We should be deducting the cost of this more expensive operation to provide food aid from the military stipend being sent to Israel.
Maybe we can buy off the voters with a $2,000 “Peace Dividend” for every American. {{ LOL }}
intercst
3 Likes
Except the the boots aren’t.
“…using an established military capability that officials say can build and deploy the structure without having any American troops on the ground.”
This is not to say they aren’t in harm’s way.
DB2
2 Likes
I count “6 boots ashore” in that photo at the lead of the Military Times article. {{ LOL }}
Wouldn’t be the first time we’ve been lied to on a slowly escalating military misadventure.
intercst
2 Likes
Some 80% of Americans support Israel.
If this mission against Hamas is not finished there will be another war in Gaza started by Hamas.
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Ah. The ‘not taken in Gaza’ photo.
DB2
5 Likes
The photo is labeled as being from 2012 so maybe not the best one to use to show ‘boots on the ground’ now?
Pete
9 Likes
The Gaza port operation won’t take place for about a month. I’m just showing you a photo that demonstrates that you can’t deploy the ramp without sending “boots ashore” to prepare the landing spot.
intercst
1 Like
Unless the IDF does the work under an arrangement to secure the area.
Well, it’s been a month or so. How’s the Army’s navy doing? Short answer: not well.
It turns out the Navy will be involved after all. The ACB1 (Amphibious Construction Battalion, also known as SeaBees) out of San Diego is sending ships and sailors. It is a long way from the Pacific to the eastern Med, but it seems ACB2 based in Virginia was decommissioned in March.
USNS Bobo had to turn back after an engine fire.
How about the Army ships? They’re slowing assembling in Greece, but not without problems. One ship (the Wilson Wharf) is stuck in Tenerife with engine problems
A retired Army chief warrant officer who has significant experience in the Army’s watercraft community also told Military.com in an interview Wednesday that “if those boats don’t have multiple major mechanical failures – I mean ‘dead in the water’ mechanical failures – I will be shocked. They’re horrendously maintained. I’ve got videos of these things falling apart,” the retired officer added.
According to the officer, the delays of the Bobo and the smaller Army ships mean “they’re going to have a lot fewer pieces to work with as far as building the actual pier.”
“The other rub point … is security arrangements,” the officer said, noting that “these boats have next to no security. You’ve got a couple of .50 cals and small arms … and the vessel masters are not taught maritime tactics,” the officer explained.
DB2
2 Likes
That’s a great, informative update.
A lot of people don’t realize how expensive it is to keep an oceangoing ship in seaworthy order.
These billionaires who only spend two weeks out of the year on their yacht, still have to pay a full-time crew, 52 weeks of the year to maintain it and polish it up. You can just leave it at anchor for 6 months and expect it to work.
intercst
I’m sure all the sailors here are familiar with the phrase “a boat is a hole in the water into which you pour all your money”
3 Likes
I did some electronics work on a yacht about 20 years ago and they cost a heck of a lot to keep operating. The yacht I was on was a pretty big one, it had 6 (or maybe 8) staterooms, 2 of which were master staterooms (and were absolutely gorgeous with gold plated fixtures in the bathrooms), it had a really nice galley with beautiful black speckled granite countertops and a bunch of subzero fridges and freezers. It had a 1200 lb propane tank for the grill that was mounted to the deck. Really quite nice, I think it was owned by one of the large rental car company founders. I was told that it required a full-time staff of 6 to keep operating. It also requires all sorts of annual maintenance (for example, when I was on it, it was in drydock for scraping the hull). And it also requires some large periodic overhaul kind of maintenance. Probably costs a few million a year minimum to keep it going. A few days after I was on it, the crew were planning on taking it up the eastern seaboard to meet the owners somewhere up north to get ready for a voyage to somewhere in Europe.
Years ago I saw an interview with Robin Leach, the "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’ guy. This was around the time that a prominent person in the news was having bankruptcy problems.
Anyway, Robin asked this rich guy if he could borrow the yacht for a few hours to do some filming for his show. The rich guy agreed, reasoning that it would be good publicity for his brand.
The next time Robin Leach saw the rich guy at a party some weeks later he asked, “Where the hell did you go? I got a fuel bill for $20,000.”
intercst
DB2
3 Likes
You mean Hamas who makes sure there is no equality or voting for Gazans now wants to stop feeding them as well?
Hamas just ordered a ramp up of their war effort.
Playing word games on college campuses is dumb BS. Fooling college professors and students is garbage. Easy to do when you automatically think your brains matter so much. Vanity in the name of Vladimir Putin’s cold war efforts.
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A cool third of a billion dollars.
DB2
1 Like