They send a ship or two occasionally out there, but it’s not really a major presence. The PLA Navy is def building blue water capable ships and has plans to build more, but they don’t currently have experience in that theater or really push to gain it, outside of building ships and flying the flag. At least not currently, IMO. Actively patrolling the Red Sea and taking part in operations bigger than anti-piracy patrols (like striking land bases in Yemen) would be a great way to build that operational experience, which I’m glad they decline to do.
Sure. The US is a massive superpower, the most powerful country on Earth and by far the most powerful country in the sphere of nations aligned with it.
It is by far the most capable of shouldering that burden. It also reaps the lion’s share of the benefits, directing global policy to an extent no other country can match.
With great power comes great responsibility, right?
Oh, I don’t think they’ll take the fight to the Houthis, no. I do think they will engage pirates and shoot down missiles, though, especially if ships flying linked to China get targeted.
China’s got the whole Belt and Road thing going thru this area, so they’ve invested a lot so far in alliances and infrastructure. They’re probably keen on avoiding any enemy-making by use of military force, and hey, if the US wants to flex it’s muscles here…
I think I was clear that I support the US involvement.
I think I was clear that I understand that the US has broader shoulders than the rest.
That does not mean “the rest” have been holding up a commensurate share, and indeed that’s been a complaint of the US government for at least 20 years,
And in the case of China, they’re getting a double-gift. We’re spending our money to protect what is largely their shipping, AND they’re getting to watch us suffer all the fallout.
Is there no limit to how much the US should pay? Or how little others should pay? We’re shooting down $20,000 drones with $1,000,000 missiles. At some number of missiles it’s actually cheaper to go round the Cape of Good Hope.
That’s closer to how it’s pronounced. Word associations help me to remember.
I would expect the little boats used to attack larger boats have to have a mother ship to launch from. Take out the mother ship and every single helicopter in Houthi territory.
How about bombing the ports where the boats berth?
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/12/politics/us-strikes-yemen-houthis/index.html
The response has to weigh the cost of the weapons against the value of the asset destroyed. Their small boats can be garaged anywhere in the country and the larger mother ship can anchor offshore.
It looks like they went after missiles, launchers, weapons storage and radar facilities. Hopefully this puts a dent in their war machine.
Why on earth would you expect that? The Bab al-Mandab Strait is a whopping 30km across. I’m sure any speedboat attacks they’re doing are launched from the shore.
In which case, I’d assume it would make sense for launching sites, repair facilities, ammo dumps, etc. to be as widely dispersed as possible in order to prevent any strikes from warships from taking out significant amounts of ordnance and materiel.
I was watching a DW report last night (they post some good analysis pieces on YouTube, by the way) that said the Houthis spent many years dodging attacks by the Saudis and have become good at minimizing the impact of strikes.
Their view was that these won’t do much, and on top of that the Houthis have embraced civilian deaths as part of their narrative that the West is out to get them.
Thoughts and Prayers?
Good point but it’s been a tactic of their Somali neighbors. You’re right that the straight narrows to 28 miles but that does not limit their area of attack. To the extent they are willing to take small boats any distance on open water dictates the use of a larger base ship which allows greater distances.
Since this all started we’ve had Hezbollah messing around with Israel and that had people worried about an expansion into Lebanon and the involvement of an Iranian proxy
Then we had the topic of this thread, the Houthis getting involved.
Then yesterday we had Iran strike into Pakistan, which I thought was really odd since I thought their relations were reasonably normal.
And now today we have Pakistan striking back.
Since a discussion around the Houthis hasn’t exactly taken off, maybe we should make this a more general discussion about the dangers of this thing spiraling? Mods?
I have to say, we really can’t claim a lot of success when it comes to direct US involvement in the ME, and I worry that we’ll be tempted once again to fix things. And if we do, you can be assured of a Trump victory, since one of the things his supporters bang on about is “no new wars”
You are right that Trump’s victory is very likely, due to the Houthi problem.
But for a different reason, I think. It won’t be because Trump will claim credit for no wars, it will be a much more practical problem: prices. Since most shipping companies are now avoiding the Houthi areas and taking the longer route, costs are higher , and prices will rise.
American citizens may or may not care about international politics, but they have a bizarre obsession with the price of gas.
If next November, the price of gas is 20 cents higher than it was two months earlier, Biden will lose the election.
They’ve done it now! They will rue the day If we Brits can’t get our afternoon cuppa.
One of the UK’s best known tea makers has revealed it is monitoring tea supplies on a daily basis as imports reach a “critical period”.
Tetley Tea, the country’s second biggest tea brand, said supplies were “much tighter” than it would like amid disruption in the Red Sea.
Just make this with warm water. It will be fine.
Why, are you gonna invade again?
Plus ça change:
On 18 January 1839, the British East India Company landed Royal Marines at Aden. Their aims were to establish a supply port and stop attacks by Arab pirates against British shipping to India.