The Pentagon has confirmed it is sending a THAAD missile defence system and US troops to Israel, publicly acknowledging that US troops will be on the ground assisting in Israel’s defence.
Fucking A. Why not finish helping Ukraine first before fucking around in the sandbox? Do we all have the collective attention span of a toddler?
Now if Iran sends a ballistic missile in and kills one American what will the US do compared with what the did a few weeks ago when the IDF purposely shot an American protester in the Westbank?
I don’t think Iran will need to wait that long. This looks like the US/Israel are planning a joint operation counterattack on Iranian facilities. Which will trigger a retaliation in turn as Iran escalates in kind. Etc, etc.
The big difference now is that the US military will officially be getting its hands dirty in the region, much like we did in Desert Shield / Storm and in Libya. Very possible that the ghost of John McCain finally gets its long-sought-after bomb bomb Iran.
There’s a good chance it will be used for the declaration of a special military operation. And the Americans will finally get to invade Iran.
Yuck… That’s fucking disgusting. I feel physically sick reading this.
They’re telling Israel to slow down with the attacks and sending weapons and soldiers at the same time.
Election.
They’re telling Israel to slow down with the attacks
Purely to help placate the public. There’s no influence/true intent behind these words. It’s the actions, not the words, that tell the true story.
They’re air defense operators, just like gets deployed around Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure.
If you want to feel bad about anything, it’s that this will significantly reduce the likelihood that Iran can threaten Israel with ballistic missiles.
THAAD is really good at what it does, and something tells me that the Iranians aren’t going to want to waste their entire stock pile on fruitless saturation attempts. To say nothing of their concerns of killing American troops.
As in, this provides Israel even greater latitude on their quest to start a hot war with Iran, without dramatically increasing any threat to their military bases and government buildings. Well, at least not from ballistic missiles.
As in, this provides Israel even greater latitude on their quest to start a hot war with Iran, without dramatically increasing any threat to their military bases and government buildings. Well, at least not from ballistic missiles.
That’s also a very good point. It’s like shielding a bully while they continue to bully other people. While I wouldn’t mind seeing that bully getting smacked by the other people they oppress, I also don’t want to see more people dying either. However, I know Iran has been targeting military targets and not civilian ones. So…
Anyway, this is all just fucked up and I want to see an end to this senseless violence and death, and I want to see Israel getting what they fucking deserve. That is the whole country should cease to exist in terms of land and borders and the land be returned to Palestinians after what they fucking did.
THAAD can be overwhelmed similar to Israel’s own missile systems. There has been a THAAD system in Israel since 2019 so it already failed during Iran’s retaliation.
The US is sending around 100 US troops with the new system so there will be additional interception capabilities. But it remains unlikely this will affect a saturation missile attack.
I’m not saying it can’t be. I’m saying I don’t believe Iran has the capabilities or stockpiles available to do so, given the other American assets in theatre, or a desire to risk killing American troops.
I suspect they’re deploying THAAD because of the failures of David’s Sling during the last missile attack.
Air defense systems protect specific targets, not countries. Given the THAAD’s long track record under US operators, I would wager that the bases and targets that Iranian missiles hit, either lacked sufficient coverage, had poorly trained Israeli personnel, and/or were covered by David’s Sling.
Of course, I could be wrong, but we won’t know for many many years given how secretive Israel is on these matters.
Edit: I’m not seeing any reports of active THAAD deployments in Israel prior to this announcement, just previous deployments to Israel, including for training. But no mention if they rotated out prior to the Iranian missile strike, or that they were present for it.
I’m not saying they weren’t there, but do you have a source confirms they were present during this most recent attack?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_High_Altitude_Area_Defense
In March 2019, Bravo Battery, 2nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment (B-2 THAAD), 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade[55] was deployed at Nevatim Airbase during a joint US-Israeli drill, after which it was to be moved to an undisclosed location in the Negev desert in southern Israel.[56] The X-Band radar system, which is part of the THAAD system, has been deployed at Nevatim since 2008.[57]
On October 13, 2024, the Pentagon announced it will send an air defense system along with about 100 U.S. troops to operate it. The deployment comes after two direct missile attacks from Iran against Israel on April 13 and Oct. 1.
I’m not opposed to this one honestly, it’s defensive and Israelis are quite literally holding the world hostage in a way that every other nuclear power simply implies.
This defense enables and emboldens Israeli aggression.
It removes, or significantly reduces, the threat posed by Iranian ballistic missiles.
That means, it removes, or reduces, any deterrent effect they have, on moderating Israel.
This is not good, but less because of the risk of American KIA, and more because of how it changes the Israeli calculus.
Indeed. Israel will only come to a diplomatic solution when they cannot win militarily. This has always been the case in the past.
Preventing a military Israeli defeat prolongs the Israeli aggression.
It doesn’t, Israel is going to do whatever they want just as they always have. We’re they not aggressive yet, did I miss calm level headed Israeli sometime in the last 50 years? No?
Iran never intended to strike with authority, they struck back because they are intended to, they didn’t want involved and now they have every reason not to be.
Iran isn’t now not has it ever truly been a moderating influence in Israel.
There’s no change to the math, even without the us Israel is more than equipped to lay siege to Gaza for the foreseeable future and Iran had no intention of getting involved.
Not really. Iran wants an excuse to sit it out and they just got it.
What it will do is give the us more intelligence agents in the ground figuring out what the actual duck is going on.
We don’t care about isrealis killing ours. Neither attacking a ship nor running a civilian over with a bulldozer raised too much issue.
Imagine the cops in Uvalde TX blocking parents from entering the school to stop the school shooter.
They are not directly attacking the children, but they are protecting the shooter from being stopped. Defending Israel is that times a thousand.
The THAAD systems are not defending civilian areas but Israeli military bases. To make matters worse almost all the weapons used by Israel are made in the USA.
Removed by mod
Yes, that first but confirms the news article.
And then it talks about a deployment 5 years ago for a training exercise.These aren’t brick and mortar buildings, they’re mobile platforms, and mobile air defense batteries redeploy all the time.Again, I am not closed to the idea that there was US military operated THAAD system in Israel during that attack, I just can’t find any reports confirming that, or even eluding to it.Never mind, I misread that last bit. I will take a look at it later when I have a few moments, thank you.
This is like, technically a weapon. It’s a tool for destroying enemy missiles in the air before they impact their target. It’s about as purely defensive of a weapon as you can get.
The US soldiers are operating the missile defense system, so there’s not room for Israel to “creatively” repurpose them. They aren’t assisting in any missions in Palestine, they’re purely defending against Iranian missiles.
The US providing this defense however allows Israel to be even more belligerent without fear of retaliation, possibly the only thing stopping them from expanding their genocide faster.
There is no such thing as a defensive weapon. Its entire purpose is shielding them from the consequences of their own actions. Its just the armor of the tank that is Israels military. Its an integral part of the weapon.
And now they will claim the US soldiers were attacked after placing them in the line of fire and use it as another excuse to go to war with Iran and continue exterminating Palestinians. It truly is sickening that they are fully participating in genocide.
Is this the human shields situation I keep hearing about?
Ah ok. That makes sense then. I wasn’t informed about that system. Thank you for telling me.
And let THAT be a Lesson to Israel next time they try to KILL AMERICANS or BOMB SCHOOLCHILDREN!
Sending US troops in any capacity seems to me that US hawks are wanting to increase the chances of US troops being killed. Which then means that the US can then justify sending everyone in that they want.
Use the excuse of “they attacked 'Merica” and do the same shit that happened in Afghanistan and Iraq (just with Israel “inviting” them in and as a “supporting” army). Which will of course ignore all of the US citizens that have been murdered by Israel.
They want so badly to bring back the “hero” trappings that WW2 had, but they will be siding with the fascists this time around. And would have “perfect” excuses to attack China and Iran via false flag shit (again using Nazi tactics). Hell, they might even pull-off something with Russia that can be used for the death spiral that NATO Article 5 promises. Be like all the shit that made sure WW1 would happen if literally anything popped off.
At the very least it would balance out the stream of reports of Israel bombing / shooting yet another journalist / American / medic / humanitarian.
When will this horror ever end? It’s just escalation after escalation from Israel & the U.S.
Need new gulags, thats how it ends.
hope every US troop setting foot in occupied Palestine gets exactly what they deserve, as swiftly as possible. 🥰
What would you prefer they do? Desert?
Preferably not joining an organization with a - history of invading and occupying countries illegally.
Would you defend german ally troops during the holocaust? No? Then maybe reflect.
i would prefer they shoot their commanding officer and then themselves! if that’s not an option then deserting would be cool too, I guess.
Fragging is a proud American tradition which should be continued.
and then themselves
I have some empathy for those coerced into joining out of sincere ignorance (even though I believe they should know better). Eyes Left has an interesting example. The front lines radicalize some people into anti-imperialism, and if they have enough of a conscience to wake up and join the resistance, then I say have the potential to redeem themselves.
That’s not what’s going on here, but okay I guess.
Edit to insert a comment I wrote elsewhere:
In case people aren’t clear, these soldiers are the operators of the additional THAAD system they are deploying to Israel. These aren’t infantry being sent to kick in doors alongside the IDF. THAAD is a ballistic missile defense system with no offensive capabilities. We already have a THAAD unit deployed to Israel.
Don’t be mad because you expect to see headlines saying US Soldiers are killing civilians in Gaza. Be mad because this enhances Israel’s ability to continue escalating conflict with Iran and hiding behind US cover when Iran strikes back.
Saving you a click: it’s a THAAD system and the people to operate it.
My thoughts exactly
Imagine the good that could be done caring for USA citizens with all the money we send to Israel to make war.
Seriously, it’s one of those few bridge-crossing arguments which most people will agree on, from the communists to the liberals to the nationalists. Look at all that money going to the other side of the world. Look at the local living conditions. If the governments aren’t keeping people poor, desperate and dying on purpose, then the choice of where to spend the money is obvious!
We should send defense equipment and forces to both sides.
Weapons I get (in the sense that it’s already a thing), but soldiers? What are they even gonna do?
Try to scare Iran into not attacking. Iran targets military installations including missile systems so there is now a chance that they will blow up legally (at least according to USA) stationed US soldiers there. Or worse, this might be a deliberate provocation and they want Iran to blow them up to have some bloody shirt to blind the people into yet another war.
Sure, but the situation is different, US now is blinded with blood, note how the most significant part of that news is that they are officially deployed right into what is basically hot target zone.
It’s more likely that they are being sent because they are trained to operate THAAD and sending them is more efficient than training IDF troops to operate it.
Iran launched missiles at US bases in Iraq a few years ago with very little in the way of retaliation.
Wasn’t this around the time US murdered Soleimani? It was clear back then that US no longer want war, Soleimani head was to have a last word and to appease republican hawks in Washington. Now the situation is different, current administration seem to push for war. Also US is perfectly able to ignore any and all deaths of its citizens when they don’t want war, but bray for blood at the slightest provocation when they do want. They just have an excellent propaganda around this - most glaring historical example is how the sinking of Lusitiania scared Germans so much that in september 1939 even Goebbels eaten all that propaganda and after sinking Athenia everyone there was scared shitless and entire act was made so secret that it only accidentally came to light after war. Also USS Liberty incident.
Yeah I think that’s why Iran attacked the US base (might have been multiple, I can’t really remember) iirc.
I think a big part of why the US didn’t respond is that a) they took out Soleimani first and b) an Iranian air defence battery, on high alert expecting US retaliation, immediatley shot down a passenger jet.
The airliner being downed really took the sting out of it, kind of like someone swinging at you, barely connecting, and then immediately punching themselves in the dick.
Yeah i remember that, really awful accident, i think that cooled a lot of heads in Iran and western hawks were gloating about “barbarous asiatic regime shooting at random targets in a bouts of fear and paranoia” which appeased their bloodthirst and superiority complex somewhat.
I hate how that makes sense.
All part of their master plan.
The 100 soldiers will operate the missile systems. Maintenance, reloading, target confirmation etc.
They are the soldiers responsible for operating the missile defense system.
Operating the anti ballistic missile aystem that’s being sent.
We should be sending THAADs to Ukraine. There’s been plenty of time to train their own soldiers to use it.
the libs won’t be happy until the last Ukrainian is dead
The response to my comment suggests you’re right on that.
“Advocating for protecting a peaceful allied democracy, which has been actively fighting to improve its democratic system and root out corruption for years, from being destroyed and annexed by one of our two notable national enemies? Preposterous!”
It’s not as though the US is actually losing money over this. We’re making weapon sales and using old lend lease practices. And when the war is over, and Putin’s regime pushed out, investment in the country would also be lucrative. There is no reason for the US not to want Ukraine to survive.
On top of that, again, these are peaceful, innocent people (who willingly gave up nuclear weapon technology in order to achieve that peace), who are now being invaded and slaughtered by a foreign nation. Having their children abducted and indoctrinated into the idea that there is no Ukraine. It’s genocide.
it’s incredible how utterly ignorant you are on what’s happening in Ukraine.
Sure, buddy. Whatever you say.
We have to defend Israel, there’s too much support for Israel in the US not to.