I’m sure everyone remembers when Slow Joe Biden promised during the most recent State of the Union Address to build his “humanitarian” pier in Gaza.
Well, the first cost estimate has come in. A whopping $320 million. But wait, there’s more.
As reported by AP News, to get a bit more specific, “the Pentagon has said will cost at least $320 million.”
Did you catch that? “… at least $320 million.” Call me jaded, but let’s all not gasp and pearl clutch when the final cost skyrockets way past $1 billion of taxpayer money, OK?
But wait, there’s more.
Why in the hell are we even building this pink elephant to begin with? To listen to the leftie-controlled media, it’s because mean ol’ Israel isn’t allowing humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip via the land routes that Israel shares with Gaza.
Interestingly enough, the Christian Science Monitor (CSMonitor.com) is reporting (emphasis mine);
Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press April 30 show the USNS Roy P. Benavidez about 6.8 miles (11 kilometers) from the port on shore, where the base of operations for the project is being built by the Israeli military.
Wait a sec… Israel won’t allow humanitarian aid via land routes, but Israel is actually paying for (and constructing) the base where this floating pier will welcome an estimated 90-150 trucks per day? That’s the number that CNN is reporting.
Golly gee, you ever get the impression that we’re collectively being lied to?
But just so I understand, the US Department of Defense is going to pay for 90-150 trucks PER DAY to be loaded on various shipping vessels (both civilian and military) in ports conceivably anywhere in the world, just to be unloaded as a jointly constructed US-Israeli port facility in Gaza?
Why not just drive in by the land routes? Oh, that’s right! We’re being told by both the Biden government and the leftist media that the Israelis have closed the land routes. Again, you ever get the impression that we’re collectively being lied to?
But wait, there’s more.
London-based Middle East Eye news service is noting (emphasis mine);
“The cost has not just risen. It has exploded,” Senator Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Democratic-led Senate Armed Services Committee, told Reuters.
“This dangerous effort with marginal benefit will now cost the American taxpayers at least $320m to operate the pier for only 90 days.”
What? Sooooo, what happens after the 90-day period? Do we deconstruct the floating pier? We all know that’s certainly not going to happen.
Just my humble opinion, after 90-days, the US will continue to operate and pay for this whole joke. In other words, the taxpayer will continue to be screwed… just very, very quietly.
But wait, there’s more.
The Middle East Eye also cites (emphasis mine);
a senior Biden administration official told Reuters last week that aid deliveries from the pier will have to pass through Israeli checkpoints on land.
OK, so why are we building and paying for this floating pier?
Yet again, you ever get the impression that we’re collectively being lied to?
But wait, there’s more.
The Christian Science Monitor is also reporting (emphasis mine);
The U.S. military official said an American Army engineering unit has teamed with an Israeli military engineering unit in recent weeks to practice the installation of the causeway, training on an Israeli beach just up the coast.
Oh… so there ARE boots on the ground. Didn’t Biden say that no such thing would happen?
Anyhow, in the same article from the CSMonitor.com (emphasis mine);
high-ranking Hamas political official Khalil al-Hayya told the AP last week that the group would consider Israeli forces – or forces from any other country – stationed by the pier to guard it as “an occupying force and aggression,” and that the militant group would resist it.
On April 24, a mortar attack targeted the port site, though no one was hurt.