Colonel Douglas MacGregor alleges US Special Forces went into Gaza and 'were shot to pieces, took heavy losses'

Jim Hoft
The Gatewat Pundit
Wed, 25 Oct 2023 10:00 UTC

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On Monday night Tucker Carlson dropped episode 33 of his show on X with guest Col. Douglas MacGregor.

"Looks like we're actually going to war with Iran. Are we ready for this?" Tucker said during his latest episode.

Iran has repeatedly threatened the United States after its proxy army Hamas launched a terror attack on Israel and killed more than 1,300 Jews. Iranian proxies attacked US troops in Syria and Iraq.

Comment: Evidence is coming out that Israel, as part of its Hannibal Directive, is actually responsible for the deaths of a number of these Israeli citizens: Israel's forces responsible for Israeli civilian & military deaths following October 7 attack, testimony reveals

During their conversation Col. MacGregor dropped a bomb on the X audience. According to the Colonel, US special forces suffered considerable losses recently during an excursion into Gaza.

Col. Douglas MacGregor: We don't have the means to rapidly ship a large force of 80 to 100,000 troops on the ground into the region, which means that we're reliant on special forces and right now 2000 marines and perhaps 2000 special forces and special operations forces. That's not going to make much of a dent. And as we've seen quite recently, within the last 24 hours or so, some of our Special Ops forces and Israeli Special Ops forces went into Gaza to reconnoiter to plan for where they might want to go to free hostages and make an impact. And they were shot to pieces and took heavy losses as I understand it. I think that's where we're headed and I don't see that as a win for Israel in any way, shape or form.

We are looking for information to back up the Colonel's claim.

Comment: Considering US military involvement in Ukraine, the allegation is not really that surprising: NewsReal: Are Top Western Generals Being Killed in Ukraine?

Although we have not confirmed the loss of US Special Forces in Gaza there are reports that the US sent military advisers to Israel to assist our allies. And there are reports that US forces have come under fire in the region.

The South China Morning Post reported:

The Pentagon has sent military advisers, including a Marine Corps general versed in urban warfare, to Israel to aid in its war planning and is speeding multiple sophisticated air defence systems to the Middle East days ahead of an anticipated ground assault into Gaza.

One of the officers leading the assistance is Marine Corps Lieutenant General James Glynn, who previously helped lead special operations forces against Islamic State and served in Fallujah, Iraq, during some of the most heated urban combat there, according to a US official who was not authorised to discuss Glynn's role and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Glynn will also be advising on how to mitigate civilian casualties in urban warfare, the official said...

...The military team is one of many fast-moving pieces the Pentagon is getting in place to try and prevent the already intense conflict between Israel and Hamas from becoming a wider war.

It also is trying to protect US personnel, who in the last few days have come under repeated attacks that the Pentagon has said were likely endorsed by Iran.

Kirby said Iran was "in some cases actively facilitating these attacks and spurring on others who may want to exploit the conflict for their own good, or for that of Iran. We know that Iran's goal is to maintain some level of deniability here. But we're not going to allow them to do that".

Comment: Full video with timestamps below:

Analysis on one of the factors delaying Israel's ground invasion of Gaza:

Some analysis on the prospects of an Israeli ground assault and occupation of Gaza, which perhaps explains why they've been shying away from actually launching the operation. Hamas right now claims 40,000 reasonably well-armed and well-trained fighters in a city of 2 million.

First rule of thumb: all else being equal, you generally need a 3:1 numerical advantage to attack successfully. While the IDF has an extremely steep advantage in firepower, the Palestinians have had over a decade to dig in, and the Israelis would be attacking into a growing rubble pile. As anyone familiar with the Battle of Monte Cassino (or the much more recent Battle of Mosul) would tell you, rubble can be just as good to fight from as intact buildings and will interfere with the effective use of armored vehicles. Thus, the IDF will need to mass some 120,000 troops to defeat Hamas et al and occupy Gaza.

Second rule of thumb: to conduct intensive counterinsurgency operations, you need a 1:20 ratio of security personnel to local inhabitants.

There are some two million people living in Gaza, suggesting that an occupation army of 100,000 will be required into at least the medium term to pacify the city and root out insurgents - of which there will be many, because the local population hates the Israelis to an extent we have difficulty comprehending in the West. The IDF's regular strength in peacetime is 165,000 troops. So it can be readily seen that this mission would require doubling the standing strength of the IDF out of reserves and keeping it there for a period of years, likely after a grueling urban battle that could easily inflict more combat casualties on the IDF than it has suffered in every war it has been involved in since independence combined.

Or to put it another way, devoting 1.5% of the Jewish and Druze population of Israel to counterinsurgency duty in Gaza for an indefinite period. No wonder Netanyahu keeps pushing off the invasion. Even if they win the battle it's a recipe for disaster.