American forces were caught by surprise when an enemy drone struck a Jordan military facility, indicating the military needs to up its tech.
The Journal reported:
A U.S. official said Sunday that the attack took place overnight at Tower 22, a small outpost in Jordan that is near the Syria border. The drone struck living quarters for the troops, which contributed to the high casualties, a U.S. official said. [emphasis added]
This reporting indicates that the Tower 22 living quarters were a “soft target.” That is, a structure not “hardened” to protect those inside. The Journal continues:
Tower 22 is located close to Al Tanf Garrison in southeastern Syria, where U.S. forces have worked with local partners combating Islamic State militants. Tower 22 has served as a logistics hub for Al Tanf and, unlike the garrison, hasn’t previously been targeted in the recent series of Iran-backed militia attacks. [emphasis added]
As think-tank analyst Andrew Tabler told the newspaper, “Tower 22 would probably be less defended than Al Tanf and any other U.S. position in Syria because it is across the border in Jordan.”
So, these soldiers were behind-the-lines logistics personnel. They—or, more pertinently, their commanders—weren’t expecting a drone attack. Hmm. Americans are fighting terrorists and militants backed by Iran, and yet they weren’t expecting an attack because they weren’t in Syria; they were in Jordan, the next country over.
Does that seem to be a failure of imagination? As in, American leaders, somewhere in the chain of command—from the field to Central Command to Washington, DC—failed to imagine that the foe would reach across a border. These are the bad guys, including Iran, who routinely refer to the U.S. as “The Great Satan.” So yeah, maybe it should have been foreseen that a borderline in the desert wouldn’t mean anything to anti-American killers.
But let’s let others worry about the geopolitics, including the basic question of whether or not we should even be fighting in Syria. For now, let’s focus on keeping Americans safe wherever they are in the world—including on the homefront.
Those with long memories might recall the fate of an earlier logistics unit in the Middle East, the 14th Quartermaster Detachment of the U.S. Army Reserve. During Operation Desert Storm, the American mission to liberate Kuwait from Iraq, the 14th Quartermaster was far behind the front lines—in Saudi Arabia, in fact—working on water purification. And yet, on February 25, 1991, an Iraqi Scud missile hit the 14th’s barracks, a non-hardened facility. Thirteen soldiers were killed and 43 wounded.
Yes, war is hell, but long-range missiles mean that the “front” is everywhere. And so adequate military preparation—and life preservation—would have meant that the men and women of the 14th were either better sheltered or dug into foxholes or more spread out.
