It was your money. You earned it. See how they spent it.
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Let’s admit it.
The American military has gotten a lot of bad press in recent years.
From fleeing Afghanistan and leaving behind billions of dollars in state-of-the-art military equipment, to abandoning a modern air base to the enemies of America, to failing to bring home American citizens from a war zone, to abandoning tens of thousands of our allies who we promised to take care of and leaving them behind to be tortured or killed … to hosting drag shows on military bases.
Most of those bad news items were the result of people making some very bad decisions.
Like I said, the American military has gotten a lot of bad press.
But don’t despair.
The American military has been given a chance for redemption.
And that means good news stories from the press will soon be coming their way again.
The change in fortune came back in October, when some very bad guys (Hamas) did some very bad things (murder, rape, cutting off heads, killing children, and stuff like that) to over a thousand people in Israel. Then Israel responded by attacking Hamas,
Because Hamas likes to hide among civilians, the Palestinian people in Gaza found themselves in a war zone and quickly ran into shortages of things like food, water, and medicine.
The international community tried to get those supplies to the Palestinian people by sending in truckloads of supplies. But there was a problem. Hamas stopped the trucks, sometimes killed the drivers, and stole the supplies.
That’s when the military decided to step in and help. It was a chance for redemption.
The military conducted airdrops of supplies to Palestinian civilians.
What a great idea! And if they managed to get some good press out of their efforts … well, that was just frosting on the cake.
But things didn’t work out as the military planned.
They did some airdrops but not enough. And then there was the problem with Hamas again. The Hamas guys took a bunch of the supplies. And on top of that, some of the airdrops killed people on the ground.
It was not the redemption the military needed.
More bad press.
Another Chance
But the military didn’t give up.
They decided to build the “Trident Pier”, a temporary floating pier off the coast of Gaza, that would allow large ships to offload food, water, medicine, and temporary shelters.
What a fantastic idea and what a great opportunity for some much-needed good press for the military.
The pier was officially opened on May 16, 2024, but there were just a few problems.
The truck shipments had to be shut down because crowds rushed the aid trucks. And then there were the strong winds and heavy seas that caused the pier to break apart after a little over a week.
What remained of the pier had to be towed to Israel so it could be repaired.
Okay, it wasn’t a great success.
But it’s not over. After the pier is repaired, the military plans to tow it back to Gaza where it can once again provide aid to the Palestinians.
So, there is the possibility this will be a story that finally brings some good press to the military, along with some supplies to the Palestinians.
What did it cost?
There’s no need to talk about all the bad news. Afghanistan, losing airbases, and paying for drag shows are all in the past.
Let’s focus on the aid to Palestinians.
The airdrops cost about $17 million.
The floating pier only cost the U.S. taxpayers about $320 million. Repairs and future operations might raise the price tag just a bit.
Now you can decide if was worth it.
Remember
It was your money. You earned it. See how they spent it.