This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian. By Eric Reidy THE United States will soon permanently shut down the floating pier it constructed earlier this year to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip, bringing to a premature end an ill-fated $230 million project beset from the start by unrealistic expectations and logistical problems. Billed as an effort to drastically increase the amount of aid entering the enclave, the temporary pier project was mired in controversy right from the get-go. “It was a boondoggle from start to finish,” Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International, told The New Humanitarian. The…