Posted on 06/17/2024 9:51:42 AM PDT by RandFan
Why does it seem the Pentagon is far better at spending money than actually putting together a successful operation? The failed “Operation Prosperity Guardian” and the disastrous floating Gaza pier are but two recent examples of enormously expensive initiatives that, though they no-doubt enriched military contractors, were incapable of meeting their stated goals.
To great fanfare, last December the Pentagon announced the launch of Operation Prosperity Guardian, a joint US/UK military operation to halt the Yemeni Houthi disruption of Israel-linked commercial shipping through the Red Sea. The Houthis announced their policy in response to civilian deaths in Israel’s war on Gaza, but when the US and UK military became involved they announced they would target US and UK shipping as well.
The operation was supposed to be quick and easy. After all, the rag-tag Houthi militia was no match for the mighty US and UK navies. But it didn’t work out that way at all. Over the weekend the Wall Street Journal published a devastating article revealing that after spending more than one billion dollars on munitions alone, the operation had failed to deter the Houthis and failed to re-open commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
The Journal reported that Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, recently told Congress that “the U.S.-led effort has been insufficient to deter the militant group’s targeting of ships and that the threat will ‘remain active for some time.’”
Meanwhile, the article informed us that a continued US effort to fight the Houthis over Red Sea shipping was “not sustainable.” Perhaps the most revealing part of the article comes from a Washington military expert, Emily Harding of CSIS: “Their supply of weapons from Iran is cheap and highly sustainable, but ours is expensive, our supply chains are crunched, and our logistics tails are long.”
It is reminiscent of a recollection by Col. Harry G. Summers of a discussion he had with North Vietnamese Col. Tu: “You know, you never defeated us on the battlefield,” said Summers. Tu paused for a moment, then replied, “That may be so. But it is also irrelevant.”
Similarly, the US military spent a quarter of a billion dollars building a temporary floating pier to deliver aid to the starving Palestinians even though a land route already existed and would have been far cheaper to use. The project was doomed from the beginning, as days after opening stormy weather broke up the pier and washed part of it up on Israel’s shore. The US military managed to gather the pieces together again, but in total only a few aid trucks managed to use it before, over the weekend, the pier was again disassembled for fear of another weather-related break-up.
The only thing the pier was good for, it seems, was assisting the Israeli military in a Gaza raid on June 8th that killed 270 Palestinian civilians.
As neocons inside the Beltway continue to plot war with China over Taiwan, it seems someone should notice the trouble we have had dealing with Houthis and floating piers. For now, the growth in military spending seems unlimited, but increasing spending bringing diminishing results raises the question of just how much bang are we getting for our bucks?
We have the most expensive military on earth, they say. That may be true, but it is also irrelevant.
But was the US really fighting the Houthis to win, or we just had to prove to Saudi Arabia we were behind them?
P And let’s not forget they’re funded by the same people that are funding Hamas.
I feel confident that a lot of the $1billion found its way in the “connected” pockets. For the connected it’s not so much about outcomes as it is about the revenue stream and their access to it.
We probably couldn’t even win in Grenada these days.
Hmmmm... And they didn’t even have an F-15.
As long as Biden got his 10%... /s
A billion to lose to the ragtag Houthis.
A quarter billion on a failed pier.
Seven billion to build SEVEN EV chargers.
Government is absolutely incompetent at everything...except destroying the Republic.
The Clinton Crime Family really ramped-up the money stealing from war during the Bosnian War.
It’s just grown from there.
The Democrat Crime Families are stealing billions off the Ukrainian War.
The rest of the world is really going to love Americans when they realize our Democrat Crime Families and Democrat Party Organized Crime Syndicate foment war around the globe, killing millions of people so that they can steal money.
Actual mission accomplished.
Politicians worry about the optics of war. Wake up, Bozo...war is messy and the more you play into the hands of public opinion, the more you drag out the war and cost lives on BOTH sides. Where would we be if Truman hadn't had the balls to drop those two bombs on Japan? We still be fighting door-to-door in Tokyo.
I say give the ROE back to the people who know how to WIN wars and screw the optics. We have the capability to put the Houthies back in the Stone Age if we really wanted to win the war, but then a lot of companies to contribute to politicians' reelection fund would be harmed. If I were in charge of the IDF, Gaza wouldn't be a suitable parking lot by now, BUT...the war would be over.
Drawing out wars by letting politicians set the ROE is simply causing more people to die in the long run, not to mention draining the resources of the combatants.
why ?
cuz they have gone Rogue , and backstopped the Coup.
next question.
War is like fighting a fire, if you "win" one, you must be prepared to prevent or stop flare-ups.
I welcome and applaud the former. I deplore the second but recognize that that always comes with the territory.
As long as it fed the War Machine, it’s all good.
Even the US Mulberry did not survive the sea conditions at Normandy and it was well protected by a breakwater of sunken ships and concrete caissons.
Government is absolutely incompetent at everything...except destroying the Republic.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>..
Looking on the brighter side, maybe the Government’s ongoing destruction of our Republic will save the U.S., Russia, China, and Iran from an unnecessary nuclear holocaust!
Winning means you can’t spend anymore.
Half-measures ensures you can come back and ask for more funding.
Maybe for some but not for me. Winning means destruction of the enemies ability or will to wage war, at least for the present time. They always seem to come back.
Houthis would shoot cheap ass s**t stick missiles that were barely able to hit a target at our ships with impunity and we would shoot them down with our most sophisticated multi million buck interceptors.
This allowed our enemies to get a very detailed performance data and emission profiles on our anti missile systems that the Chines, Russians and Iranians are finding very useful.
At the same time draining our inventories of super expensive multi million dollar a interceptor missiles that we are increasingly having finding the money to replace. This crap could have been ended pretty much overnight with a handful of JADAMs targeted at the Yemeni politicians and Houthi leaders who were the ones actually orchestrating the show
Instead we "retaliate" (in the rare instance we even try) by destroying the even more worthless launcher that fired the worthless s**t stick of a missile that took out at least one and probably multiple missiles of our front line interceptors. Heck we, had to send at least tow missile ships back to the States because they ran out of missiles and they can only be re supplied at port in the US. An the Biden morons call this a great victory for our side.
Our enemies are laughing their asses off at us for our stupidity and Biden Admin officials are probably getting big balances sent to their Swiss bank accounts by their Iranian buddies for enabling this travesty.
Kind of makes you wonder how many in the Biden admin are working for the other side.
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