Evacuation of U.S. troops from Mideast base sends community groups scrambling

40 pointsposted 16 hours ago
by ceejayoz

17 Comments

valleyer

15 hours ago

The federal government spends $850 billion per year on the DoD. Why can't it find money in there to buy toiletries and spaghetti for the soldiers and families stationed overseas? Why should communities have to pitch in (beyond their contribution via taxes)?

smallerize

15 hours ago

This is why they totally need that $1.5 trillion they asked for this year.

kccqzy

14 hours ago

The article says,

> The money is mainly to pay for essentials and to provide bridge loans so families can pay basic living expenses while they wait for the government to reimburse them, which can take months, she said.

So it is clear that the DoD has money to do it. It just takes lots of bureaucracy to get the money out.

justinclift

5 hours ago

How does this not look like the Iranian military literally has the US military running away scared?

It's super surprising to see, considering the reputation the US has built over the years + it's not like they have a lack of war experience.

upghost

14 hours ago

Man that is such a bummer. The Naval Support Activity (NSA) "base" is not a hardened military facility. I've never been to the one in Bahrain, but it's usually where you go to play ultimate frisbee, maybe some paintball if you are lucky, and other types of R&R. Usually have a Naval Exchange (NEX) which is like a really discounted 7-11 / gift shop / walmart (depending on where you are).

subscribed

13 hours ago

What do you mean by "that is such a bummer"?

That military base of the aggressors targeting civilians is being hit in return, and the sailors get to save their lives?

Yeah, such a tragedy that a military facilitiy is damaged in response to intentional killing of civilians.

Sorry but that's some....... surprising concern.

pjjpo

12 hours ago

Schools getting blown up is also a bummer. Everything about this situation and maybe the world is a bummer.

As soon as we stop treating these as bummers, there is literally nothing stopping a cycle of destruction. There may not be anyways, I don't know but giving up on empathy entirely seems even more dangerous than being bad at it.

subscribed

5 hours ago

I have plenty of the sympathy for the victims but none FIR the aggressors in this illegal war.

You seem to be suggesting that not feeling sorry for the soldiers who got to evacuate without all their belongings somehow means I'm losing my humanity. That's a dangerous thing - lives of the innocent civilians who didn't chose to be bombed are more important. Aggressors could simply.... Leave and stop being in danger.

Similarly I have little pity for Russian soldiers losing lives in another illegal war of aggression, knowing how many war crimes they committed in their wake.

Better?

karim79

13 hours ago

Oh this is fun. I grew up in Bahrain and I went to the fifth fleet base as a teenager to buy CDs because I was young and stupid and one of my closest friend is the son of a former chief-of-staff of said fleet.

So now donations are needed and US citizens still can't have daycare [0] and free health insurance because of a made-up war against a threat which does not exist.

[0] https://youtu.be/dV5cQ9tNkm8?is=UONn7uiYsO_wSPXi

metalman

5 hours ago

militarily this is called a disorganized retreat.while not a full rout, it definitly points to a lack of planning, but with a general excess of capacity in certain area's, like air lift, the whole thing bieng run like a classic mob operation where the boss is literaly standing up saying "tell me what I want to hear!"

gmokki

11 hours ago

World economy will be better off with the 1-2% fee ($2M per tanker) that Iran asks if USofA leaves middle east, compared to the Trump 100% price hike on oil.

justinclift

5 hours ago

It'd be super ironic if places could then bill the US for the $2M per tanker as well, for being the cause of the problem. ;)

zoklet-enjoyer

15 hours ago

Almost like there was no planning before Trump decided to attack.

duttish

10 hours ago

If they had went for it during the uprising maybe the regime could have fallen? We'll never know.

But no, they waited 1-2 months or something until the regime could reload and people had gotten tired and went home to grieve for their dead friends and family. Then they started yolo bombing. Again.