Staff Reports
Military experts had cast doubt on the plan to construct a floating pier off the coast of Gaza, expressing concerns about the challenges and risks involved in building, operating, and protecting such a structure. Despite these warnings, the taxpayer-funded $320 million project moved forward. Critics warned that the aid delivered through the pier would likely be stolen, primarily by Hamas, and that Hamas and other hostile forces in the region might target the vulnerable U.S. installation. Unfortunately, these predictions materialized when most of the aid delivered through the pier was stolen, and Hamas attacked the U.S. troops at the pier.
"I do not believe that the aid actually reached the residents of Gaza."
— Pentagon Press Secretary Patrick S. Ryder pic.twitter.com/hfAjp44NCc
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) May 21, 2024
Moreover, critics cautioned that American soldiers could be at risk of injury or worse while operating and defending the floating pier. These concerns also became reality, with several troops suffering noncombat injuries, and one soldier being in critical condition after an injury sustained while working on the pier. Furthermore, maintaining a floating pier in open water was predicted to be a physically challenging task, and this too proved to be accurate when four U.S. Army vessels involved in the mission broke free from their moorings due to rough seas.
Critics have called for an end to the project, asserting that enough lives are at stake and that the operation is a failure. Instead, they recommend pressuring Egypt to permit humanitarian aid to Gazans through alternative means. They have also criticized the Biden administration’s foreign policy, accusing it of pressing European allies to back off from addressing Iran’s advances in its nuclear program. Overall, the project has been deemed a dangerous and humiliating fiasco that should be brought to an end.
