War in Gaza

[Robert]

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news ... ty-numbers

The number of civilian casualties in Gaza has been at the center of international attention since the start of the war. The main source for the data has been the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, which now claims more than 30,000 dead, the majority of which it says are children and women. Recently, the Biden administration lent legitimacy to Hamas’ figure. When asked at a House Armed Services Committee hearing last week how many Palestinian women and children have been killed since Oct. 7, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the number was “over 25,000.” The Pentagon quickly clarified that the secretary “was citing an estimate from the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.” President Biden himself had earlier cited this figure, asserting that “too many, too many of the over 27,000 Palestinians killed in this conflict have been innocent civilians and children, including thousands of children.” The White House also explained that the president “was referring to publicly available data about the total number of casualties.”

Here’s the problem with this data: The numbers are not real. That much is obvious to anyone who understands how naturally occurring numbers work. The casualties are not overwhelmingly women and children, and the majority may be Hamas fighters.

The truth can’t yet be known and probably never will be. The total civilian casualty count is likely to be extremely overstated. Israel estimates that at least 12,000 fighters have been killed. If that number proves to be even reasonably accurate, then the ratio of noncombatant casualties to combatants is remarkably low: at most 1.4 to 1 and perhaps as low as 1 to 1. By historical standards of urban warfare, where combatants are embedded above and below into civilian population centers, this is a remarkable and successful effort to prevent unnecessary loss of life while fighting an implacable enemy that protects itself with civilians.

Very long article with charts and facts to back up the claim.

[Bootstrap]

If we wanted to spend the money and the resources, we could easily airlift enough to supply all their food needs.

I listened to the White House press briefing today, and John Kirby said that air lifting, and then dropping aid for those In Gaza won’t be as effective as a convoy of trucks could do. The weather conditions have to be perfect. Also, they have to be very careful where they do The drops, as Gaza is highly populated.

Just yesterday, more than 100 people were killed while seeking aid in Gaza, many of them trampled to death as they tried to get to the trucks that provided the aid. These poor people are being starved.

Trucks are clearly more effective. But Israel has not been letting trucks in at the rate that is needed. That's why people are exploring other routes.

For two reasons. To get more aid in. And to protest Israel's actions, which are resulting in massive civilian suffering.

[Ernie]

Trucks are clearly more effective. But Israel has not been letting trucks in at the rate that is needed. That's why people are exploring other routes.

For two reasons. To get more aid in. And to protest Israel's actions, which are resulting in massive civilian suffering.

And for the US, it is political optics. It makes it look like the US wants to help protect civilians, even if it is also supplying ammunition to kill civilians. You and I are not supposed to see the latter trail and instead look at all the good the US is doing.

[Ken]

I was curious about this floating pier business so I looked up what I could find out. There is a whole world out there of international shipping blogs, twitter, and YouTube and the world of those people (international shipping logistics types) have been chatting about it. From what I have been able to discern

1. There is a US Army vessel (not Navy) called the USS Besson that departed Virginia in route for Gaza on Saturday March 9th. It is part of the Army’s Seventh Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary), and that some 1,000 American service members will be involved (I did not know that the Army had its own ships, learn something new every day). No exact word when all will be up and running but minimum several weeks.



2. These vessels are designed to assemble temporary floating pier structures at sea then they push the assembled pier (or large sections of it) ashore with smaller tugboat style vessels and anchor it to the shore and sea floor with lots of heavy anchors. Here are some pics of them doing the same thing during military exercises in Korea a couple years ago. So this is something they regularly practice





3. Apparently the Army would be using all of its equipment to offload aid ships docked at this floating harbor with heavy equipment and delivering it to nearby staging areas for transfer onto aid trucks with army cranes and fork lifts or whatever they use. As you can see from the first photo, the Army has big fork lifts that can lift and carry whole shipping containers and probably cranes that can pull stuff off of cargo ships. They have been doing this sort of thing for a long time. Since at least WW2.

4. Finally the Israeli Army will be on site inspecting goods as ships offload them before they are handed off to aid organizations in the harbor for distribution to the rest of Gaza. Which makes me wonder what the whole point of this is other than optics since they could be doing that same thing at the Egyptian border without going through all this trouble.

[Ernie]

Aid cannot safely be transported from Rafah to northern Gaza due to the ongoing war and desperate civilians.

Neither Hamas nor Israel is not ready to stop the war. Israel doesn't want to focus on opening up more border crossings. They want to put all their energies into routing Hamas.
Also, they can't open up other border crossings because this might help Hamas and it might anger some Israelis.

Also, it would really look bad if truck drivers and aid workers got killed trying to deliver aid, and it would look bad if Hamas took the aid.

So, Israel allowing this floating port option is good for them, as it takes a bit of international pressure off, buys them some time, and gives them more time to finish up their final months of diminishing Hamas in Gaza. By the time the port is in place and working, Israel may be ready to open some more border crossings, if it can get enough Israeli citizens to agree.

[Ernie]

JLOTS Excersize

https://www.dvidshub.net/video/892806/j ... sman-sabre

[silentreader]

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/is ... ame-values

[Ernie]

(I did not know that the Army had its own ships, learn something new every day).

And I did not realize this...

Counterintuitively, the Army actually has more watercraft than the Navy, according to Army Central. One of the service’s responsibilities is to establish port entry operations for troops.

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-arm ... ddle-east/

https://www.twz.com/6149/meet-the-bigge ... he-us-army

[barnhart]

And the Navy has its own Air Force.

[Ken]

And the Navy has its own Air Force.

In fact the Navy has the 2nd most powerful air force on the planet after the actual US Air Force.
The marines have their own air force too.