Disapproval Mounts Both at Home and Abroad as US Avoids Direct Action Against Houthi Rebels
Disapproval mounts both at home and abroad as the US avoids direct action against Houthi rebels. Some experts say the US must confront the Houthis once and for all. The attacks by the Houthis have led to perilous waters along a trade route that typically sees some $1 trillion in goods pass through it, as well as shipments of aid to war-torn Sudan and the Yemeni people. The US response has been ineffective, according to Can Kasapoglu, a Turkey-based Hudson Institute fellow who specializes in Middle East political-military affairs. “We have very limited intelligence about [the Houthis] and they are in a different part of the world, in a distant corner of the Middle East,” Kasapoglu said. “But that corner also happens to be right next to a choke point on global trade… The Houthis are the most daring of the And the U.S. has never gone into a preemptive phase where they target the Houthi leadership.”
The Houthis have expanded their targets to include U.S.- and British-linked vessels in response to U.S. and U.K. air strikes on Houthi positions in Yemen. The calls to strike the Behshad, an Iranian spy ship, have only grown since the Tehran-sponsored Kataib Hizballah militia carried out a drone strike on a U.S. outpost in Jordan, killing three soldiers and injuring dozens of service members.
The U.S. has responded to attacks with air and missile defense efforts, drone and missile intercepts. However, experts argue that the U.S. lacks a will to put boots on the ground to fight the Houthis. Central to the Biden administration’s global strategy is a concern over escalating tensions that could lead to a full-scale conflict, especially given Iran’s capability to build a nuclear bomb.
