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.

  • d-RLY?@lemmy.ml
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    3 hours ago

    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.

  • Fidel_Cashflow@lemmy.ml
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    5 hours ago

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

  • teagrrl@lemmy.ml
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    8 hours ago

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

  • Cyborganism
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    12 hours ago

    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
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      53 minutes 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
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      4 hours ago

      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
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        6 hours 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.mlOP
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        8 hours ago

        THAAD can be overwhelmed just as Israel’s own missile systems. There was 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
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          8 hours ago

          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.mlOP
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            8 hours ago

            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.

            • circuscritic
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              7 hours ago

              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.

              • circuscritic
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                7 hours ago

                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.

                • Madison420@lemmy.world
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                  7 hours ago

                  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.

    • Bassman1805@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      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.

      • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
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        8 hours ago

        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.

      • bamboo@lemm.ee
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        10 hours ago

        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.

      • GhostFaceSkrilla@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        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.

        • Avid Amoeba
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          9 hours ago

          Is this the human shields situation I keep hearing about?

      • Cyborganism
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        10 hours ago

        Ah ok. That makes sense then. I wasn’t informed about that system. Thank you for telling me.

  • Drusas@fedia.io
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    9 hours ago

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

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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    10 hours ago

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

  • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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    11 hours ago

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

    • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml
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      11 hours ago

      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.

      • Apollo42@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        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
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          9 hours ago

          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
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            9 hours ago

            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.

      • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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        10 hours ago

        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
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          9 hours 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.