Another Pointless Round of Bombing in Yemen

 

The Red Sea is more dangerous for commercial shipping than it was, and the Houthi leadership seems to be more determined than ever to continue their attacks

by Daniel Larison 

Posted onFebruary 25, 2024

The illegal and pointless U.S. war in Yemen continues:

The U.S. and the United Kingdom conducted a series of strikes at 18 Houthi targets at eight different locations inside Yemen Saturday, part of a continuing effort to fight back against the Iran-backed group that has continued to attack commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea.

The U.S. and Britain have been waging war in Yemen for the last six weeks. U.S. forces have been engaged in hostilities with the de facto government of a large part of another country without Congressional debate or authorization. The war they are fighting seems unlikely to end anytime soon. The Houthis have not been discouraged from further attacks. On the contrary, missile and drone attacks have increased and expanded since the U.S. launched its illegal campaign in January. The Red Sea is more dangerous for commercial shipping than it was, and the Houthi leadership seems to be more determined than ever to continue their attacks.

The president’s bad decision to escalate is producing almost all of the results that opponents predicted. U.S. military action is failing to achieve any of the administration’s stated goals. It is obvious that the U.S. should halt this campaign before things escalate further and before American sailors get injured or killed in the fighting, but knowing this administration and what passes for foreign policy wisdom in Washington we can expect more of the same indefinitely.

The framing of these strikes as “fighting back” is misleading at best. It was the U.S. and its allies that chose to escalate the conflict with attacks on Yemeni targets, and it was the U.S. and its allies that have refused to press for a ceasefire in Gaza that might actually end the threat to commercial shipping. The Biden administration has chosen to give the Houthis the confrontation they desire rather than confront the Israeli government whose slaughter in Gaza they support. As Gregory Johnsen explained this week, “the Houthis won’t be deterred because they want this confrontation with the United States.”

Read the rest of the article at Eunomia

Daniel Larison is a contributing editor for Antiwar.com and maintains his own site at Eunomia. He is former senior editor at The American Conservative. He has been published in the New York Times Book Review, Dallas Morning News, World Politics Review, Politico Magazine, Orthodox Life, Front Porch Republic, The American Scene, and Culture11, and was a columnist for The Week. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Chicago, and resides in Lancaster, PA. Follow him on Twitter.

https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2024/02/25/another-pointless-round-of-bombing-in-yemen/