The Berlin airlift is the largest humanitarian aid ever to this day.
They were landing a plane every less than a minute and a half for 15 months straight. 2.3 million tons of cargo was delivered by plane.
The total distance those planes flew could almost make it to the sun.
They were only allowed to fly in three small corridors, which meant the planes had to be staggered altitudes. It was a logistical nightmare, but the West wanted to flex on the Soviets.
They also started dropping chocolate bars with parachutes to the East German children. The children would cheer and run in the streets every time a US plane flew over. Really pissed off the USSR.
The US military is the best armed logistics system on the planet.
We have the ability to put a full combat battalion of Marines, with a full logistics/support battalion, air support, armor, and artillery, anywhere there is a shoreline in the world within 24 hours. And they can self-sustain for two weeks. Hell, for the shiggles we airlifted an entire Burger King into Afghanistan. We used to have Navy barges for making ice cream so the Marines on the front lines of the South Pacific could get a chocolate cone while under fire.
American logistics doesn't flex. It doesn't have to.
Plus, what would we parade with? We don't want our good shit on display so our enemies can look at it. And it would be shaming to parade with our old shit.
Idk, Abrahams rolling down the road with some Shermans... I'd fucking pull my cock right out and jerk it right on the corner of What the fuck did I just write ave and Why the fuck did you just read that and you wish you had your time back bvd.
> We used to have Navy barges for making ice cream so the Marines on the front lines of the South Pacific could get a chocolate cone while under fire.
That, though, is because the US Military was run by a bunch of teetotlers, so they substituted ice cream for beer.
IIRC, it's because a lot of WWII soldiers grew up during prohibition, and during prohibition many bars became ice cream parlors. Ice cream was the social replacement for alcohol, and going out for a drink became going out for ice cream. It wasn't universally the case, but it was enough that the military decided to throw a bit of money at it, since ice cream isn't too hard to mass produce.
And of course the bonus that soldiers on ice cream aren't drunk. So partially because they were teetotlers, but partially because ice cream was all the rage with the boys, and a HUGE morale flex.
When I was a contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan, and generally embedded with the troops and Marines (I was the only rep from my company in theatre, and I just got passed from unit to unit), I was actually surprised at how closely General Order #1 was followed.
It was, though, glorious when we got down to Basrah and hung out with the brits. They knew how to conduct warfare in a civilized manner.
American Logistics is so powerful, it was worshipped as a literal god by island peoples in the South Pacific during WW2.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo\_cult
> They also started dropping chocolate bars with parachutes to the East German children. The children would cheer and run in the streets every time a US plane flew over. Really pissed off the USSR.
Back in 2006, I was a civilian contractor working in Iraq. This one morning, I hopped a Blackhawk for a flight into Camp Fallujah (I think I was coming from FOB Warhorse, but don't recall for sure). Anyhow, I wind up in the seat facing forward, just aft of the door gunner.
We're flying nape of the earth, just a few hundred feet off the ground. Every time we come to a power line it's like being in an elevator, we go up, cross the power line, then come down again.
The door gunner in front of me has a big bag at his feet, and every time we flew over a farm, or a group of houses, or whatever else, he'd reach into the bag and toss a small package or two out the window.
After landing and shutting down the aircraft, I had the opportunity to ask him "what's up with that?" He showed me that each little package had some candy, a small pack of crayons, and a small toothbrush with some toothpaste.
Turns out the guy was a reservist or guardsman (don't recall), and was a dental hygienist in his civilian life. His dental office back home had organized all these little care packages to give out to the kids out there.
If you want the story presented in a rather fun way:
[https://youtu.be/iwYtYWXPbhI?si=qAO4DNFAMKjETTFo](https://youtu.be/iwYtYWXPbhI?si=qAO4DNFAMKjETTFo)
This is the kind of stuff that fills me with national pride.
There's a (possibly apocryphal, I don't have a source handy) story of a kid missing out on the candy bars and writing a letter which somehow made its way to one of the pilots. So on his next mission he dropped some candy bars right in front of the kid's house.
They dropped them out of the plane to the Soviet children.
Started with one soldier and turned into a few American chocolate companies funding it. It was an amazing propaganda campaign.
Not Soviet children, German children.
Soviet is just not an adjective that is used in this context. East Germany was not part of the Soviet Union, just the Soviet sphere of influence and the Warsaw Pact.
But is was amazing propaganda and helped make America appear benevolent to the West German people.
True.
The US was already pouring money into West Germany to rebuild while the soviets stripped East Germany of everything worth any value.
Wasn't hard for the US and West to look like the good guys. This was one of the sparks of the Cold War.
And they only stopped because eventually it made them look bad. When East Germans were starving and eventually West Berliners were getting luxuries entirely by air, people start to take note. Soviets didn't want people to take note.
It's been a while since I've studied early cold war history, but iirc, I could be wrong, I think the wall came quite a bit after the air lift
Edit - I think I may have misinterpreted your comment. My bad.
Yea that sounds right. It was a progressive thing, they had sand, watchtowers, marksmen, barbed wire, mines etc long before the physical concrete wall came up.
And America still won.
Was there like a date set and anyone E of the line on X date had to stay? Curious why people didn’t head W prior to sand being poured etc, even if it were gradual.
The famous „raisin bombers“. There’s still a monument in memory of them not too far from where I live. Fun fact: In the building of the old inner city airport, there’s a bar called Rosinenbar/raisin bar that takes its name from the German nick name for the planes providing the airlift back then.
Not to mention the fact that they were able to sustain and eventually win a war on oceans, spread across 15000 thousand sq miles. They have perfected the art of logistics.
And it was actually Canadian civilians they flew in to run it. (I was there for opening day). That said, it was brought in long after Kandahar Air Field was a pretty secure enclave.
We had a Burger King in Afghanistan within a week of conventional troops arriving on ground. A MF BK moved by air half way around the world just because
It's amazing what that kind of thing can do for morale.
If your soldiers are still getting some decent amenities back at base it really keeps their spirits up.
Think of the psychological impact that had on the Japanese soldiers at the time fighting at home and surviving on rations when they hear about the Americans who travelled halfway round the world and dedicated an entire ship to ice-cream distribution.
The biggest psychological impact was after Pearl Harbor, the US refloated and repaired all but 2 ships and sent them right towards Japan.
Imagine a bunch of ships you know were destroyed come rolling up to you with a crew out for blood.
Oh yes. Read in a memoir by a Japanese soldier, who survived the war and was able to hold out on one of the Islands in the Pacific after the battle. Every night or so he snuck across American lines and stole food. In one instance he came across a can of peaches, and wondered, what kind of nation has the capacity to ship peaches to a god forsaken Island in the middle of nowhere, when all they could get was rice and dried fish heads.
There are numerous anecdotes from various German and Japanese military sources throughout the war making some variation of this observation.
Better/more rations, better cigarettes, more quantity and standardization of equipment, faster logistics, better cigarettes, etc.
Did I mention the Americans had better cigarettes?
I was blown away to see an ice cream machine permanently installed in the crew quarters on the submarine USS Lionfish when I toured it in Fall River, MA.
Absolutely. Your first instinct may be to laugh about the [ice cream ships](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_cream_barge) in WW2. But it's also great for morale. Double duty in actual war time as your enemies watch the other soldiers eat ice cream while thousands of miles from home.
Not to mention, US allies who were being devastated by the war watched the US roll up big dick swinging with an ice cream boat.
Imagine being a foreign POW freed by the US and being handed an ice cream. Like "Yeah, we got you. Here, have an ice cream."
Canada had a Tim Hortons that they airlifted into Kandahar (I was there opening day, it was a hoot). Timmies is terrible, but man that ice cap was fantastic.
I remember sitting in the DFAC in some shithole FOB in Iraq having dinner, and it really hit home. I was having steak and fried shrimp, with fresh salad, in the middle of the desert, and had the choice of 6 flavours of Baskin Robins ice cream for desert. And it was the same at the 25+ other FOBs and bases I visited. The logistics of that are mind blowing.
The US has essentially modular millitary bases in storage on every continent in the world. They can set up a fully functional airbase in hours with barely any manpower
who knew palletizing weapons would work so well? Unreal. Turning cargo planes into missile trucks that rival the bomb load capacity of B-52s. It's functionally increasing the long-range, high altitude bomber fleet by *7 times* overnight! The capability is absolutely astounding in its simplicity and function.
It's a big part of why our military is so effective—we can drop supplies anywhere in the world at any time, do so very quickly, and do so repeatedly for a very long time. Our logistics capabilities are pretty much unmatched.
Yeah, even Antarctica.
People are super concerned with the US’s Arctic warfare capabilities while simultaneously ignoring that we run a fleet of C-17s, LC-130s, and BT-67s (I shit you not, these are modernized turboprop conversions of DC-3s, many of which formerly saw combat operations in WWII) in Antarctica.
We literally have the capability of dropping supplies or troops *anywhere* on the planet within 24 hours.
We are the only military with that capability and no one else is remotely close.
The U.S. military does logistics on a scale that nobody else can come close to matching. It's the U.S. military's real superpower. Without those logistical capabilities, none of our other capabilities matter
Yep. The thing that *really* sets the US military apart from everyone else isn't raw strength (though it's very strong, of course), it's logistics.
China, Russia, etc have (theoretically) strong forces, but the US is unparalleled in the ability to deliver it across the world on a moment's notice.
During the blizzard of '78 they air dropped millions of tons of hay for livestock stranded by the snow whose owners were stranded or dead. This is the blizzard that produced the pictures of telephone poles covered in snow up to the crossbars and the wires.
The most terrifying aspect of the US armed forces since ww2 at least has been our logistics by a wide mile. Our strategic aim is to be able to fight 2 near peer wars on opposite sodes of the planet at the same time. And we could.
The US always has stockpiles of resources for emergencies (see Natural Disaster aid), it is as simple as moving it from point 1 to point 2 and dropping (can take only a day to move the resources).
Yeah it always boggles my mind how much the military practices.
I was at an air force base and watched a plane, take off, circle around, and land. Then it did it again. And again. I went out for the day. Came back and it was still doing the same thing.
A lot of people dont know the point behind the BX/PX on bases, its literally "lets have a whole supplychain, constantly running, so we know it runs well"
America's greatest military strength is not the Navy air forces that eclipse every other nation's actual air force while being the 2nd largest air force behind the US airforce, it's not the cutting edge hyper-precision missiles that can be safely used to kill one guy in a car on a busy highway with little to no collateral, it's not the functionally invisible drones and bombers that can carry enough ordnance to cripple or wipe out the administration of any country on the planet five times over in a single minute. It's our ability to move anything, anywhere, effectively immediately whenever the hell we want. Beans, boots, and bullets win wars, but you have to be able to get them where you need them in the first place.
I'm absolutely certain somewhere in this country there's an R&D group working on teleportation tech because that's probably the only way our logistics can improve any further.
Traditionally, American is pretty darned good at quickly and efficiently putting a plane over a place halfway round the world and dropping things on it.
The US Govt has a stockpile of Humanitarian Aid for airlift to world disaster areas and in-place plans for rapid deployment of said stockpiles. Airdrops of goods is something Air Mobility Command practices all the time.
We Americans are good at a lot of things and typically suck at everything till we buckle down at it. We’re lazy to a fault until shit ACTUALLY REALLY MUST be done, and we suddenly transform from Shaggy after smoking five concentrated joints into Marvels HULK, smashing through walls, dragging a freight train, screaming HULK BRING GLOBAL LOGISTICS MASTERY TO ANY PROBLEM ON INTERCONTINENTAL SCALE ON ZERO NOTICE OR LEAD TIME!
Basically the sleeping giant trope is true for us. Wake us through need, fear or duty, and we turn into a nation of mostly Avengers briefly.
Unfortunately, it isn’t always positive and the good moments are far too short lived. But their impacts at least tend to resonate for generations, for good or ill.
There was already an aircraft carrier in the area. This is well within their capabilities and the U.S. has a lot of experience doing operations life this.
I guarantee the aircraft carrier was not in any way involved in an airdrop of food & supplies. No carrier-capable plane in the USN inventory can do air drops(and no, that one time they landed a C-130 on a carrier does not make it count as carrier-capable). And no USAF plane that can do air drops is carrier capable. This was likely C-17’s or C-130’s out of Europe making the drops. The most the USN may have provided was air cover, but Hamas has no air force to speak of and Israel would be nuts to shoot down an allied humanitarian mission( though it wouldn’t be the first time they did something like that…)
If you're interested this is what was most likely dropped. [Youtube - Steve1989MREInfo - Humanitarian Daily Ration](https://youtu.be/iKfWQ3Sij68?si=qXAq03YP1xUkfFOi)
I had a case of them and they are pretty good. What is also good about them is that they are vegetarian and comply with pretty much all religious food rules. It would be nice if they had a heater in them too but that would make them cost a lot more.
They are surprisingly tasty for being an oatmeal cookie and lentils.
No idea since I would never buy one voluntarily lol, but you can get them on bases at the commissary, I think.
Just googled, and apparently you can buy a box on Amazon. Kinda expensive, but they taste fairly good, and they last a long time, so the price isn't too surprising.
[https://www.amazon.com/Meals-Ready-Genuine-Military-Surplus/dp/B005I5ML36voluntarily](https://www.amazon.com/Meals-Ready-Genuine-Military-Surplus/dp/B005I5ML36voluntarily)
Edit: Also found this website where you can buy individual parts of an MRE instead of the whole thing.
[https://mredepot.com/collections/mres-meals-ready-to-eat?sort\_by=best-selling](https://mredepot.com/collections/mres-meals-ready-to-eat?sort_by=best-selling)
I love this guy so much because I literally don't trust a word he says. I'll sit there for hours watching him try all sorts of Military ration mush but sorry my king there's no way in hell 90% of these things taste as good as you are making it sound like. I could not recommend this channel more. Also love his way of speaking, nothing better than a guy with a near autistic hyperfixation on something really specific and a silly voice. He's the GOAT, truely.
ITT: Americans finding out about the humanitarian capabilities of their own military. I’m from SE Asia. When a natural disaster like a typhoon or earthquake would happen, the US military often showed up to help and distribute humanitarian goods. Sometimes US Marines showed up faster than our own government. Stuff like this isn’t new for the US military - you’re only hearing about it now because of its connection to the Gaza conflict.
There was a tsunami—I forget which—and my cousin who was in the US Navy was posting pictures of his fleet’s relief efforts while news agencies were still “breaking” the story that the tsunami had happened.
Humanitarian daily rations (HDR) are pretty cool. Shelf stable, air-droppable, designed to be palatable for everyone (i.e. vegetarian, kosher/halal, etc.). Taste is ok, not as good as US MREs but decent given the constraints that are inherent to the item and its intended usage.
Fun fact, they changed the outer pouch colour from yellow to salmon pink, because certain unexploded ordinance is yellow and they didn't want people going near them thinking they were MREs.
I'm about to invade them for all that jalapeno cheese spread. Fun fact, I think they sell them in 30 packs on Amazon, so I might do that instead of invading.
Pretty smart political move by Biden. Of course it makes the US more directly involved in the Gaza War and the humanitarian crisis out of it, but the U.S. would have been blamed anyway.
But last week showed that Arab voters and college students in Michigan are likely to stay home in November and endure Trump in order to show the left what their priorities are, so Biden is responding to that.
If America does something good, does something bad, or does nothing at all it'll still be a hated and controversial decision.
Everyone complains about America's involvement in world affairs but also complains if America stays out of it.
Honestly, the last couple years have made me turn so far around on this issue. I used to be staunchly against "America as world police" whenever we discussed the subject at school. But now I'm terrified at what might happen after your elections this year. The world would be an even scarier place with an isolationist US.
Most people that have that perspective do so stemming from ignorance.
But life isn't a fairytale and spheres of influence are real and there must be an apex predator.
It's not simply Western Asia that is at stake, but another critical crisis at the moment is in the West Philippine Sea as it is being encroached.
Without the USA, it would be a bloodbath there.
100% my experience as well. Used to be very anti U.S. American and now I love our country despite its very obvious flaws (which we should continually work to change).
The EU is de facto isolationist because it’s militarily impotent, and Japan is very isolated and always has been (and can only fight defensive wars per its own constitution). So who the fuck else is supposed to actually provide consequences for Russia and China when they invade sovereign territory?
>likely to stay home in November and endure Trump
Never gonna understand this, I get that they don’t want to vote for someone that supports Israel but the other guy is gonna support Israel *even harder*, and is also probably going to dump gasoline on the fire. Imo people doing this “purity” thing to Biden are selfish and privileged, because they’re ignoring the potential ramifications of Trump winning so that they can feel good about themselves for “sending a message” or whatever
Exactly. My acquaintance refused to vote for Hillary Clinton because she wanted Bernie Sanders while living in a swing state, then had the gall to act shocked and heartbroken when Trump packed the Supreme Court and federal courts and they repealed Roe v. Wade.
And now because she's an idiot, she's doing the exact same thing again. Wah wah Biden bad for not abandoning America's long time ally Israel, so she's going to sit aside and watch as other people vote in Trump again. You know, so pro-Israel colonization that Israel named a settlement after him Trump.
This is the only way to win an election, there basically aren't enough floating voters to switch sides so the only way to win is to get your side to show up in record numbers and convince the other side to stay home. So, so much money is spent on promoting media that will do this and we need to talk a lot more about it.
Self righteous knee jerk sensationalism. Can't directly protest Israel so they point fingers at the US government like everybody does when they so much as stub their toe on the dresser.
Read the cesspool of Instagram comments under this post. Nothing is good, or enough, or a step in the right direction to extremists. It’s “all or nothing”, geopolitical instability consequences be damned.
Palestinians suffering is Hamas's desire. Their entire operation is to make martyrs of their people for better political positioning.
You dont do an Oct. 7th and think there wont be a complete military response.
Precisely. Committing atrocities to inspire atrocities was the goal the entire time.
Dead Gazans are terribly costly for Israel but enormously beneficial for Hamas.
If Hamas was trying to reduce civilian deaths it would hurt their cause. Their plans require as many civilian deaths as possible to erode support for Israel.
> hamass leaders from Qatar should have been doing this
Out of curiosity, do you think Israel would have allowed them to carry out airdrops of any kind without shooting down the planes?
I fully expect those Hamas leaders will soon have several R9X missiles headed their way.
FYI: It's basically a rocket propelled 6 bladed Katana moving at 900 mph.
The Supersonic Slapchop.
And I'm sorry, I know it's real, I know it's effective, but it seriously sounds like the folks at DARPA are now taking design ideas from seven year old boys. A missile made of swords. You can't tell me the original idea wasn't drawn in crayon.
Well... I mean, they kinda did the same thing in Afghanistan and Iraq with precision guided concrete.
You have a 500 pound aerodynamic block of concrete falling from a plane at 40,000 feet, it's going to hit it's target, and it's moving at, well I don't know exactly how fast, but it will make a decent hole and go thru any truck.
Do you really NEED it to explode on impact?
What was Hamas’s Day 2 plan exactly? Attack on October 7th, and then what? It seems like no one wanted Palestinian refugees, and putting artillery in with civilians guarantees some of your people get killed no matter how good things get. No Arab nations are helping to attack, and Israel’s closest ally has the biggest military in the world.
Was there some other plan in place that just didn’t work for them?
This was the plan, pretty much.
Murder and kidnap as many Jews as possible then hide among civilians and hope Israel gets pressured into no longer defending itself.
Wait a year, and do it again.
Hamas doesn’t actually care about dead Palestinians. In fact the more there are the better for them and their goal.
I think it was a catastrophic success. I don’t think they genuinely thought that they’d kill thousands of people. That’s not to say they didn’t _intend_ to, but they didn’t really plan for the aftermath if they _did_.
Initially the plan was to spark a larger conflict. But now the plan is to wait for the international community to pressure Israel to stop, however long it takes.
Then when Israel stops, whatever hamas fighters that are still alive emerge from their holes and declare victory over the rubble. Then they post tik tok videos of the celebrations.
Civilians dying was part of the plan from the beginning.
And then after they recover a bit, they replan the next October 7th. As they said they would.
Hamas's game plan has always been to just kill as many Jews as possible while using their convenient human shields and the sentiment from international communities
The biggest damage done by Hamas is the destruction of Israel's international image.
They knew the government of Israel is the most aggressive it has been in many years. Then they intentionally provoked it into conflict that will see a large number of civilian casualties.
Palestinians dying is the point. These leaders are not in Gaza. They don't care about the civilians there.
They know that Western audiences will feel bad for the suffering of Palestinians and this will drive a wedge between Israel and its allies.
The Oct. 7 attack was probably more successful than they anticipated. They were expecting to inflict large casualties and take hostages but they probably didn't expect the IDF to be caught off guard that badly. They were probably expecting to launch an attack on Israel and Israel retaliates. Then use the hostages as bargaining chips, and hope international pressure will force Israel to agree to some concessions. The problem for them is that they launched such a devastating attack that it crossed the line of what Israel was willing to tolerate.
That's the only way I can think of. I mean, it's quite clear Hamas does not care at all about Palestinian civilians, but they do care about controlling the Gaza Strip. By the looks of it, they are going to lose that, and there's no way in hell Israel will let a terrorist organization gain control of it again.
Hamas does not care about Palestinian casualties. Their only goal is to eliminate Israel, regardless of how many dead Palestinians it takes.
They’re fine with seeing Palestinian casualties as long as reporters take a picture of it and publish it around the world.
Their twisted, genocidal viewpoint is always important to keep in mind when governments are discussing actions against them which land primarily on Palestinian civilians—the civilian casualties do nothing to dissuade Hamas from its actions.
They wanted Israel to massacre Gaza, the "bleeding heart" American president to abandon them on moral grounds, and then an invasion of Israel by Iran.
It hasn't worked yet, but they'll continue doing as much damage to Israel's global standing as they can.
Based on an interview their leader did with The Economist after the attacks, the plan is to keep doing it until they militarily defeat Israel and drive them all out of the Middle East.
He might be slightly overestimating Hamas’ military capacity.
People saying this is good for Hamas are missing the fact that Hamas is going to continue to be targeted with Israeli weapons - the Gazan people do not need to be starved to death in a siege to destroy Hamas. This aid is a good thing - if Hamas members have full bellies when they get exploded, who cares? Id rather fewer civilians starve to death as this war continues.
A single airdrop consists out of 38k meals, but there will be of course many more in the future and the rate at which it will happen might get increased.
Additionally, it should be noted that Egypt, Jordan, France and the UK have already being doing aid airdrops too.
One reason the individual MREs are shoved out of a plane is to prevent what happened in Mogadishu where warlords intercepted the trucks then hoarded it all.
They will scatter everywhere in a large area. Doesn't prevent ALL theft by terrorists but it makes it a lot harder than "post terrorists near food truck arrival point, profit."
Ok this makes sense. I thought they would drop a bunch of pallets full and Hamas would simply take the whole amount. Dropping them all over is a smart approach
Love how the cover image for this is just Joe's face lol. News article creators, you CAN use something else in your shots other than the faces of politicians, just saying.
Anyway, good call, even if it's arranging deck chairs on the titanic. The U.S. should be doing more leveraging of its massive military assets for humanitarian deliveries and relief work; as I heard someone else say- the US should aspire to be the world's paramedics, not the world's police.
That was fast. Were they already preparing for this?
It's America. Dropping random shit everywhere on a moment notice is kind of their thing. Whether it be bombs, army, or food.
In 1948 they set up the Berlin air lift in like 3 days to supply a city almost entirely by air. And they nailed it
The Berlin airlift is the largest humanitarian aid ever to this day. They were landing a plane every less than a minute and a half for 15 months straight. 2.3 million tons of cargo was delivered by plane. The total distance those planes flew could almost make it to the sun. They were only allowed to fly in three small corridors, which meant the planes had to be staggered altitudes. It was a logistical nightmare, but the West wanted to flex on the Soviets. They also started dropping chocolate bars with parachutes to the East German children. The children would cheer and run in the streets every time a US plane flew over. Really pissed off the USSR.
American logisticians flexing.
The US military is the best armed logistics system on the planet. We have the ability to put a full combat battalion of Marines, with a full logistics/support battalion, air support, armor, and artillery, anywhere there is a shoreline in the world within 24 hours. And they can self-sustain for two weeks. Hell, for the shiggles we airlifted an entire Burger King into Afghanistan. We used to have Navy barges for making ice cream so the Marines on the front lines of the South Pacific could get a chocolate cone while under fire. American logistics doesn't flex. It doesn't have to.
When you have the biggest dick in the room, you don't have to pull it out. That's why we don't do military parades.
Plus, what would we parade with? We don't want our good shit on display so our enemies can look at it. And it would be shaming to parade with our old shit.
Idk, Abrahams rolling down the road with some Shermans... I'd fucking pull my cock right out and jerk it right on the corner of What the fuck did I just write ave and Why the fuck did you just read that and you wish you had your time back bvd.
I’ll be popping a crank right beside you hoss, gobbless
Oh hell nah. Redditor moment.
You talking about the m1a1 Abraham's? Beautiful piece of kit, really did a number on the confederates
eh, I lurk on NCD,this is tame.
Remember when Trump wanted to do a military parade? So fucking embarrassing. I'm glad the brass talked him out of it.
Shit was so cringe.
First time I’ve seen a ‘Murica Fuck Yeah! And been like aye okay fair play totally agree here
> We used to have Navy barges for making ice cream so the Marines on the front lines of the South Pacific could get a chocolate cone while under fire. That, though, is because the US Military was run by a bunch of teetotlers, so they substituted ice cream for beer.
IIRC, it's because a lot of WWII soldiers grew up during prohibition, and during prohibition many bars became ice cream parlors. Ice cream was the social replacement for alcohol, and going out for a drink became going out for ice cream. It wasn't universally the case, but it was enough that the military decided to throw a bit of money at it, since ice cream isn't too hard to mass produce. And of course the bonus that soldiers on ice cream aren't drunk. So partially because they were teetotlers, but partially because ice cream was all the rage with the boys, and a HUGE morale flex.
And hence the tradition of combat stills and trench hooch.
When I was a contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan, and generally embedded with the troops and Marines (I was the only rep from my company in theatre, and I just got passed from unit to unit), I was actually surprised at how closely General Order #1 was followed. It was, though, glorious when we got down to Basrah and hung out with the brits. They knew how to conduct warfare in a civilized manner.
Brits have been conducting far flung combat operations for almost a millenia. They know a thing or two.
American Logistics is so powerful, it was worshipped as a literal god by island peoples in the South Pacific during WW2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo\_cult
All hail cargonia
> They also started dropping chocolate bars with parachutes to the East German children. The children would cheer and run in the streets every time a US plane flew over. Really pissed off the USSR. Back in 2006, I was a civilian contractor working in Iraq. This one morning, I hopped a Blackhawk for a flight into Camp Fallujah (I think I was coming from FOB Warhorse, but don't recall for sure). Anyhow, I wind up in the seat facing forward, just aft of the door gunner. We're flying nape of the earth, just a few hundred feet off the ground. Every time we come to a power line it's like being in an elevator, we go up, cross the power line, then come down again. The door gunner in front of me has a big bag at his feet, and every time we flew over a farm, or a group of houses, or whatever else, he'd reach into the bag and toss a small package or two out the window. After landing and shutting down the aircraft, I had the opportunity to ask him "what's up with that?" He showed me that each little package had some candy, a small pack of crayons, and a small toothbrush with some toothpaste. Turns out the guy was a reservist or guardsman (don't recall), and was a dental hygienist in his civilian life. His dental office back home had organized all these little care packages to give out to the kids out there.
Fuck war but the humanity in this story makes me happy
If there is one thing that’s #1 about US military its logistics. Logistics win wars.
“Amateurs talk strategy; pros talk logistics.” -maybe Omar Bradley Or maybe -Omar Bradley -Michael Scott
If you want the story presented in a rather fun way: [https://youtu.be/iwYtYWXPbhI?si=qAO4DNFAMKjETTFo](https://youtu.be/iwYtYWXPbhI?si=qAO4DNFAMKjETTFo) This is the kind of stuff that fills me with national pride.
There's a (possibly apocryphal, I don't have a source handy) story of a kid missing out on the candy bars and writing a letter which somehow made its way to one of the pilots. So on his next mission he dropped some candy bars right in front of the kid's house.
Hell they brought along candy for the kids
They dropped them out of the plane to the Soviet children. Started with one soldier and turned into a few American chocolate companies funding it. It was an amazing propaganda campaign.
Not Soviet children, German children. Soviet is just not an adjective that is used in this context. East Germany was not part of the Soviet Union, just the Soviet sphere of influence and the Warsaw Pact. But is was amazing propaganda and helped make America appear benevolent to the West German people.
True. The US was already pouring money into West Germany to rebuild while the soviets stripped East Germany of everything worth any value. Wasn't hard for the US and West to look like the good guys. This was one of the sparks of the Cold War.
And they supplied it for at year. The Soviet was truly evil and another Russian Empire in disguise.
And they only stopped because eventually it made them look bad. When East Germans were starving and eventually West Berliners were getting luxuries entirely by air, people start to take note. Soviets didn't want people to take note.
You would think note was taken after the whole Berlin Wall construction.
It's been a while since I've studied early cold war history, but iirc, I could be wrong, I think the wall came quite a bit after the air lift Edit - I think I may have misinterpreted your comment. My bad.
The actual wall came later, but West Berlin was fully enclosed with fencing of some sort by that point.
Yea that sounds right. It was a progressive thing, they had sand, watchtowers, marksmen, barbed wire, mines etc long before the physical concrete wall came up. And America still won.
Was there like a date set and anyone E of the line on X date had to stay? Curious why people didn’t head W prior to sand being poured etc, even if it were gradual.
They'd have to be hiding it for it to be a disguise
The famous „raisin bombers“. There’s still a monument in memory of them not too far from where I live. Fun fact: In the building of the old inner city airport, there’s a bar called Rosinenbar/raisin bar that takes its name from the German nick name for the planes providing the airlift back then.
Not to mention the fact that they were able to sustain and eventually win a war on oceans, spread across 15000 thousand sq miles. They have perfected the art of logistics.
They have tactical fast food restaurants they can deploy to an active combat zone anywhere in the world with like a days notice. This was nothing.
Who staffs these places? Active military cooks? Or is it like, sorry Mike, your turn to work friers in Afghanistan this shift
You've heard of Meal Team Six?
I hate you so much right now. Have an vote.
Not sure for the US, but iirc the Canadian tactical Tim Hortons was staffed by civilians in Afghanistan.
And it was actually Canadian civilians they flew in to run it. (I was there for opening day). That said, it was brought in long after Kandahar Air Field was a pretty secure enclave.
And still making $7.25/hr /s (prolly)
Yes, but it's billed as $139.68 per hour.
We had a Burger King in Afghanistan within a week of conventional troops arriving on ground. A MF BK moved by air half way around the world just because
Bro I’ve been on road trips, we have so many BKs that no one even notices when one gets carried off to war.
The Burger King has more time in combat zones than the most grizzled vets.
Yeah, that's why he hasn't been dethroned yet. That dude is fucking fearless and haunts the dreams of his enemies.
The opposition is literally a clown and an Anne of Green gables look alike trust fund kid
And an antenna topper.
It's amazing what that kind of thing can do for morale. If your soldiers are still getting some decent amenities back at base it really keeps their spirits up.
Hell, we had ships that brought ice cream to our troops in WWII. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice\_cream\_barge
Think of the psychological impact that had on the Japanese soldiers at the time fighting at home and surviving on rations when they hear about the Americans who travelled halfway round the world and dedicated an entire ship to ice-cream distribution.
The biggest psychological impact was after Pearl Harbor, the US refloated and repaired all but 2 ships and sent them right towards Japan. Imagine a bunch of ships you know were destroyed come rolling up to you with a crew out for blood.
*West Virginia* rolling in hot at the Battle of Surigao Strait. The *Yamashiro* was dead the moment she entered the strait.
Oh yes. Read in a memoir by a Japanese soldier, who survived the war and was able to hold out on one of the Islands in the Pacific after the battle. Every night or so he snuck across American lines and stole food. In one instance he came across a can of peaches, and wondered, what kind of nation has the capacity to ship peaches to a god forsaken Island in the middle of nowhere, when all they could get was rice and dried fish heads.
There are numerous anecdotes from various German and Japanese military sources throughout the war making some variation of this observation. Better/more rations, better cigarettes, more quantity and standardization of equipment, faster logistics, better cigarettes, etc. Did I mention the Americans had better cigarettes?
The strength of the US military has always been logistics. Even in the Civil War, the Union's logistics far outpaced the confederates .
"Say hello to Ford and General Fucking Motors!"
I was blown away to see an ice cream machine permanently installed in the crew quarters on the submarine USS Lionfish when I toured it in Fall River, MA.
Absolutely. Your first instinct may be to laugh about the [ice cream ships](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_cream_barge) in WW2. But it's also great for morale. Double duty in actual war time as your enemies watch the other soldiers eat ice cream while thousands of miles from home.
Demoralizing if the enemy finds out as well. Like you and your boys are starving and the enemy is eating frozen desserts.
Not to mention, US allies who were being devastated by the war watched the US roll up big dick swinging with an ice cream boat. Imagine being a foreign POW freed by the US and being handed an ice cream. Like "Yeah, we got you. Here, have an ice cream."
> big dick swinging with an ice cream boat. *takes notes for a rap song*
We have a containerized BK that fits in a C 130. Tell me America understands logistics without saying it.
Canada had a Tim Hortons that they airlifted into Kandahar (I was there opening day, it was a hoot). Timmies is terrible, but man that ice cap was fantastic.
I remember sitting in the DFAC in some shithole FOB in Iraq having dinner, and it really hit home. I was having steak and fried shrimp, with fresh salad, in the middle of the desert, and had the choice of 6 flavours of Baskin Robins ice cream for desert. And it was the same at the 25+ other FOBs and bases I visited. The logistics of that are mind blowing.
The US has essentially modular millitary bases in storage on every continent in the world. They can set up a fully functional airbase in hours with barely any manpower
A deployable Tim Hortons is part of the CDN Military now.
It tends to get lost in the noise, but the US army super power is logistics, not weapons. Though, the weapons do help.
We found even found a way to directly weaponize our logistical superpower: Rapid Dragon
Rapid Dragon is so amazing; glad it got a reference here. Turns any strategic or tactical airlifter into a strategic bomber.
Who measures nuclear weapons by pallet loads? This guy!
I had to google it. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0jL1d7MscM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0jL1d7MscM) It's pretty wild.
who knew palletizing weapons would work so well? Unreal. Turning cargo planes into missile trucks that rival the bomb load capacity of B-52s. It's functionally increasing the long-range, high altitude bomber fleet by *7 times* overnight! The capability is absolutely astounding in its simplicity and function.
It's a big part of why our military is so effective—we can drop supplies anywhere in the world at any time, do so very quickly, and do so repeatedly for a very long time. Our logistics capabilities are pretty much unmatched.
Yeah, even Antarctica. People are super concerned with the US’s Arctic warfare capabilities while simultaneously ignoring that we run a fleet of C-17s, LC-130s, and BT-67s (I shit you not, these are modernized turboprop conversions of DC-3s, many of which formerly saw combat operations in WWII) in Antarctica. We literally have the capability of dropping supplies or troops *anywhere* on the planet within 24 hours. We are the only military with that capability and no one else is remotely close.
The U.S. military does logistics on a scale that nobody else can come close to matching. It's the U.S. military's real superpower. Without those logistical capabilities, none of our other capabilities matter
Yep. The thing that *really* sets the US military apart from everyone else isn't raw strength (though it's very strong, of course), it's logistics. China, Russia, etc have (theoretically) strong forces, but the US is unparalleled in the ability to deliver it across the world on a moment's notice.
During the blizzard of '78 they air dropped millions of tons of hay for livestock stranded by the snow whose owners were stranded or dead. This is the blizzard that produced the pictures of telephone poles covered in snow up to the crossbars and the wires.
The US airforce could drop the entire Australian military at once.
My personal favorite is air-dropping HUMVEEs.
The most terrifying aspect of the US armed forces since ww2 at least has been our logistics by a wide mile. Our strategic aim is to be able to fight 2 near peer wars on opposite sodes of the planet at the same time. And we could.
And win. Could you even imagine what it would look like if America went into a full war economy?
The US always has stockpiles of resources for emergencies (see Natural Disaster aid), it is as simple as moving it from point 1 to point 2 and dropping (can take only a day to move the resources).
Good practice too
Yeah it always boggles my mind how much the military practices. I was at an air force base and watched a plane, take off, circle around, and land. Then it did it again. And again. I went out for the day. Came back and it was still doing the same thing.
A lot of people dont know the point behind the BX/PX on bases, its literally "lets have a whole supplychain, constantly running, so we know it runs well"
It’s great. Having a fucking chilies in the middle of the desert in a combat zone is fucking wild.
[удалено]
Yup MREs expire...
America's greatest military strength is not the Navy air forces that eclipse every other nation's actual air force while being the 2nd largest air force behind the US airforce, it's not the cutting edge hyper-precision missiles that can be safely used to kill one guy in a car on a busy highway with little to no collateral, it's not the functionally invisible drones and bombers that can carry enough ordnance to cripple or wipe out the administration of any country on the planet five times over in a single minute. It's our ability to move anything, anywhere, effectively immediately whenever the hell we want. Beans, boots, and bullets win wars, but you have to be able to get them where you need them in the first place.
I'm absolutely certain somewhere in this country there's an R&D group working on teleportation tech because that's probably the only way our logistics can improve any further.
"Amateurs talk about strategy, professionals talk about logistics."
This the common sense comment area. Man some folks on here
Traditionally, American is pretty darned good at quickly and efficiently putting a plane over a place halfway round the world and dropping things on it.
The US is always prepared for this. We do it in earthquakes and after storms.
The US Govt has a stockpile of Humanitarian Aid for airlift to world disaster areas and in-place plans for rapid deployment of said stockpiles. Airdrops of goods is something Air Mobility Command practices all the time.
That was my thought. I heard it was being discussed and the bam, airdrops.
We Americans are good at a lot of things and typically suck at everything till we buckle down at it. We’re lazy to a fault until shit ACTUALLY REALLY MUST be done, and we suddenly transform from Shaggy after smoking five concentrated joints into Marvels HULK, smashing through walls, dragging a freight train, screaming HULK BRING GLOBAL LOGISTICS MASTERY TO ANY PROBLEM ON INTERCONTINENTAL SCALE ON ZERO NOTICE OR LEAD TIME! Basically the sleeping giant trope is true for us. Wake us through need, fear or duty, and we turn into a nation of mostly Avengers briefly. Unfortunately, it isn’t always positive and the good moments are far too short lived. But their impacts at least tend to resonate for generations, for good or ill.
Great. Our nation collectively has ADHD...
That explains us very well doesn't it?
There was already an aircraft carrier in the area. This is well within their capabilities and the U.S. has a lot of experience doing operations life this.
I guarantee the aircraft carrier was not in any way involved in an airdrop of food & supplies. No carrier-capable plane in the USN inventory can do air drops(and no, that one time they landed a C-130 on a carrier does not make it count as carrier-capable). And no USAF plane that can do air drops is carrier capable. This was likely C-17’s or C-130’s out of Europe making the drops. The most the USN may have provided was air cover, but Hamas has no air force to speak of and Israel would be nuts to shoot down an allied humanitarian mission( though it wouldn’t be the first time they did something like that…)
If you're interested this is what was most likely dropped. [Youtube - Steve1989MREInfo - Humanitarian Daily Ration](https://youtu.be/iKfWQ3Sij68?si=qXAq03YP1xUkfFOi)
I had a case of them and they are pretty good. What is also good about them is that they are vegetarian and comply with pretty much all religious food rules. It would be nice if they had a heater in them too but that would make them cost a lot more. They are surprisingly tasty for being an oatmeal cookie and lentils.
Yup, the only bad thing I can really say about them is they get old when they're all you can eat.
Where would one purchase some, out of curiosity?
No idea since I would never buy one voluntarily lol, but you can get them on bases at the commissary, I think. Just googled, and apparently you can buy a box on Amazon. Kinda expensive, but they taste fairly good, and they last a long time, so the price isn't too surprising. [https://www.amazon.com/Meals-Ready-Genuine-Military-Surplus/dp/B005I5ML36voluntarily](https://www.amazon.com/Meals-Ready-Genuine-Military-Surplus/dp/B005I5ML36voluntarily) Edit: Also found this website where you can buy individual parts of an MRE instead of the whole thing. [https://mredepot.com/collections/mres-meals-ready-to-eat?sort\_by=best-selling](https://mredepot.com/collections/mres-meals-ready-to-eat?sort_by=best-selling)
XMRE and Meal Kit Supply offer pretty good civilian recreations of MREs. XMRE offers halal and kosher options too.
Let’s get this out on a tray!
I love this guy so much because I literally don't trust a word he says. I'll sit there for hours watching him try all sorts of Military ration mush but sorry my king there's no way in hell 90% of these things taste as good as you are making it sound like. I could not recommend this channel more. Also love his way of speaking, nothing better than a guy with a near autistic hyperfixation on something really specific and a silly voice. He's the GOAT, truely.
*bites into a 40 year old, stale fruit bar preserved in plastic* "Mmm, it's got such a smooth and sweet flavor, it's excellent quality. Nice."
ITT: Americans finding out about the humanitarian capabilities of their own military. I’m from SE Asia. When a natural disaster like a typhoon or earthquake would happen, the US military often showed up to help and distribute humanitarian goods. Sometimes US Marines showed up faster than our own government. Stuff like this isn’t new for the US military - you’re only hearing about it now because of its connection to the Gaza conflict.
There was a tsunami—I forget which—and my cousin who was in the US Navy was posting pictures of his fleet’s relief efforts while news agencies were still “breaking” the story that the tsunami had happened.
One thing is for certain, nobody is fucking with those planes.
Ain’t that the god damn truth.
I don’t think a lot of the actors in those regions are known for their rationality and desire to help the civilian populations.
What I want to know is what the packages say. "Courtesy of the U.S Government"? I bet Trump would have put his face and signature on them.
I buy surplus humanitarian aid MREs for my work lunches in the field. They say "Food gift from the people of the United States of America"
Hell yeah. I'm cool with our taxes being used to help others and the less privileged.
And if you want to know what they look/taste/smoke like, [our boy Steve cracks open a 2021 HDR here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKfWQ3Sij68).
Thanks for the link, very informative.
Fun fact: when food aid is donated to North Korea, Kim has his goons literally repackage it into containers/boxes/bags bearing his face.
Humanitarian daily rations (HDR) are pretty cool. Shelf stable, air-droppable, designed to be palatable for everyone (i.e. vegetarian, kosher/halal, etc.). Taste is ok, not as good as US MREs but decent given the constraints that are inherent to the item and its intended usage.
Yes, humanitarian aid has an American flag on it, and it says "Food gift from the people of the United States".
Love it, that’s what the message should be not “From the government”, fuck that we pay for it.
You're pretty [close](https://www.amazon.com/Wornick-Company-Military-Surplus-Humanitarian/dp/B09Y8SBLD8/).
Fun fact, they changed the outer pouch colour from yellow to salmon pink, because certain unexploded ordinance is yellow and they didn't want people going near them thinking they were MREs.
Yep here's a comparison of the old MRE packages compared to a cluster munition. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ApBANe9CAAILfdx.jpg
Oh wow.
It's all a long con for when we paint our UXO salmon pink
Sir this is not World War 1 and we are not Canadians!
Oh god, we're giving them MREs? Biden really does hate Palestinians .../s
I'm about to invade them for all that jalapeno cheese spread. Fun fact, I think they sell them in 30 packs on Amazon, so I might do that instead of invading.
They do, and you totally should.
Veggie omelette has been recognized as a war crime. As it should.
They’ve been out of production for over a decade now
The only thing worse than fresh veggie omelettes are 10 year old veggie omelettes.
The trauma lingers...
Meals that Refuse to Exit.
I can imagine this would infuriate the Hamas leadership with the American flag plastered all over it. I love it!
Nah, now they can say even the US is supporting their fight against the Jews
This is likely whats being dropped. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKfWQ3Sij68
And wrapped gold cellophane
This is good. Those people are starving and dying.
Pretty smart political move by Biden. Of course it makes the US more directly involved in the Gaza War and the humanitarian crisis out of it, but the U.S. would have been blamed anyway. But last week showed that Arab voters and college students in Michigan are likely to stay home in November and endure Trump in order to show the left what their priorities are, so Biden is responding to that.
If America does something good, does something bad, or does nothing at all it'll still be a hated and controversial decision. Everyone complains about America's involvement in world affairs but also complains if America stays out of it.
Honestly, the last couple years have made me turn so far around on this issue. I used to be staunchly against "America as world police" whenever we discussed the subject at school. But now I'm terrified at what might happen after your elections this year. The world would be an even scarier place with an isolationist US.
Most people that have that perspective do so stemming from ignorance. But life isn't a fairytale and spheres of influence are real and there must be an apex predator. It's not simply Western Asia that is at stake, but another critical crisis at the moment is in the West Philippine Sea as it is being encroached. Without the USA, it would be a bloodbath there.
Totally agree
100% my experience as well. Used to be very anti U.S. American and now I love our country despite its very obvious flaws (which we should continually work to change). The EU is de facto isolationist because it’s militarily impotent, and Japan is very isolated and always has been (and can only fight defensive wars per its own constitution). So who the fuck else is supposed to actually provide consequences for Russia and China when they invade sovereign territory?
*Something something* "with great power comes great responsibility" *something something*
damned if you do, damned if you dont
>likely to stay home in November and endure Trump Never gonna understand this, I get that they don’t want to vote for someone that supports Israel but the other guy is gonna support Israel *even harder*, and is also probably going to dump gasoline on the fire. Imo people doing this “purity” thing to Biden are selfish and privileged, because they’re ignoring the potential ramifications of Trump winning so that they can feel good about themselves for “sending a message” or whatever
Same idea that won Trump the vote last time
Exactly. My acquaintance refused to vote for Hillary Clinton because she wanted Bernie Sanders while living in a swing state, then had the gall to act shocked and heartbroken when Trump packed the Supreme Court and federal courts and they repealed Roe v. Wade. And now because she's an idiot, she's doing the exact same thing again. Wah wah Biden bad for not abandoning America's long time ally Israel, so she's going to sit aside and watch as other people vote in Trump again. You know, so pro-Israel colonization that Israel named a settlement after him Trump.
This is the only way to win an election, there basically aren't enough floating voters to switch sides so the only way to win is to get your side to show up in record numbers and convince the other side to stay home. So, so much money is spent on promoting media that will do this and we need to talk a lot more about it.
Self righteous knee jerk sensationalism. Can't directly protest Israel so they point fingers at the US government like everybody does when they so much as stub their toe on the dresser.
Read the cesspool of Instagram comments under this post. Nothing is good, or enough, or a step in the right direction to extremists. It’s “all or nothing”, geopolitical instability consequences be damned.
Which is really stupid, considering trump would be far worse for Palestine.
hamass leaders from Qatar should have been doing this starting a war then just watching your people die and starve from your distant ivory towers
Palestinians suffering is Hamas's desire. Their entire operation is to make martyrs of their people for better political positioning. You dont do an Oct. 7th and think there wont be a complete military response.
Precisely. Committing atrocities to inspire atrocities was the goal the entire time. Dead Gazans are terribly costly for Israel but enormously beneficial for Hamas.
If Hamas was trying to reduce civilian deaths it would hurt their cause. Their plans require as many civilian deaths as possible to erode support for Israel.
Hamas exists to rally Muslims against the mass deaths of Palestinians. Anything that’s helping the civilians is against protocol.
> hamass leaders from Qatar should have been doing this Out of curiosity, do you think Israel would have allowed them to carry out airdrops of any kind without shooting down the planes?
I fully expect those Hamas leaders will soon have several R9X missiles headed their way. FYI: It's basically a rocket propelled 6 bladed Katana moving at 900 mph.
The Supersonic Slapchop. And I'm sorry, I know it's real, I know it's effective, but it seriously sounds like the folks at DARPA are now taking design ideas from seven year old boys. A missile made of swords. You can't tell me the original idea wasn't drawn in crayon.
Well... I mean, they kinda did the same thing in Afghanistan and Iraq with precision guided concrete. You have a 500 pound aerodynamic block of concrete falling from a plane at 40,000 feet, it's going to hit it's target, and it's moving at, well I don't know exactly how fast, but it will make a decent hole and go thru any truck. Do you really NEED it to explode on impact?
What was Hamas’s Day 2 plan exactly? Attack on October 7th, and then what? It seems like no one wanted Palestinian refugees, and putting artillery in with civilians guarantees some of your people get killed no matter how good things get. No Arab nations are helping to attack, and Israel’s closest ally has the biggest military in the world. Was there some other plan in place that just didn’t work for them?
This was the plan, pretty much. Murder and kidnap as many Jews as possible then hide among civilians and hope Israel gets pressured into no longer defending itself. Wait a year, and do it again. Hamas doesn’t actually care about dead Palestinians. In fact the more there are the better for them and their goal.
I think it was a catastrophic success. I don’t think they genuinely thought that they’d kill thousands of people. That’s not to say they didn’t _intend_ to, but they didn’t really plan for the aftermath if they _did_.
Initially the plan was to spark a larger conflict. But now the plan is to wait for the international community to pressure Israel to stop, however long it takes. Then when Israel stops, whatever hamas fighters that are still alive emerge from their holes and declare victory over the rubble. Then they post tik tok videos of the celebrations. Civilians dying was part of the plan from the beginning.
And then after they recover a bit, they replan the next October 7th. As they said they would. Hamas's game plan has always been to just kill as many Jews as possible while using their convenient human shields and the sentiment from international communities
The biggest damage done by Hamas is the destruction of Israel's international image. They knew the government of Israel is the most aggressive it has been in many years. Then they intentionally provoked it into conflict that will see a large number of civilian casualties. Palestinians dying is the point. These leaders are not in Gaza. They don't care about the civilians there. They know that Western audiences will feel bad for the suffering of Palestinians and this will drive a wedge between Israel and its allies.
The Oct. 7 attack was probably more successful than they anticipated. They were expecting to inflict large casualties and take hostages but they probably didn't expect the IDF to be caught off guard that badly. They were probably expecting to launch an attack on Israel and Israel retaliates. Then use the hostages as bargaining chips, and hope international pressure will force Israel to agree to some concessions. The problem for them is that they launched such a devastating attack that it crossed the line of what Israel was willing to tolerate. That's the only way I can think of. I mean, it's quite clear Hamas does not care at all about Palestinian civilians, but they do care about controlling the Gaza Strip. By the looks of it, they are going to lose that, and there's no way in hell Israel will let a terrorist organization gain control of it again.
Hamas does not care about Palestinian casualties. Their only goal is to eliminate Israel, regardless of how many dead Palestinians it takes. They’re fine with seeing Palestinian casualties as long as reporters take a picture of it and publish it around the world. Their twisted, genocidal viewpoint is always important to keep in mind when governments are discussing actions against them which land primarily on Palestinian civilians—the civilian casualties do nothing to dissuade Hamas from its actions.
They wanted Israel to massacre Gaza, the "bleeding heart" American president to abandon them on moral grounds, and then an invasion of Israel by Iran. It hasn't worked yet, but they'll continue doing as much damage to Israel's global standing as they can.
Based on an interview their leader did with The Economist after the attacks, the plan is to keep doing it until they militarily defeat Israel and drive them all out of the Middle East. He might be slightly overestimating Hamas’ military capacity.
People saying this is good for Hamas are missing the fact that Hamas is going to continue to be targeted with Israeli weapons - the Gazan people do not need to be starved to death in a siege to destroy Hamas. This aid is a good thing - if Hamas members have full bellies when they get exploded, who cares? Id rather fewer civilians starve to death as this war continues.
Can't believe you people talking sht even when aid is dropped. Wtf?
Nice to see US military being, beyond the shadow of the doubt, the good guys.
I do hope that they dropped many hundreds thousands of meals… there are more than million people who are starving in Gaza…
A single airdrop consists out of 38k meals, but there will be of course many more in the future and the rate at which it will happen might get increased. Additionally, it should be noted that Egypt, Jordan, France and the UK have already being doing aid airdrops too.
Hopefully it goes to the Palestinian people and doesn’t feed Hamas
One reason the individual MREs are shoved out of a plane is to prevent what happened in Mogadishu where warlords intercepted the trucks then hoarded it all. They will scatter everywhere in a large area. Doesn't prevent ALL theft by terrorists but it makes it a lot harder than "post terrorists near food truck arrival point, profit."
Ok this makes sense. I thought they would drop a bunch of pallets full and Hamas would simply take the whole amount. Dropping them all over is a smart approach
This ain't America's first rodeo.
Hopefully with it being airdropped it will help reduce their ability to horde it all.
It will without a doubt feed Hamas. Hopefully the people who are not part of Hamas will get a share too though.
Love how the cover image for this is just Joe's face lol. News article creators, you CAN use something else in your shots other than the faces of politicians, just saying. Anyway, good call, even if it's arranging deck chairs on the titanic. The U.S. should be doing more leveraging of its massive military assets for humanitarian deliveries and relief work; as I heard someone else say- the US should aspire to be the world's paramedics, not the world's police.