Oh FFS.

The story about why Israel has yet to make a ground invasion of Gaza is becoming clear, and it is yet another embarrassment for the United States under Joe Biden.

Israel has been prepared to enter Gaza to eliminate Hamas, but the ground invasion keeps getting delayed. The reason why?

The US is unprepared to defend US military installations in the area.

Breaking: Israel has agreed to delay its invasion of Gaza so the U.S. can get missile defenses in place to protect American troops in the region https://t.co/NGNANi57kIhttps://t.co/NGNANi57kI

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) October 25, 2023

This is pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. However, I am not sure that the Biden Administration isn’t just pressuring Israel to delay for other reasons as well, given their neverending expressions of concern for Gaza.

Israel has agreed, for now, to a request from the U.S. to get its air defenses in place to protect U.S. troops in the region ahead of an expected ground invasion of Gaza, U.S. and Israeli officials said.

The Pentagon is scrambling to deploy nearly a dozen air-defense systems to the region, including for U.S. troops serving in Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to protect them from missiles and rockets. U.S. officials have so far persuaded the Israelis to hold off until those pieces can be placed, as early as later this week.

Israel is also taking into account in its planning the effort to supply humanitarian aid to civilians inside Gaza, as well as diplomatic efforts to free more of the hostages held by Hamas, officials said.

Israeli troops have been at a high level of readiness for a long time now, and the situation is unsustainable for a number of reasons. The Israeli military is getting “antsy” about the delays, and the Biden Administration keeps pushing them to delay delay delay.

The IDF is getting antsy that further delaying the ground invasion of Gaza could hinder its goal of destroying Hamas, while the Biden administration is putting pressure on Israel to wait even longer for ongoing hostage negotiations to play out.

A ground invasion of Gaza has been reported as “imminent” for weeks following the October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians, leading to swirling speculation about what the hold-up was; but a clearer picture is starting to emerge.

The Times of Israel on Monday reported that

the Israel Defense Forces believes that in order to attain the objectives of the war against Hamas, laid out by government officials, the military must begin its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip sooner rather than later. . . .

After 16 days of airstrikes, the IDF has told the government that it is fully prepared for a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, and believes it can achieve the goals set out for it, even at the risk of heavy casualties to soldiers, and amid repeated attacks by Hezbollah in the north, The Times of Israel learned.

The report also notes that “the forces stationed by the border can only remain in a heightened state of readiness for so long.”

The new excuse by the Biden Administration looks utterly pathetic because it is an admission that despite decades of having troops and assets in the region, our military is not prepared to defend our interests.

That is quite the reality if true, and quite the message to our enemies if either true or false.

The Biden Administration has been nothing but an unmitigated disaster for US foreign policy and prestige. It isn’t just the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. It is the gang that shoots itself in the foot time and again.

It has been more than two weeks since the 10/7 attacks, and somehow the US hasn’t yet prepared to defend its interests. Our troops are getting attacked around the region, and the need for air defenses indicates that the war could expand even further.

Axios has reported that Biden is pulling out all the stops to hold Israel back:

President Biden is taking a dual-track approach to the Gaza crisis — standing staunchly beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in public while trying to hold him back in private.

The big picture: The U.S. supports Israel but doesn’t want to get drawn into another large or protracted military operation in the Middle East. Threading that needle is the Biden administration’s biggest challenge right now.

I am in wholehearted agreement with the sentiment that the US shouldn’t get drawn into another war in the Middle East, but advertising that we are unprepared (and apparently unwilling) to defend our troops and our interests isn’t a smart way to do that. Holding Iran at risk is.

China has been the big winner so far, as they have become the de facto dominant sea power in the Persian Gulf.

Biden has us stumbling ever closer to World War III. Remember when the establishment kept telling us it would be Trump who did so and that Biden was the adult in the room?

Unfortunately, he turns out to be an adult who wears Depends, and keeps s**ting the bed.