U.S. hiding troops in hotels to dodge missiles may be a war crime
Facing missile strikes it wasn’t prepared for, in a war it wasn't prepared for, the U.S. military has begun moving troops out of vulnerable bases and into hotels
Facing missile strikes it wasn’t prepared for, in a war it wasn’t prepared for, the U.S. military has begun moving troops out of vulnerable bases and into hotels and office buildings in the middle of civilian populations.
The constellation of American bases in the Persian Gulf region has been essential to the U.S. military’s execution of the air war over Iran. But commanders have relocated many of their troops because the sprawling compounds did not have adequate defenses to protect from Iranian ballistic missiles and drones, U.S. defense officials said.
The move illustrates the U.S. military’s lack of preparedness for a war that the Trump administration started on its own terms, military experts said.
“This is the first war the United States is facing where we see the implications of democratized air power and the long-range persistent strikes from their adversary,” said Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center. “And the lack of preparedness is not limited to this theater.”
This is what unprepared war looks like: not strategy, but relocation. The US is shifting risk from hardened bases to places that were never meant to absorb it and endangering civilians.
Next, no uniforms?
Do the Human Shields get a say in this strategy? I think not.