This article was first published as an update to Ron Paul Institute subscribers. Subscribe for free here.
Last week President Biden was asked by a reporter about US attacks on Yemen:
Reporter: “Are the airstrikes in Yemen working?”
Biden: “Well, when you say working, are they stopping the Houthis? No. Are they gonna continue? Yes.”
The exchange perfectly defines the Biden Administration’s foreign policy: “Is our policy working? No. But keep it up, man!”
What is that old saying about the definition of insanity?
At least six rounds of US airstrikes have failed to intimidate the Houthis in Yemen, who have – contrary to the mainstream media – not announced a blockade of the Red Sea but merely interdiction of ships going to and from Israeli ports in response to Israel’s ongoing slaughter in Gaza. To date, the Houthis have neither killed anyone nor have they sunk a single tanker.
Their intent seems to be to raise the cost of shipping in the region, thus far with great success.
Several shipping companies – COSCO, Shell, and others (“The Danish shipping giant Maersk, German company Hapag-Lloyd, and French company CMA CGM have also suspended Red Sea transits.”) – have halted all operations to and from Israeli ports due to the risks imposed by the Houthis in the region. One Israeli port has seen an 85 percent drop in economic activity since the Houthis announced their policy.
In short, the Houthis in what Western capitals like to scoff at as a country stuck in the Middle Ages have designed and executed a sophisticated policy that has proven enormously successful according to its stated goals, while the United States has designed and executed a policy (“bombs away”) that they admit has been an abject failure.
But what do the Washington foreign policy geniuses do when they fail? They double down!
With Biden’s Yemen airstrike policy a loser, he has decided to escalate the US war on Yemen and he has no interest at all in Congress getting involved. The Washington Postreported on Saturday that the Biden Administration is now preparing for a “sustained campaign” against Yemen, one of the poorest countries on earth but one that nevertheless defeated a rich and powerful Saudi Arabia armed to the teeth with the best US weapons money can buy.
Far from having a specific plan for achieving US goals in the region, the Biden Administration has admitted they have no idea what they are doing and no idea whether it will work or not. From the WaPo piece:
Officials say they don’t expect that the operation will stretch on for years like previous U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan or Syria. At the same time they acknowledge they can identify no end date or provide an estimate for when the Yemenis’ military capability will be adequately diminished.
There is no plan. There is no idea whether it will work. There are no stated goals. And most importantly – to the absolute delight of the military-industrial complex – there is no concept of an end-point.
Does anyone think this is going to end well?
The real goal of this escalation is the neocon obsession with making war on Iran. Biden’s numbers are tanking and the neocons see one last chance to animate their deflated puppet to get the war they’ve wanted for decades.
As the WaPo reported in the same article: “As part of the effort, U.S. naval forces also are working to intercept weapons shipments from Iran.”
Two US Navy Seals lost their lives last week attempting to “intercept weapons shipments from Iran.” Biden and whoever are his puppet-masters have shown that they view US servicemembers as expendable pawns in a war that has nothing to do with US security or interests.
We are facing a national crisis and with Congress led by Lilliputians like Schumer, McConnell, and Speaker Johnson, Biden and his neocon dead-enders have pulled the pin from their grenade and are going for broke. War on Syria, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, and even Russia and China? “Bring it on!”
And the Constitution? Ha! Are you joking?
With last week’s airstrikes, the Biden Administration committed acts of war against a country – Yemen – that neither attacked or threatened the United States. Before the US government committed aggression against Yemen, the Houthis were not targeting US military or civilian ships as long as they were not servicing Israeli ports.
It was not our war at all…until Biden made it our war.
And Biden didn’t even bother to let Congress know about it, much less ask for a declaration of war. Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution is truly a dead letter when it can be so clearly ignored with impunity.
There is a reason Congress was given the authority and obligation to declare the United States to be in a state of war. Concentrating war-making power in the Executive branch, the Framers understood, would grant free-rein to regime courtiers and their boneheaded plans without the input of the people through their direct representatives.
Well the Constitution makes a cozy bedtime story. As then-Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, the late “pro-life” warmonger Henry Hyde tooted at Rep. Ron Paul during a hearing many years ago: “that part of the Constitution has become anachronistic. We don’t declare war anymore.”
Dear ghost of Henry Hyde: How has abandoning our Constitution worked out for America?
