The Red Sea on it's Way to Becoming Another War Zone

Is the US Military going to be able to put down the Houthis in Yemen?  Ummmm....no.  We couldn't dispatch the Taliban and that was with thousands of US troops on the ground.  We aren't going to disrupt the Houthis by firing a few missiles at them.  And yet Biden didn't really have a choice.  He had to do SOMETHING!  As far as RUMORS OF WAR goes, we can add another area on the globe to the mix.

There are at least two views you can take on the US decision, joined by Britain, to strike Houthi targets in Yemen early Friday. Although they are entirely contradictory, both would be correct.

The first is that this was inevitable. Both politically and to retain credible deterrence against further hostile actions by Iran and its proxies, doing nothing was simply not an option for President Joe Biden. The second view, and doubtless the reason he had first hesitated, is that there is little likelihood of success and a measurable risk of escalation.

 If the strategic goals of the US are to restore the free flow of trade through the Red Sea, to prevent the war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza from igniting a regional conflagration, and to thwart Iranian efforts to halt Israel’s normalization into a new, more stable and prosperous Middle East, then this morning’s fire and brimstone is likely to prove counterproductive.

In fact, one can’t help but feel that the US, like Israel after Oct. 7, is dancing to a tune that was scripted for it by a rogue militia in a failed quasi-state that has little to lose.

Success here is not measured in terms of blowing things up. It would come as a shock if the US and UK pilots and gun crews did not do their job well; they’re probably the best-trained and equipped in the world. But the chances that the Houthis lost all their missile strike capability overnight, much of it mobile and therefore hard to target without significant numbers of allied boots on the ground, are surely zero. They’ve survived years of aerial bombardment from advanced US jets flown by Saudi and United Arab Emirates pilots. If anything has changed, it’s that the Red Sea may be on its way to becoming a war zone.

That has the potential to increase the impact on global markets. Although container shipping rates rose sharply since the Houthis began their harassment, they have yet to target oil tankers. Oil markets were little impacted until today, when Brent crude rose as much as 3.5% to top $80 a barrel in London for the first time this year. After the strikes on Friday, the US warned all commercial shipping to exercise caution in the area.

Here;  US Airstrikes on Houthis in Yemen: Iran Wins With Red Sea Response - Bloomberg