The indefatigable USS Carney (DDG-64) and her crew “successfully engaged 14 unmanned aerial systems launched as a drone wave from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen,” according to U.S. Central Command on Saturday morning. Meanwhile, shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk announced on Friday that it would be pausing container shipments through the Red Sea until further notice — limiting global access to energy and cargo — after numerous attacks from the same Yemen-based Houthis.
We’re playing defense (pickleball with hand grenades) while international trade evaporates because Joe Biden and his administration are too yellow-bellied to remove Iranian proxies from the board. Remember, this is the same man involved in the egregious 2015 Iran Deal under Obama who, after winning the presidency in 2020, then sought to revivify the deal with even more goodies for the mullahs and expanded freedoms to develop nuclear technology — all this while an Iranian agent was ensconced in the Pentagon with access to classified intel.
A piece in Politico today speaks to the administration’s waffling well enough:
Top Biden administration officials are actively weighing options to strike back at Houthis in Yemen after the Iran-backed group launched new attacks on naval and commercial ships in the Red Sea on Saturday, according to two U.S. officials.
The Pentagon has in recent days moved the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group from the Persian Gulf into the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Yemen, to support a potential U.S. response to attacks, said one of the officials, both of whom were granted anonymity to speak about sensitive plans. The military has also provided options to commanders to strike the Houthis, the official said.
The Biden administration has been reluctant to respond militarily against the Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in recent weeks for fear of provoking Iran, which backs Hamas and Hezbollah in Yemen as well as the Houthis. Previously, the Pentagon had recommended the administration not do so.
The Pentagon recommends no action because it knows this is what the White House wants to hear. The shoulder boards aren’t stupid. Joe Biden is as pusillanimous in foreign policy as his dog Major is in a White House break room. From Saigon to Berlin, Kuwait to Kabul, Joe Biden has run from tough, correct decisions abroad as quickly as his convenient draft-exempting asthma would allow the former football player.
To be fair, however, there are reasons why caution is not necessarily imprudent when engaging with proxies of hostile and regionally powerful regimes. Tyler Rogoway runs through a few reasons why for the War Zone:
Iran and its Hezbollah proxies in Lebanon have not yet entered the Israel-Hamas conflict with full force, but there is still the possibility they might. Attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria are also already a near-daily occurrence. The Houthis alone have the ability to drastically increase attacks on U.S. forces in the region, but more on that in a moment.
Simply put, one major spark could set off a much larger fire that could be very challenging to contain.
So, on the one hand, one could argue that a kinetic response is exactly what the Houthis and their Iranian backers desperately want. It very well could be that they want to get the U.S. directly involved and mired in a facet of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Also, as noted earlier, the Houthis have attacked Israel repeatedly in a direct manner, yet the IDF has done nothing. It is fully within the IAF’s reach and capabilities to strike Houthi targets, yet they stand down after dozens of attempted strikes. And yes they have a lot on their plate, but they have the capacity to respond and they don’t. Persuasion by the U.S. could be a factor in the decision, but the fact is that between the U.S. Navy’s screening operations in the Red Sea and Israel’s advanced air defense umbrella, those attacks have been totally impotent — a waste of weaponry.
But I don’t buy that these are the reasons why Biden won’t take action. He won’t act because he’s never done a brave thing in his life, and it’s much too late to start now. His coalition doesn’t want him to try, his dream of diplomatic victory with Tehran feels too close, and the last service member he cared about died in 2015. The man who’s allowed Iran access to billions with which to fund terrorism and develop nuclear weapons will only move when it’s too late or if others make the decision for him. Our sailors and Marines deserve better.