Why should US troops pay the price for Biden’s failure to rein in Netanyahu? | Harrison Mann

Small, poorly defended bases in the Middle East are targets because the president refuses to disown Israel's reckless PM

• Harrison Mann is a former US army major

In January 2024, the US Defense Intelligence Agency's Middle East crisis cell awoke to the heartbreaking news that three US soldiers had been killed in a drone strike on the Tower 22 base in northern Jordan. In our headquarters in Washington DC, we were saddened - but not surprised. Back then, I was an officer in the US army, and since October, my comrades and I had become accustomed to seeing Iraqi and Syrian militias launch attacks on our bases almost every day. As the close calls and injuries mounted, we came to a stunning realisation: there was no real plan to protect US troops beyond leaving them in their small, isolated bases while local militants, emboldened and agitated by US support for Israel's brutal war in Gaza, used them for target practice.

These soldiers were casualties of the widening regional escalation that I warned of when I resigned in May; although my chief concern then was the needless slaughter of Palestinian civilians. Months later, it's maddening to see not only the deteriorating humanitarian crisis, but, as of Monday, our forces being used for target practice once again.