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Written by Uriel Araujo, PhD, anthropology researcher with a focus on international and ethnic conflicts
For the first time since the ongoing Israeli operation in occupied Palestine began, US troops are now being deployed to the state of Israel. This is a huge development, and is not getting enough coverage – the New York Times (NYT) “buried” it on page 8, as The Intercept has commented.
In any case, last week, the NYT reported that Washington would send around 100 troops to Israel plus the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery (THAAD), which is an advanced mobile missile defense system. The troops are supposed to operate it, as announced by the Pentagon. The US President Joe Biden said that he has ordered the Department of Defense (usually referred to as the Pentagon, after its headquarters) to deploy the defense system “to defend Israel”.
Yes, Biden, by the way, is still the incumbent President, despite having been widely considered mentally unfit to run for reelection. US General Patrick Ryder said that the THAAD would “augment Israel’s integrated air defense system.” According to the Pentagon statement: “This action underscores the United States’ ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel, and to defend Americans in Israel, from any further ballistic missile attacks by Iran.”
The day before Washington made such an announcement, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin talked with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and, according to the Pentagon, “expressed his deep concern about reports that Israeli forces fired on U.N. peacekeeping positions in Lebanon as well as by the reported death of two Lebanese soldiers.” This has been the American modus operandi as of lately with regards to the Jewish state’s out of control incursions: to express “concern” while sending weapons, dollars, drones, and intelligence assistance – and now the THAAD and troops. Last month, to help defend Israel, Washington sent between 2,000 and 3,000 troops to the Middle East in addition to the 40,000 US troops already in the region. It included various fighter squadrons, as well as A-10 warplanes and F-15, F-16 and F-22 fighter jets.
Since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack against Israeli civilians, kibbutzim and settlers around the Gaza Strip (which is considered to be occupied under international law), the Pentagon has also dispatched several commandos to advise Israeli forces on hostage recovery endeavors. It includes CIA intelligence officers plus Joint Special Operations Command troops, and the assistance given – the so-called “fusion cells” – sure enough does not limit itself to advice pertaining to hostage recovery: according to another New York Times report, it has also helped “hunting for the top leaders of Hamas.”
One may wonder what role, if any, American intelligence advisors had in the killing of Hezbollah leadership also. By Saturday, Defense Department authorities were still denying directly supporting Israel’s military operations “on the ground” in Gaza, where tens of thousands of civilians are being killed in an operation that includes weaponizing mass starvation and has thus been described as genocide. That may change now – the exact role played by the extra troops being sent is unclear and one may very well be suspicious of any claims about it being limited to THAAD battery crews.
On the topic of THAAD, one may recall that the Ukrainian authorities in Kyiv repeatedly asked for such a defense system. Time and again, the request was denied. No THAAD for Ukraine, but Israel is getting no less than 2 of them (out of a total of 7, globally). The situation has been described as a “Israel-Ukraine dilemma”, and, in that regard, the Jewish state is clearly the winner, with the interest on American debt “on track to be larger than the Pentagon budget by the end of this decade”, according to William D. Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
In the case of Ukraine it was doubtful whether Western air defense systems would be really helpful anyway, as I wrote earlier. In spite of that, Ukraine has also been eyeing the famous Israeli system called Iron Dome. In any case, ironically, it is Israel itself who has vetoed it – being the main producer, Washington would need its permission to send it to Eastern Europe. This was largely because Tel Aviv was seeking to maintain a working relationship with Moscow in the Levant. Despite Ukrainian insistence, the truth is that it would need dozens of Iron Domes to enjoy a significant defense impact – and they currently do not exist.
The theme of a potential “abandonment” of Ukraine over a so-called “Ukraine fatigue” has haunted the Ukrainian leadership for a while. More recently, I commented on how the US seems bent on shifting the burden of Ukraine on Europe, so that it can pivot to the Pacific, among other things. With the aforementioned “dilemma”, things could be heading this way.
Washington also made steps in the last years since the Obama presidency towards shifting its strategic interest away from the Middle East. However, despite part of the American Establishment’s grandiose views about a “Pacific Century” (pertaining to the Indo-Pacific Region), the US, as a global hegemon, cannot simply “leave” the Middle East, given the region’s geopolitical importance – as I wrote in June 2023. And so it remains “stuck” there, albeit devoid of real deterrence power, with Iran, the main winner of US failure in Iraq. arguably being now the main power in the region. Washington admittedly cannot even defeat the Houthis rebels in the Red Sea (largely seen as an Iranian “proxy”).
Besides the Ukraine-Israel dilemma, there is also a Pacific-Middle East one, which is part of the paradox of a superpower which aspires to being, in geopolitical parlance, both a sea and a land power at the same time, as Jerry Hendrix (retired Navy captain, formerly an adviser to Pentagon senior officials) describes it. This is the ever-overburdened Atlantic superpower who yet wishes to be ready to endure wars in Eastern Europe, the Pacific, the Middle East – while also eyeing Central Asia.
The truth is that Iran and its regional partners cannot be underestimated. The American goal thus far has been to contain the Islamic Republic of Iran without actually going to war – and it has therefore worked hard to curb the Israelis. This tension management policy is risky and may end up untenable, with the ongoing radicalization of Israeli society and politics – plus America’s rather unconditional support which domestically is largely based on what political scientists Stephen Walt and John Mersheimer have described as the “Israel lobby”.
The 1955-1975 Vietnam war is often described as a quagmire. It seems Washington’s potential vietnams are multiplying each day.
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in israhell there are no kinzhals or daggers ( hell, even oniks or brahmos) that could show the world how ineffective, obsolete and useless the thaad would be against said missiles, despite they had cost billions of u$s dollars. 🤷🤷
bibi the chickenshit netanyahu and biden’s ironclad commitment to keep the war criminal as prime minister of israel are handing the white house to trump on a silver platter. and handing ukraine and a strategic victory to putin as well. shame on the treasonous israel-firsters in biden’s administration all iran has to do is fire an extra 100 missiles to deplete the thaads in israel.
i don’t understand that, where the iron dome 🤡 works so well 😆😆😆
jewish hubris has made them complacent and allowed the iron dome to become old and outdated and iran has found the holes allowing them to attack the jewish society right on. the jews, scared ****less as usual, calls home to white house asking for help, delivered in the form of 2 thaad-systems. pathetic of course, but that’s jews for you. not to have them around, bury them deep.
the problem is the usn abraham lincoln outside oman from where they calculate to lob nukes on iran if the jews are defeated, as they will be. iran can and should close the hormuz straight and sink the us economy to the bottom and the eu:s as well in the process. two strikes in, the jews gone for good and the us economy tanking to the bottom of the sae and nato and the eu soon to follow!
having a jew as president will give you much support and solidarity but not as much as beeing the jew country. the worst thing that could happen to zelinsky was that isreal gets involved in a war and needs all the supplys meant for ukraine.
more important to save the jews and their greater israel plan, fully supported by the white house, than some ukies who are stupid enough to sacrifice the male part of the ukraine people!