No. of Recommendations: 7
We've been doing classical Biden Just The Tip. Small nibbles when a CHOMP is necessary.
BTW, how do the missiles get to the Houthis?The missiles get to the Houthis because we
also have ships in the region. International waters, and all that. We're allowed to be there, just like the Iranians are allowed to have ships there.
We do small nibbles because we aren't willing to devote the resources to a CHOMP. We're not sending ground forces into Yemen, so we're
only going to do remote attacks. And remote attacks are very expensive. We
could keep responding with missiles, but a pretty painful exchange:
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/19/missile-d...We're not Superman. We're not invulnerable, and there are all sorts of
costs to taking military action, and all sorts of limitations on what can be achieved through military force. Which is why we aren't going to invade Yemen with ground forces, which is why the Houthis are able to keep harassing conventional shipping. And because the consequences of elevating this from a proxy fight against the Houthis into a direct military engagement with Iran is so high, we're not doing that either - at least, not for the minor benefit of taking out a minor asset like the Behshad.
We can agree to disagree. The Iranians understand what messing with the US Navy means, going back to the 1980s.Which is why the Iranians aren't messing with the US Navy. They're being very careful to use proxies in the region - and even those proxies are targeting
commercial vessels.
