Seoul Gazette - Biden attends ritual return of three US soldiers killed in Jordan

NYSE - LSE

CMSD	0.31%	22.38	$
NGG	0.33%	82.59	$
RBGPF	0.52%	67.35	$
CMSC	0.29%	22.085	$
GSK	0.59%	52.78	$
VOD	11.14%	14.72	$
RIO	1.16%	90.54	$
RYCEF	1.95%	19.46	$
BCE	0.28%	21.38	$
JRI	-0.15%	13.01	$
BTI	-0.03%	60.02	$
RELX	1.14%	32.44	$
BP	1.66%	39.2	$
BCC	5.02%	76.06	$
AZN	-4.01%	171.61	$

Biden attends ritual return of three US soldiers killed in Jordan

POLITICS 02.02.2024

Biden attends ritual return of three US soldiers killed in Jordan / Photo: © AFP

President Joe Biden on Friday joined the intensely emotional military ritual at a Delaware air base for the return of three US soldiers killed in Jordan by a drone attack blamed on an Iran-backed militia.

Text size:

Biden, accompanied by First Lady Jill Biden, flew into Dover Air Force Base, for the event known as a "dignified transfer."

Awaiting him and the families of the three slain soldiers was a grey C-5 military transport plane, which shipped back the bodies in flag-draped "transfer cases" -- as the military calls the caskets used in transportation.

The secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, CQ Brown, were also attending -- recognition of the importance, as well as relative rarity, of returning dead service members in the wake of US exits from major foreign conflicts.

William Rivers, Kennedy Sanders and Breonna Moffett, all from the southern state of Georgia, were killed in a drone strike on their remote US base in Jordan, near Syria, last Sunday.

The White House blames the Islamic Resistance in Iraq militia for the attack and Biden has announced he will order counter-strikes, without detailing the timing or the targets.

Although the United States is now free from its large-scale entanglements in Iraq and Afghanistan, surging tensions in the Middle East, sparked by the Israel-Hamas war, threaten to drag US forces back into regional conflict.

These were the first US military deaths to hostile fire since the October 7 Hamas surprise attack on Israel that sparked a deadly Israeli assault on Gaza.

However, the US military and Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria periodically exchange fire, while Yemen's Huthi rebels are near daily clashing with the US Navy ships or firing on international civilian shipping in the Red Sea.

Two SEALS -- among the most elite special forces in the US military-- died while trying to board and search a ship in January.

- Biden, consoler-in-chief -

Presidents are not obliged to attend dignified transfers, but Biden is under pressure to show his authority -- and to reassure Americans -- as he seeks reelection in November.

His likely Republican opponent, former president Donald Trump, has launched fierce attacks on Biden's leadership, while another would-be challenger, Nikki Haley, accused Biden of dithering in his response.

"He had to wait for people to die to say, OK, maybe we need to do something. Are you kidding me?" she said.

Biden, whose life has been repeatedly marked by personal tragedy -- including the deaths of his first wife and infant daughter in a 1972 car crash, and the death to cancer of his son Beau in 2015 -- has often played the role of consoler-in-chief.

At the air base on Friday he was due to meet privately with the families of the dead soldiers. He also called them at their homes to offer his condolences.

"I know there is nothing anybody can say or do to ease the pain, I've been there," Biden said in one call, recorded and shared by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper.

U.Hyeon--SG

Featured

Ukraine's Zelensky orders government reshuffle, new PM

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a major reshuffle of the government on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and the heads of some law enforcement agencies.

Iran, US trade more strikes as fighting escalates

Iran said Sunday it was closing the Strait of Hormuz and launched missiles and drones at Gulf neighbours after the US carried out a new round of strikes as their conflict escalated.

Noosha Aubel and Potsdam: The trust placed in her has been squandered

Noosha Aubel: a €33.4 million budget deficit in the state capital Potsdam, around €500,000 spent on external consultancy, revised austerity plans at the expense of children – and a shameful case involving a severely disabled toddler as part of a nursery scandal: Noosha Aubel inherited some of these crises, but the leadership deficit is now entirely her own. A 72.9 per cent share of the vote is not a mark of leadership; it is merely a vote of confidence. Noosha Aubel (50) received an exceptionally high level of this confidence in October 2025 – and has squandered it in a surprisingly short space of time. The hope for a fresh start has given way to bitter disillusionment, which is by no means limited to political opponents. After just 100 days, observers were already finding no clear direction whatsoever; in June 2026, media circles openly reported on unsettled supporters, unilateral actions and a lack of majorities. The yardstick is simple: is Potsdam functioning better? Are the finances in order, decisions properly prepared and the most vulnerable protected? So far, the answer is: no. Potsdam wanted a fresh start. It got a mayor who all too often confuses management jargon with leadership and is unable to get a grip on problems in the state capital. Added to this is a shameful scandal involving a toddler with multiple severe disabilities, for whom Aubel is personally responsible, and which raises questions about morality and decency. It is particularly shameful that media enquiries are not being answered by the head of the press office at Potsdam Town Hall, Jan Brunzlow – even though Noosha Aubel has demonstrably been contacted personally. Instead of answering the questions posed in a transparent and comprehensible manner, Brunzlow, according to the available documents, is pushing for a ‘personal conversation’, thereby apparently attempting to shift the communication into a non-public, informal setting. Should this course of action indeed contravene the applicable obligations to provide information under press law, a fundamental question arises: Is Noosha Aubel fit to hold the office of Lord Mayor of the state capital, Potsdam?

US-Iran strikes: latest developments

Iran announced it was again closing the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday and hit Gulf neighbours in retaliation for US strikes, further undermining efforts to salvage Middle East peace efforts.