What surprises me is that many in Washington, DC and media are surprised by the failure of the latest phase of Operation Prosperity Guardian to quell the Houthis. As Homer Simpson is prone to say, “Doh!” Here’s the latest from CNN:
US air strikes in Yemen will not be enough to defeat the Houthi movement. The only way to break the resistance may be a ground operation, CNN reports, citing sources and analysts.
The channel claims that the American bombings have not caused serious damage to the Houthi political and military leadership or their missile launchers. This is confirmed by the rebels’ regular attacks on targets in Israel and on the American fleet in the Red Sea.
The TV channel recalled that the cost of the air operation initiated by Washington against the Houthis has already reached $1 billion. One official told CNN that US resources in this direction are running out.
Yes sir! Just what we need: a new US invasion of a sovereign country in the Middle East. I am certain that will calm the jitters of already panicked financial markets around the globe and that the price of oil will plummet to new lows. [For those of you immune to sarcasm, this is sarcasm.] As I am writing this, the financial markets in Asia are crashing. By the time you read this Monday morning eastern time, the US markets are likely to be rattled. And that is just from Trump’s tariff ploy.
While the “smart” guys and gals in Washington, DC are feigning surprise over this development, my readers have been informed of the feckless nature of a US-led bombing campaign to force the Houthis into submission. The mobile launchers that the Houthis use are virtually impossible to identify and destroy before they launch a missile or drone. The Houthis have perfected the art of shoot-and-scoot.
Operation Prosperity Guardian has exposed the glaring weakness of US reliance on overhead imagery and electronic surveillance. US efforts to use MQ-9 Reaper drones to spot potential launch sites — those drones can provide immediate intelligence — has proven to be an expensive disaster. The Houthis claim to have downed 17 Reapers during the past 16 months. Each Reaper costs a minimum of $30 million. If the Houthis’ numbers are correct, the cost of those destroyed drones tops $500 million.
Speaking of costs, each day the US carrier strike group (CSG) is deployed in the Red Sea and firing air defense missiles against missiles and drones fired by Houthis, is costing multiple millions of dollars. And many of the air defense missiles the US is cranking off are in short supply and cannot be easily and quickly built to restock dwindling inventories.
The only way to stop the Houthis, without employing a US ground force (and even that is questionable), is to penetrate the Houthi chain of command with human assets, who then can report where and when a missile will be launched. While recruiting, training and managing such a sensitive human asset is not impossible, the CIA might be better off buying Mega Million lottery tickets in hopes of hitting the jackpot.
The Houthis thwarted Joe Biden’s attempts to silence them and Donald Trump and his national security team are starting to realize they have no military solution to stop the Houthis from imposing an embargo on Israeli ships in the Red Sea.
The US murder of a tribal group in Yemen over the weekend is likely to inspire the Houthis to step up their attacks on US targets and Israel in the coming days. Trump can holler and threaten till he is blue in the face and it is not going to force a change in the Houthis’ commitment to pressure the West to stop the genocide in Palestine.
Reprinted with permission from Sonar21.
