last week: Trucks began entering the Gaza Strip on May 17, with hopes to increase to 150 truckloads each day, but the pier has encountered a number of problems, including damage to one of the piers on Saturday when the IDF attempted to move them due to “sea conditions.”
The relocation, attempted late Friday, resulted in a section of one pier disconnecting from the line and floating ashore. A U.S. Army landing craft mechanized (LCM) attempted to rescue the piece but became trapped when a cable looped around its propeller, incurring another unexpected expenditure.
According to a US defense official, the Army and Navy worked with Israeli counterparts all day to liberate the equipment.
Waltz cited a variety of other obstacles that have hampered the operation, including logistical issues, weather setbacks, and security threats.
“Just getting the amount of material out there in what is often a rough sea state, in a very difficult environment, has been a problem,” Waltz said. “Then, I think we just have this false notion of no boots on the ground coming from Biden and the administration.”
“I mean, technically, there’s no boots touching sand, but they’re on a dock that’s touching the sand, and we confirmed at a hearing they’re very close to shore,” he said. “They are within small arms range of any militants that want to fire on them from Gaza, much less the types of drones or missiles that we’ve seen in the Red Sea.”
“We do know that the dock and the entire complex has come under mortar fire, already, so, again, this is putting our service members in harm’s way unnecessarily,” he said.
Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told reporters on Tuesday that crowds had halted the trucks at various locations along the road once they came on land, resulting in a type of “self-distribution” of the cargo.
“These trucks were traveling through areas where there’d been no aid. I think people feared that they would never see aid. They grabbed what they could,” Dujarric told Newsweek, adding that, “they grabbed what they could.”
Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, also stated earlier this week that help was “not flowing at a rate that any of us are happy with.”
Finally, Waltz stated that the piers were a project launched for “purely political reasons.”
“When you have over 100,000 Democrats in the state of Michigan … go and vote against him in the Democrat primary – over 100,000 – that is a heck of a scary political moment for this White House,” Waltz stated.
“We’ve seen the policy shifts towards Israel ever since, from Schumer calling for regime change on the Senate floor to the kind of bashing of Netanyahu, to the promising a change in policy if the Israelis carry out their offensive in Rafah … that has all been a signal to the youth vote,” Waltz said.
During an on-the-record conversation with reporters on Thursday, defense officials revealed that three US service members were injured while assisting a mission to give humanitarian aid to the residents of Gaza. All injuries were not combat-related, and one person was listed in critical condition.
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