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Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
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Author: Dope1   😊 😞
Number: of 48465 
Subject: The effects of projecting strength
Date: 01/27/2025 2:55 PM
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Summarized:

https://news.yahoo.com/news/iran-supreme-leader-fo...

The flak jacket isn't the point. This is the point:

Iran has ordered its proxy forces across the Middle East to exercise caution as the Islamic Republic fears an existential threat following Donald Trump’s return to the White House, The Telegraph has learned.

Officials have told commanders of Iran-backed militias to avoid provocative actions that could escalate regional tensions.

Commanders have also been instructed to maintain defensive positions while avoiding any actions that could be interpreted as aggressive by US forces or regional allies.


Indeed.
It was absurd that we allowed a 3rd-rate militia to fire rockets - hundreds of them - at civilian and US Navy vessels in the Red Sea. That did a great job of reducing stocks of valuable weapons that we'd need against an enemy in our weight class.

No more of that. No more praying that somebody doesn't make a mistake and we lose several hundred sailors and a very valuable warship. The proper response to somebody taking potshots at the US military is overwhelming force with an emphasis on lethality.
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Author: Dope1   😊 😞
Number: of 48465 
Subject: Re: The effects of projecting strength
Date: 01/27/2025 3:03 PM
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/shippers-wary...

For more than a year, the Houthis have used missiles and drones to target commercial ships and naval vessels sent to protect them in the Red Sea, once one of the world’s busiest trade routes. Shippers have taken to sending vessels around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa instead.

The Houthis have attacked more than 100 vessels in the Red Sea since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel sparked the war in Gaza.

In an email to shippers, the Houthis said they wouldn’t attack U.S. and British vessels while a cease-fire was in effect. The group also this month released 25 crew members of the cargo vessel Galaxy Leader, which they had seized in November 2023.


The Houthis can't tell the difference between an Israeli ship and an American one. But who can?

The Iranians who are giving them targeting instructions. For those of you who insist on not applying logic and demand instant evidence of all things, here you go:
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/iranian-spy-...

Iran’s paramilitary forces are providing real-time intelligence and weaponry, including drones and missiles, to Yemen’s Houthis that the rebels are using to target ships passing through the Red Sea, Western and regional security officials said.

Tracking information gathered by a Red Sea surveillance vessel controlled by Iran’s paramilitary forces is given to the Houthis, who have used it to attack commercial vessels passing through the Bab el-Mandeb strait in recent days, according to the officials.


For Iran, the calculus is quite simple: If the Houthis shoot another missile at one of ours, their surveillance vessel dies. That day. I wouldn't even waste an LRASM on it; just have a pair of F/A-18s do a leisurely fly-by. One lases the target, the other drops a 2,000lb JDAM. Problem solved. Given the precision of the weapon, the amount of explosives and relative lack of armor that ship would go down in...maybe 15 minutes.

Let's hope the Iranians understand that.
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