The two most recent leaders of U.S. Central Command have called for the military to respond more forcefully to the attacks of Houthi forces against commercial vessels in the region's waterways.
The Yemen-based Houthis have repeatedly attacked commercial ships with drones and missiles in recent weeks, and they seized an Israeli-linked cargo ship, taking its crew hostage last month, while the group has also launched missiles toward Israel. A group of shipping companies, including oil firm BP, Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd, and CMA CGM, have all separately announced in recent days their intent to pause shipping through the Red Sea due to the threat.
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The U.S., despite pursuing a multinational response to the situation, has not responded militarily yet, though the two most recent former CENTCOM leaders believe that should change.
"I think the thing I've learned the most is that we have to strike back at the Houthis and get this behavior back in control," retired CENTCOM commander Joseph Votel, who served from 2016-19, told the Washington Examiner on Monday. "When you see companies like Maersk and BP stopped shipping through the Red Sea and down through the Bab el-Mandeb [Strait], that's pretty significant."
"We have to take this seriously, and the United States, and more broadly, the international community, it isn't just the United States, but the international community has to devise a plan to reestablish confidence in those shippers and others moving stuff through there, aid with some of their protection and then take some action to deter the Houthis from propagating these attacks," he added.
Many of the Houthi attacks have occurred in the Red Sea, which separates Saudi Arabia and Yemen from the northeast coast of Africa, and at the Bab el-Mandeb Strait between the nearest point of Yemen and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who preceded Votel as CENTCOM commander, said on Monday, "These attacks are reckless, dangerous, and they violate international law. So we're taking action to build an international coalition to address this threat," though he did not announce a multinational effort.
Iran's Defense Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani said last week that if they went ahead with such an effort, it would create "extraordinary problems."
Gen. Frank McKenzie, who succeeded Votel as CENTCOM commander and was in the position until April 2022, told Politico earlier this month that the U.S. has given the Houthis "no reason not to continue" their attacks.
“You can’t catch eternally, because eventually the law of averages is going to turn against you, and you’re going to take a significant escalatory event on a ship, and then you’re going to be forced into an even more significant level of response," he added. “There’s a fine line between avoiding escalation and inviting continued opportunities for Iranian and Houthi attacks, based on a perceived fecklessness on our part."
U.S. officials have argued they don't want to provoke an expansion of the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East.
U.S. military personnel in Iraq and Syria have also come under fire from Iranian-backed militias in the region since the outbreak of the war in the Middle East. Those militias have launched roughly 90 attacks since mid-October, leaving dozens of U.S. troops injured, while the U.S. has carried out a handful of retaliatory strikes targeting their facilities.
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"We need to remove the uncertainty in these situations, the actors in Iraq and Syria need to appreciate that if they take action, the cost that they will pay for taking an action will outweigh the benefits that they gained. Same thing with the Houthis. This is basically the basic idea of deterrence, right there," Votel said. "That the cost of doing something outweighs the benefit that you derive from it, and then therefore, you aren't deterred from doing it. And we're not doing that right now."
If the attacks from the militias or the Houthis continue, the involved parties remain "one really serious incident away from really changing the game here," he added.