The U.S. is sending an advanced missile system to Israel, along with U.S. troops, the Pentagon announced on Sunday.@MattgutmanABC details this new deployment, and the message it sends to “Iran, and the rest of the world — That Israel and the U.S. are working in lockstep.” pic.twitter.com/y9qk1vS6Il
— ABC News Live (@ABCNewsLive) October 13, 2024
Welp.
The United States said on Sunday it will send U.S. troops to Israel along with an advanced U.S. anti-missile system, in a highly unusual deployment meant to bolster the country’s air defenses following missile attacks by Iran.
U.S. President Joe Biden said the move was meant “to defend Israel,” which is weighing an expected retaliation against Iran after Tehran fired more than 180 missiles at Israel on Oct 1.
The United States has been privately urging Israel to calibrate its response to avoid triggering a broader war in the Middle East, officials say, with Biden publicly voicing his opposition to an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear sites and his concerns about a strike on Iran’s energy infrastructure.
Pentagon spokesperson Major General Patrick Ryder described the deployment as part of “the broader adjustments the U.S. military has made in recent months” to support Israel and defend U.S. personnel from attacks by Iran and Iranian-backed groups.
But a U.S. military deployment to Israel is rare outside of drills, given Israel’s own military capabilities. U.S. troops in recent months have aided Israel’s defense from warships and fighter jets in the Middle East when it came under Iranian attack.
But they were based outside of Israel.
Israel goes on and on about “human shields,” but that is basically what US troops in the Middle East are.
Actually, they’re usually something like the reverse of that: they are “tripwires,” which means they get sent in to get killed so the US can whine about its soldiers being killed.
However, US troops in Israel implies they are going to actually be openly active in the ongoing wars. That was always going to happen eventually, though this is a bit early in the game.
The US has been delivering record amount of arms to Israel. It is now also putting lives of its troops at risk by deploying them to operate US missile systems in Israel.
While we have made tremendous efforts in recent days to contain an all-out war in our region, I say it… pic.twitter.com/wX16CnhT1A
— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) October 13, 2024