Biden's Smart Diplomacy: Attack On Yemen

Biden has now involved us in another pointless war in the Middle-East. The AP reports that "US, British militaries launch massive retaliatory strike against Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen." The article relates:

    The U.S. and British militaries bombed more than a dozen sites used by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen on Thursday, in a massive retaliatory strike using warship- and submarine-launched Tomahawk missiles and fighter jets, U.S. officials said.

    The U.S. Air Force’s Mideast command said it struck over 60 targets at 16 sites in Yemen, including “command-and-control nodes, munitions depots, launching systems, production facilities and air defense radar systems.”

    President Joe Biden said the strikes were meant to demonstrate that the U.S. and its allies “will not tolerate” the militant group’s ceaseless attacks on the Red Sea. And he said they only made the move after attempts at diplomatic negotiations and careful deliberation.

    “These strikes are in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea — including the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history,” Biden said in a statement. He noted the attacks endangered U.S. personnel and civilian mariners and jeopardized trade, and he added, “I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary.”

The article adds that "the coordinated military assault comes just a week after the White House and a host of partner nations issued a final warning to the Houthis to cease the attacks or face potential military action." 

The warning appeared to have had at least some short-lived impact, as attacks stopped for several days. On Tuesday, however, the Houthi rebels fired their largest-ever barrage of drones and missiles targeting shipping in the Red Sea, with U.S. and British ships and American fighter jets responding by shooting down 18 drones, two cruise missiles and an anti-ship missile. And on Thursday, the Houthis fired an anti-ship ballistic missile into the Gulf of Aden, which was seen by a commercial ship but did not hit the ship.

Also:

The Houthis say their assaults are aimed at stopping Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. But their targets increasingly have little or no connection to Israel and imperil a crucial trade route linking Asia and the Middle East with Europe.

The strikes came immediately after reports that "[a]t least five vessels transiting the Red Sea [were] using their signals to say they have links to China — the latest unusual measure taken to try and avoid attack by Houthi militants in the Red Sea."

    Each of the ships is signaling “all Chinese crew” or something similar in a field that would normally contain its destination. Two are currently in the Red Sea, while two more have navigated the risky waterway and are now sailing to Asia. A fifth appears to be heading toward the Gulf of Aden.

    Since early November, there has been a surge in attacks on merchant ships transiting the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthis. They say they are targeting vessels with links to Israel to protest against its military campaign in Gaza, though ships with no direct connection to Israel have also been affected.

    The result has been significant disruption to swaths of the global merchant fleet.

    Suez Canal transits have plunged, falling to the lowest level since the waterway was blocked by a giant container ship in 2021, as many ships choose to avoid the Red Sea and instead sail thousands of miles around Africa to deliver their goods.

Strangely, the attack on the Houthis has caused several Leftist Democrats in Congress to suddenly acknowledge the U.S. Constitution as the supreme law of the land. According to the New York Post, "[s]everal Democrats on Capitol Hill scolded President Biden on Thursday for launching airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen without congressional approval, arguing that the action was unconstitutional." 

    “The President needs to come to Congress before launching a strike against the Houthis in Yemen and involving us in another middle east [sic] conflict,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) tweeted. “That is Article I of the Constitution. I will stand up for that regardless of whether a Democrat or Republican is in the White House.”

    “Section 2C of the War Powers Act is clear: POTUS may only introduce the US into hostilities after Congressional authorization or in a national emergency when the U.S. is under imminent attack,” Khanna went on. “Reporting is not a substitute. This is a retaliatory, offensive strike.”

    Echoing Khanna, Rep. Val Hoyle (D-Ore.) tweeted, “These airstrikes have NOT been authorized by Congress. The Constitution is clear: Congress has the sole authority to authorize military involvement in overseas conflicts. Every president must first come to Congress and ask for military authorization, regardless of party.”

    Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, called the US- and UK-led bombing campaign “an unacceptable violation of the Constitution.”

The article goes on to list other Leftist congress-critters that oppose the attack. While I agree that the Constitution only gives Congress the power to declare war, the reality is the Congress long ago ceded that power to the executive branch. The only reason that the Leftists are suddenly showing some respect for the Constitution which they otherwise normally flout (e.g., the Second Amendment) is because they view the attacks as support for Israel. 

    The Houthis are, of course, rattling their sabers. "Houthi rebels say US will pay a ‘heavy price’ for strikes that killed 5, injured 6," reports the New York Post. 

    In a recorded address, Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said 73 strikes hit five regions of Yemen under their control on Thursday — killing at least five people and wounding six others.

    “The American and British enemy bears full responsibility for its criminal aggression against our Yemeni people, and it will not go unanswered and unpunished,” he said.

    Senior Houthi official Hussein al-Ezzi also said in a Google-translated post on X: “America and Britain will undoubtedly have to prepare to pay a heavy price and bear all the dire consequences of this blatant aggression.”

    Separately, Mohammed Abdul-Salam, the chief negotiator and spokesperson for the Iran-funded group, described the US and Britain as having “committed foolishness with this treacherous aggression.”

The article also mentions that "Yemeni analysts say the strikes will only serve to strengthen Houthi popularity in the region and its support for Hamas."

    Already on Friday, hundreds gathered for a rally chanting, “God is the greatest, death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, victory to Islam.”

    Hezbollah, which is continuing its barrage against Israeli forces on the Jewish nation’s northern border, also issued a statement saying it “strongly condemn[ed] the blatant American-British aggression,” which it says “confirms once again that the US is a full partner in the tragedies and massacres committed by the Zionist enemy in Gaza and the region.

    “It is the one that continues to support the machine of killing and destruction, and to cover up its aggression and crime and the attacks on everyone who stands by the oppressed Palestinian people throughout the region,” the terrorist group said, according to the Guardian.

    Iranian officials also released a statement saying the attacks “are a clear violation of Yemen’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and a breach of international laws.

     The Saudis also can't be too pleased over the attacks. Saudi Arabia has been involved for years in the civil war in Yemen, opposing the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. "There has been an unstated truce in Yemen for nearly two years between the Houthis and the Provisional Leadership Council, a coalition of parties opposed to the group," the Guardian reported in December 2023, but last fall talks in Saudi Arabia led to a tentative three-part peace plan that would see the Yemen partitioned and a military buffer zone established between the north and Saudi Arabia. The plan would also involve transfer of funds from Saudi Arabia to the Houthis, a withdrawal of foreign troops, and plans to reopen ports. But there were warnings last month that the peace deal could be scuttled if the U.S. were to declare the Houthis a terrorist group. "Western officials say there is no hidden agenda to scupper the three-stage peace plan," according to the December article, "just a recognition that it may be politically impossible to stem the growing demands in the US Senate to designate the Houthis as terrorists as these attacks continue." And just Thursday, "[t]he chief negotiator for Yemen's Houthis said ... the group's attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea do not threaten its peace talks with Saudi Arabia...." These strikes may change all that.

    But putting aside all that, I think we can see where this is going: an war with Iran. An expensive war, to be sure, because China and Russia will be sure to provide support to Iran in any such conflict, even if clandestinely. Something that the globalists have wanted for at least two decades. 

    It is also clear where this is going from an eschatological point of view. In Ezekiel 38, the groups that attack Israel are listed as Gog, "the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal," "Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya," "Gomer, and all his bands," and "the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee [i.e., Gog]." 

    Meschech and Tubal are identified with regions in Turkey. Persia is, of course, Iran, but may also include parts of Iraq and Syria. Ethiopia at that time referred to the region of Africa immediately south of Egypt. Libya included what is modern day Libya and Tunisia. Gomer is believed to refer to the ancient "Cimmerians" in what is now southern Russia. The people of Togarmah were identified as the Phrygians by Josephus, a people who also dwelled in the eastern portion of Asia minor. In other words, we are looking at the modern day Muslim peoples in an arc starting with Iran and extending westward to Turkey and Syria including Azerbaijan, the Muslim portions of northwest Africa (except Egypt) including the Sudan, and Libya (and, possibly, Tunisia). You will immediately notice that the U.S. has been militarily involved in most of those areas over the past couple of decades: the Sudan, Libya, Syria, and Iraq. All of the foregoing are also, to one extent or another, destabilized. A conflict with Iran would likely not result in a stable country, either. 

    Rather, from my distant perspective, it appears that U.S. military action is largely creating the unstable environment that will allow Gog--the Anti-Christ, the Little Horn, whatever term you want to use--to come to power.