(BESA Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University) U.S. Navy Commander (ret.) David Levy - In his 2024 State of the Union address, President Biden said, "I'm directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine, and temporary shelters." Washington has taken ownership of the Gaza humanitarian emergency by committing significant U.S. resources to mitigate the crisis. In the early 1990s, the U.S. initiated a humanitarian aid operation in Mogadishu, Somalia, to alleviate the severe famine and restore order amidst the country's civil war. What was meant to be an aid distribution operation escalated into a military engagement when local warlords appropriated all the aid and monopolized its distribution. Intense urban warfare resulted in 18 US soldiers killed and 73 wounded, with as many as 1,000 Somalis killed. Some in Gaza have adopted a strong Islamist worldview and may see the U.S. effort not as international aid relief but as the U.S. attempting to gain a foothold in Dar al-Islam (the territory of Islam). For Islamists, the use of force against Americans would be part of their jihad. Some Palestinians are already calling the U.S. port another form of occupation. President Biden assured Americans that there would be no U.S. military personnel with "boots on the ground." This likely means U.S. and foreign contractors to do the job.
2024-03-20 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive