This week President Joe Biden’s pier in Gaza washed away, and along with it, $320 million in U.S. taxpayer dollars.
That a temporary pier built in the open ocean broke up in a storm should not shock anyone who has ever looked at the sea or watched the Weather Channel. Sailors since the days of the Phoenician trireme have used the expression, “any port in a storm.” For that reason, most piers are built in ports, anchorages and harbors.
President Biden’s pier disaster is not unlike President Jimmy Carter’s “Operation Eagle Claw,” the botched attempt to rescue the Iranian hostages in the final months of his presidency. I would say let’s hope this latest military bungle is Biden’s final Jimmy Carter moment, but that’s unfair to the president from Plains, Georgia. President Carter deservedly had higher approval ratings than Biden at this point in his presidency.
Ordering the U.S. military to build a temporary seaside pier in the middle of a war ranks among the worst of this president’s many failed ideas. Like Biden announcing that the U.S. would withdraw from Afghanistan on April 14, 2021, the pier sprang more from political calculations than military strategy or sound naval architecture.
Biden initially expressed “unshakable” support for Israel after the horrific attacks of Oct. 7. It seemed like a safe stance at the time — after all, Jewish Americans have overwhelmingly supported the Democratic Party since Harry Truman first recognized the Jewish state. Yet by the president’s State of the Union speech on March 7th, it became clear to Democrats that the party is split on support to Israel.
So, to pacify the warring factions of his own party, the commander-in-chief made many promises that night in front of Congress. He began reasonably enough: “Israel has the right to go after Hamas.” Referring to the Americans held hostage by Hamas, the president pledged not to rest until “we bring every one of your loved ones home.”
Unfortunately, Biden didn’t stop there.
Instead, the president promised to work “nonstop” for a ceasefire, which Israel wisely ignored. Then he did something unusual. The commander-in-chief issued an order from the podium: “I’m directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the coast of Gaza.”
How it started: This pier, Biden promised, would enable a “massive increase” in humanitarian assistance to Gaza. Despite being built and manned by U.S. military personnel, Biden promised no “U.S. boots on the ground.” By that deliberately misleading logic, maybe the Japanese could have called for a ceasefire on December 8th since they didn’t have “boots on the ground” at Pearl Harbor.
How it’s going: As it turns out, the pier did not deliver massive aid. It delivered a million pounds over two-and-a-half months.
For comparison, the same amount of assistance would have taken a mere five trips in a C-17 Globemaster and cost a lot less than $320 per pound. The pier itself came under fire from Hamas almost immediately.
We can’t be sure the aid reached the intended recipients, as that part was left to the United Nations — an organization that makes this administration look competent. And lastly, U.S. boots are indeed on the ground and in an Israeli hospital, after one service member was critically injured in the operation.
President Biden issuing the order to build the Gaza pier from the halls of Congress was no doubt meant to make our doddering leader appear commanding and decisive. But his personally and so publicly issuing this order carried a secondary effect: Biden owns it.
Like his pier, let’s hope he gets washed out this November.
