this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2024
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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.

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[–] cyborganism@lemmy.ca 110 points 2 months ago (9 children)

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.

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 24 points 2 months ago

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.

[–] circuscritic@lemmy.ca 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] cyborganism@lemmy.ca 19 points 2 months ago

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.

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] circuscritic@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

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?

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (11 children)

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.

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[–] teagrrl@lemmy.ml 48 points 2 months ago (1 children)

When will this horror ever end? It's just escalation after escalation from Israel & the U.S.

[–] Simmy@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 2 months ago

Need new gulags, thats how it ends.

[–] dRLY@lemmy.ml 32 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] mhague@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

At the very least it would balance out the stream of reports of Israel bombing / shooting yet another journalist / American / medic / humanitarian.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 26 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Imagine the good that could be done caring for USA citizens with all the money we send to Israel to make war.

[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago

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!

[–] Fidel_Cashflow@lemmy.ml 25 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (6 children)

hope every US troop setting foot in occupied Palestine gets exactly what they deserve, as swiftly as possible. 🥰

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[–] BigMacHole@lemm.ee 23 points 2 months ago

And let THAT be a Lesson to Israel next time they try to KILL AMERICANS or BOMB SCHOOLCHILDREN!

[–] Mycatiskai@lemmy.ca 19 points 2 months ago (2 children)

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?

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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.

[–] rando895@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 2 months ago

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.

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 19 points 2 months ago
[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 16 points 2 months ago

We should send defense equipment and forces to both sides.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 12 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Weapons I get (in the sense that it's already a thing), but soldiers? What are they even gonna do?

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 25 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

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.

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Iran has already taken on US military installations in Syria and in Iraq. It seems very likely that there was a US presence at some of the military installations that Iran has already attacked in Israel.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 months ago

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.

[–] Apollo42@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] Apollo42@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 3 points 2 months ago

I hate how that makes sense.

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[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 months ago

The 100 soldiers will operate the missile systems. Maintenance, reloading, target confirmation etc.

[–] MinorLaceration@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

They are the soldiers responsible for operating the missile defense system.

[–] Apollo42@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Operating the anti ballistic missile aystem that's being sent.

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Saving you a click: it’s a THAAD system and the people to operate it.

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[–] Drusas@fedia.io 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

We should be sending THAADs to Ukraine. There's been plenty of time to train their own soldiers to use it.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 12 points 2 months ago (4 children)

the libs won't be happy until the last Ukrainian is dead

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