Houthis, defying U.S. strikes, attempt another attack on U.S.-owned commercial ship
cbsnews.com
The targeting of another U.S.-owned commercial ship Wednesday shows the militant group remains intent on continuing its attacks in the face of multiple rounds of U.S. military airstrikes.
The Houthis launched anti-ship ballistic missiles at the U.S.-owned, flagged and operated commercial ship Maersk Detroit as it was transiting the Gulf of Aden, according to a statement from the U.S. Central Command. The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Gravely shot down two missiles and a third fell into the water. There were no indications of damage or injuries in the attack.
The U.S. military has been conducting airstrikes against the Houthis to degrade their capabilities since Jan.11, after several weeks of attacks on commercial ships by the militant group.
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Yeah because more military action is going to stop terrorism! Have people learned NOTHING from the Bush administration and the wars they started??
What's the play to stop this then?
I don't know. I don't have to in order to recognize the fact that military action only exacerbates the problem by making it easier to radicalize the people whose loved ones are killed, though.
Normally I'd agree, but the Houthis can stop all hostilities by stopping attacking international trade vessels. That isn't a difficult ask. They can even try to use this as leverage to get other things they want.
Yeah, that's bullshit. A Saudi-led coalition has been bombing the shit out of them with American weapons for several years now.
I don't in any way condone terrorism under any circumstances, but to pretend that there's not been any previous acts of oppressive violence to radicalize them is as unhelpful as it is (wilfully?) ignorant.
I don't disagree there, but this is what I meant by leverage. "We'll stop attacking if you stop helping the Saudis". It wasn't too long ago that the Houthis actually considered the US as a friendly state.
Wilfully ignorant it is.
There's no way the US government is ever going to make any such deal, much less honor it.
The Houthis are welcome to continue the current state of affairs if that's what they prefer.
Yeah because clearly they're the ones with all the power here. Next you're gonna say that Palestinians can stop the Gaza genocide any time they want 🙄
The Gaza genocide is because Israel dislikes the Palestinians existing. These attacks are because the US/UK dislike the Houthis attacking commercial vessels.
You're insulting Palestinians by suggesting there's any similarity, and actually playing into the Israeli narrative that Palestinians are being violent. Well done.
No. The reason I mentioned Gaza was because there's a genocide happening in Yemen too.
This didn't start with Houthis attacking container ships recently. It's been almost a decade of atrocities and you're pretending that it's a black and white case of a couple isolated incidents easily resolved. Well fucking done.
Not support Israel's genocide. I'd wager that'd help.
And even if you're a ghoul and think that complying with that very reasonable demand wouldn't stop the Houthis, why not call their bluff? It costs us nothing to simply stop allowing the genocide to happen, and if the Houthis continue attacking ships, then you have a much more legitimate reason to go after them.
Or are the people that are in favor of bombing Yemen just really eager to bomb?
The Saudis have been bombing it for Allah knows how long, so it's business as usual for everyone involved.
That's neither here, nor there. The answer isn't to make the bombing in Yemen worse.
If the only demand is to stop genociding Palestinians, then the US government should simply stop supporting Israel in their genocide.
If the Houthis continue attacking ships after that, then by all means, do what you need to do to handle the Houthis. But the US government can't even be bothered to call for a ceasefire, so they leave it up to militant groups to act.
They are actually in the process of calling for a ceasefire. Biden pissed off Netanyahu as well. There's diplomacy in the background to get a ceasefire and more hostages freed.
"Violence is being done to this group at such an alarming rate that it's being treated as normal. So violence is fine, they're used to it"
That's what that sounded like to me.
I was being facetious, but yes that's what I was saying.
Oh good! That makes more sense
Woosh?
Yeah, that was already pointed out.
I was asking because I couldn’t tell if your comment was sarcastic or not.
I was trying to figure out if I was getting whooshed. lol
And were doing it with bombs sold to them by the US and UK.
I wouldn't be surprised if the serial numbers on some of the stuff the US and UK is now dropping directly on the Houtis shows them to be from the same batches as some of the stuff that was dropped on them via the Saudis.
The idea that the US and UK cutting off the middleman to keep on doing to the Houtis what has been done to them for a decade, is going to make the Houtis change their minds, is hilarious.
It CoStS us nOtHiNg
You really don’t know what you’re talking about when it comes to policy. It’s not just a simple “okay let’s cut ties with Israel”.
Calling for a cease fire isn't "cutting ties with Israel", and if you think that funding a genocidal ethnostate is a necessary part of foreign policy, your foreign policy would have been very helpful for the Axis Powers, you absolute monster.
They actually might throw a hissy fit if we withhold aid and expel US diplomats or something. We'd lose a major base in the middle east, but (if you'll allow for a little American exceptionalism) they don't call the fucking shots here.
I'll allow for what you're referring to as American exceptionalism if it's reflective of reality. And, in the case of the US being a world superpower, and Israel's top (external) source of military funding, that is the reality.
So, yes. The far-right Israeli government might throw a hissy fit over the US government adopting a "genocide is a non-starter" policy for supporting them, but the US calls the shots. If Israel doesn't like it, too fucking bad.
Sure, agreed, probably. I don't believe one atrocity justifies another though (like the holocaust doesn't justify... Literally anything they've used it as justification for), and the problem is the houthis aren't just fucking with US and Israeli related ships, they're impacting global trade.
Backing down in the face of violence (even if it is the correct thing to do in this particular situation) only empowers them to cause more violence because it works. That's why the US doesn't (typically) negotiate with terrorists.
Yeah I'm not saying the Houthis are right here (they're being too indiscriminate), but giving into their demands is objectively the morally correct action. They're using a wrong method to make a correct point.
Am I mistaken, or is the situation with the Houthis and Saudis in Yemen entirely unrelated to the current conflict in Gaza? These are two separate things. The Houthis aren't disrupting international trade as a statement about Gaza... Like do you have any idea what we're even talking about in this thread?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/24/us-navy-cargo-ships-houthi-missile-attack-yemen#:~:text=The%20Houthis%20have%20said%20their,the%20Bab%20el%2DMandeb%20strait.
It's not unrelated. The Houthis have said, at every possible chance, that their actions in the Red Sea towards ships flying the American flag is because of what's happening in Gaza. Why would you not believe them?
Because they've hit numerous ships not related to Israel or the US.
Related, yes, but not exclusive to the current situation, as it's a continuation of the attacks the Houthis have been carrying out for the last decade. Not to mention they don't restrict the attacks to Israeli and US ships. Besides, their "Death to Israel, Death to America" slogan betrays their motives.
Their slogan also calls out Jewish people in general, it's pretty fucked.
You do realize that Americans get boners from this, right? Americans LOVE getting attacked so they can use their billions of dollars worth of weapons that they've been hoarding. Then resell it.
Some do, yeah. Doesn't mean I'm not going to point out the futility of it.