That said, Biden should have retreated. The Saudis couldn't crush the Yemenis for years, and have no desire to fight them again. Sooner or later, some ship is going to get too close to one of those VERY moveable ballistic missile launchers, or a drone or three will get lucky, and we will see the headline US SHIP SUNK.
Of course, at a $1 million or more an anti-missile missile, there's money to be made. Ka-CHING! Raytheon doesn't care about sailors.
Pretty asymmetric in many respects, especially costs.
US/UK had to do something, but their record in asymmetric warfare is not good.
Whatever you think of their motivations, the Houthi record in asymmetric conflict is pretty impressive.
And apart from the asymmetric costs of Houthi and US/UK munitions and possibly lives, the leveraging of that asymmetry by choking the short route from Indian Ocean to Mediterranean is... astronomical.
Bottom line: Gaza is a very, very costly operation.
And mainly to keep one corrupt politician in power and out of jail for a few extra months.
There is a high probability many Houthi drones are cheap, unarmed junk decoys just meant to cause the US Navy to waste anti-missiles. Houthi missiles and drones are likely deep in caves, with huge stockpiles. If the USA is to strike Iran, the big question is: Can Iran hit the deck of an aircraft carrier and render it useless?
So Biden opens up irans oil spigot and removes sanctions, so that Iran can produce missiles for the houthies to use as a live fire exercise against the U.S. Don’t, for a minute, think that Iran isn’t watching this and figuring out how to evade our defense systems.
Operation Prosperity Guardian was always going to involve bombing Houthi missile sites and munitions dumps. There is no way to protect the sea lanes by remaining solely on defense.
At some point the fight has to be taken to the other side.
The senile imbecile squatting in the White House doesn't know what year it is. Someone made the call and since the attack was leaked in advance it most likely resulted in minimal damage or casualties.
Many ships are hit in Eritrea waters. Eritrea is sympathetic to Iran, see links below. I can find nowhere Eritrea condemning the Houthis. It is suspected Houthi supplies come through Eritrea. The Houthis attacking ships in Eritrea's water is legal under international law since Eritrea lets them.
I'm stunned at the costs and the lead time for these missiles. And that resupplies are low. I can only continue to see the munitions depletions, parts lag, attack on morale, everything has been deliberate.
I am aware that about 18 months before Trump's term ended, the long-heralded parts ordering system faltered. The following is very generalized, as I read it 2-3 years ago so my recall in definitely not exacting. However, example - replacement cones around F-16 blowers were cracked, and spares had not been ordered. It was Belgium that had the issue first. Fortunately, in Europe there are high-end metal engineering shops, with excellent metals access. The metal shops were able to get the CadCam codes and make the cones and fasteners. Once the parts were ready, it is a 5-day installation take off, inspect, replace, inspect. I understand updating software for the F-35s wasn't happening and the windshields(?) and heads-up displays, helmets needed physical upgrades. The suppliers heard nothing for so long, no replies to inquiries, so, they took down all the machining lines, etc. used them elsewhere, stored or destroyed what they did not reuse.
There is no excuse given the $$$ DOD has (somewhere).
USA sensitive agencies, all agencies, are infiltrated bottom to top with CCP, and Sharia Jihadists. We have to take our country all the way back. UniCongress, corporations, cabal, cartels, countries are determined We the People (populists - gasp!) never have a working Republic.
Reading other - understandably - irate comments here, made from various clashing perspectives, maybe an at once broader and narrower perspective is needed.
Broadly, Genocide is a legal term introduced after the Holocaust, and partly codified in the UN Genocide Convention ratified by almost all UN members.
More narrowly, until Gambia referred Myanmar to the ICJ on Genocide charges, the scope of the crime hadn't been formally tested in court .
The UK (of which I'm a citizen) now finds itself in a very difficult position, having argued for a broad definition of the charge which would apply to Myanmar's actions against its Rohingya population, but wishing to restrict the scope of the charge filed by South Africa, in defense of Israeli actions against the Palestinian population of land illegally occupied under Intenational Law.
The American Lone Ranger and faithful British Tonto can't so easily 'have it both ways', now that the eyes of the rest of an increasingly multipolar world are focused on the growing gap between what they say and what they do.
Even more than the conflict in Ukraine, the war in Gaza marks a significant geopolitical turning-point in the relations between the old duo - that after ousting the only Islamic democracy in MENA in 1953 seem to still think they own the area and its resources, patrolled by their wayward Israeli client - and 'The Rest of the World'.
They still seem largely not to understand that they no longer control an emerging new global economy, or emerging new global media, or an emerging new geopolitical landscape based on that new economy and media.
My greatest fear for the world is not the old Red or Yellow Peril of Russia or China, or even Climate Change, but what a cornered America might do in desperation at the loss of empire.
Because America's Gun Problem is to me far more frightening abroad than at home.
Somebody needs to look at that replenishment issue before we find ourselves in “a gut bustin’, mother lovin, Navy war”
This is very valuable information, thank you.
That said, Biden should have retreated. The Saudis couldn't crush the Yemenis for years, and have no desire to fight them again. Sooner or later, some ship is going to get too close to one of those VERY moveable ballistic missile launchers, or a drone or three will get lucky, and we will see the headline US SHIP SUNK.
Of course, at a $1 million or more an anti-missile missile, there's money to be made. Ka-CHING! Raytheon doesn't care about sailors.
Don't worry about the money. We print more of it as needed now. That is called Bidenomics.
Pretty asymmetric in many respects, especially costs.
US/UK had to do something, but their record in asymmetric warfare is not good.
Whatever you think of their motivations, the Houthi record in asymmetric conflict is pretty impressive.
And apart from the asymmetric costs of Houthi and US/UK munitions and possibly lives, the leveraging of that asymmetry by choking the short route from Indian Ocean to Mediterranean is... astronomical.
Bottom line: Gaza is a very, very costly operation.
And mainly to keep one corrupt politician in power and out of jail for a few extra months.
Sad.
There is a high probability many Houthi drones are cheap, unarmed junk decoys just meant to cause the US Navy to waste anti-missiles. Houthi missiles and drones are likely deep in caves, with huge stockpiles. If the USA is to strike Iran, the big question is: Can Iran hit the deck of an aircraft carrier and render it useless?
Of course, restraining the erstwhile Israeli client would be just out of the question.
So Biden opens up irans oil spigot and removes sanctions, so that Iran can produce missiles for the houthies to use as a live fire exercise against the U.S. Don’t, for a minute, think that Iran isn’t watching this and figuring out how to evade our defense systems.
Operation Prosperity Guardian was always going to involve bombing Houthi missile sites and munitions dumps. There is no way to protect the sea lanes by remaining solely on defense.
At some point the fight has to be taken to the other side.
The senile imbecile squatting in the White House doesn't know what year it is. Someone made the call and since the attack was leaked in advance it most likely resulted in minimal damage or casualties.
Many ships are hit in Eritrea waters. Eritrea is sympathetic to Iran, see links below. I can find nowhere Eritrea condemning the Houthis. It is suspected Houthi supplies come through Eritrea. The Houthis attacking ships in Eritrea's water is legal under international law since Eritrea lets them.
https://jcpa.org/video/eritreas-silence-on-houthi-attacks-on-shipping-within-its-maritime-territory/
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-09-07/ty-article/.premium/eritrea-no-longer-serves-israels-security-interests-its-time-to-cut-ties/0000018a-6bb5-dfd9-ad9f-efb504860000
Thank you for bone cold truth.
Is there air cover, aggression with the ships?
I'm stunned at the costs and the lead time for these missiles. And that resupplies are low. I can only continue to see the munitions depletions, parts lag, attack on morale, everything has been deliberate.
I am aware that about 18 months before Trump's term ended, the long-heralded parts ordering system faltered. The following is very generalized, as I read it 2-3 years ago so my recall in definitely not exacting. However, example - replacement cones around F-16 blowers were cracked, and spares had not been ordered. It was Belgium that had the issue first. Fortunately, in Europe there are high-end metal engineering shops, with excellent metals access. The metal shops were able to get the CadCam codes and make the cones and fasteners. Once the parts were ready, it is a 5-day installation take off, inspect, replace, inspect. I understand updating software for the F-35s wasn't happening and the windshields(?) and heads-up displays, helmets needed physical upgrades. The suppliers heard nothing for so long, no replies to inquiries, so, they took down all the machining lines, etc. used them elsewhere, stored or destroyed what they did not reuse.
There is no excuse given the $$$ DOD has (somewhere).
USA sensitive agencies, all agencies, are infiltrated bottom to top with CCP, and Sharia Jihadists. We have to take our country all the way back. UniCongress, corporations, cabal, cartels, countries are determined We the People (populists - gasp!) never have a working Republic.
IMHO.
Reading other - understandably - irate comments here, made from various clashing perspectives, maybe an at once broader and narrower perspective is needed.
Broadly, Genocide is a legal term introduced after the Holocaust, and partly codified in the UN Genocide Convention ratified by almost all UN members.
More narrowly, until Gambia referred Myanmar to the ICJ on Genocide charges, the scope of the crime hadn't been formally tested in court .
The UK (of which I'm a citizen) now finds itself in a very difficult position, having argued for a broad definition of the charge which would apply to Myanmar's actions against its Rohingya population, but wishing to restrict the scope of the charge filed by South Africa, in defense of Israeli actions against the Palestinian population of land illegally occupied under Intenational Law.
The American Lone Ranger and faithful British Tonto can't so easily 'have it both ways', now that the eyes of the rest of an increasingly multipolar world are focused on the growing gap between what they say and what they do.
Even more than the conflict in Ukraine, the war in Gaza marks a significant geopolitical turning-point in the relations between the old duo - that after ousting the only Islamic democracy in MENA in 1953 seem to still think they own the area and its resources, patrolled by their wayward Israeli client - and 'The Rest of the World'.
They still seem largely not to understand that they no longer control an emerging new global economy, or emerging new global media, or an emerging new geopolitical landscape based on that new economy and media.
My greatest fear for the world is not the old Red or Yellow Peril of Russia or China, or even Climate Change, but what a cornered America might do in desperation at the loss of empire.
Because America's Gun Problem is to me far more frightening abroad than at home.
More lasers...
What happened to the laser systems we were developing?
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/the-us-is-choosing-escalation-and?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=73370&post_id=140624327&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=2f2d&utm_medium=email
Born to LoseTM
Another Yank catastrophe.
Afaik only ships headed for Israel or Israeli owned/controlled have been attacked by the Houthis.
Ships carrying Russian crude to India and to China are not impacted. Has that changed?
Of course this may now get more difficult, given British and Dutch participation in these strikes.