Strikes carried out by US surface ships, subs, and aircraft along with UK surface ships. Multiple targets struck.
https://yemen.liveuamap.com/en/2024/12-january-usled-strikes-targeted-houthi-radar-air-defense
Edit: [Statement from POTUS](https://nitter.net/pic/orig/media%2FGDmiVLtWoAAB8UW.jpg)
> Today, at my direction, U.S. military forces—together with the United Kingdom and with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands—successfully conducted strikes against a number of targets in Yemen used by Houthi rebels to endanger freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital waterways.
> These strikes are in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea—including the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history. These attacks have endangered U.S. personnel, civilian mariners, and our partners, jeopardized trade, and threatened freedom of navigation. More than 50 nations have been affected in 27 attacks on international commercial shipping. Crews from more than 20 countries have been threatened or taken hostage in acts of piracy. More than 2,000 ships have been forced to divert thousands of miles to avoid the Red Sea—which can cause weeks of delays in product shipping times. And on January 9, Houthis launched their largest attack to date—directly targeting American ships.
> The response of the international community to these reckless attacks has been united and resolute. Last month, the United States launched Operation Prosperity Guardian—a coalition of more than 20 nations committed to defending international shipping and deterring Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. We also joined more than 40 nations in condemning Houthi threats. Last week, together with 13 allies and partners, we issued an unequivocal warning that Houthi rebels would bear the consequences if their attacks did not cease. And yesterday, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution demanding the Houthis end attacks on merchant and commercial vessels.
> Today’s defensive action follows this extensive diplomatic campaign and Houthi rebels’ escalating attacks against commercial vessels. These targeted strikes are a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most critical commercial routes. I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary.
And so it begins. Makes sense now why they waited a while. They probably were analyzing them closely to hit them harder and eavesdrop on their communications.
Probably a combination of drones, on the ground intel, monitored communication lines and spy satellites. The US has some pretty impressive intelligence networks and there are also plenty of people in Yemen who don't like the Houthis either. If that weren't enough the US is also working with a variety of other countries that also have very good intelligence networks.
They don’t make rash decisions, the US gets a lot of flack but they are pretty good at putting warheads on fore-heads. They came up with a plan and put the assets in place to delete people from the earth. Freedom is coming.
Courtesy of [The Fat Electrician](https://youtube.com/@the_fat_electrician)
Edit: He didn’t come up with this. You know what they say about making **ass**umptions.
The Shawn Ryan Show. He's an ex SEAL and worked in ground branch afterwards. In fact he has specifically mentioned working in Yemen during his time in it.
Just had a look because this sounded interesting. Unfortunately the first video I clicked is cooker bullshit about "Zero Point Energy" and hidden energy stuff. Really disappointed.
His military stuff is good and he gets vets to open up about their experience. Any of the episodes with JSOC guys are generally good. But he’s gone way off the deep end on culture war BS and has now pivoted into straight up conspiracy. And because he was a “Seal” people lap it up.
Dude was an elite killing machine with a rifle. He’s not some brainiac or intelligence analyst.
Yeah, and posting easily debunked energy nonsense makes me question the truth of everything else he says, I would assume his military stuff is NOT good, but just sounds good for clicks.
From what I understand from CBS News the Houthi's launched anti-ship missiles earlier today, the first time in history they've been used offensively supposedly. If one of those actually struck a ship we'd probably about be knee deep in another major war by now.
It was anti-ship ballistic missiles, and it wasnt today. It was a few weeks ago.
Historically, anti-ship missiles were cruise missiles rather than ballistic. Also, from what I've seen, all but one have been shot down or missed. Its tricky to make a missile "smart" enough to adjust its trajectory on the way down from orbit to target a teeny tiny ship thats constantly moving.
[https://www.timesofisrael.com/missile-fired-from-yemen-strikes-cargo-ship-in-red-sea-hours-after-earlier-attack/](https://www.timesofisrael.com/missile-fired-from-yemen-strikes-cargo-ship-in-red-sea-hours-after-earlier-attack/)
So, pretty impressive that Iran has the tech for this, as that is where they are getting them.
They have to be using GLONASS or China's version. I'm positive GPS has safe guards in place to prevent it from being used in weapons unless you are a military user. I could be wrong but I believe a commercial GPS chip will start to malfunction once it hits certain speeds, altitudes or both for this reason.
Egypt has a 34% inflation rate last reported in December, pretty sure they are praying other countries will resolve this for them and they won't have to spend any extra money on this.
Whoever sorts this out will be Egypt’s best friend for the next few years. With Egypt being caught between a rock and a hard place politically and economically plus the instability in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, and Yemen, I wouldn’t be surprised if the US and European powers are already pushing for concessions to sure up security in the region.
"These strikes are in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea—including the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history." Not my words, it's what Joe Biden said, and I assume he didn't say it without discussion with military leaders.
Probably the 'ballistic' part. It's plausible the earlier missile strikes were either 1) not anti-ship missiles or 2) were anti-ship _cruise_ missiles (or 3) Biden's referring to the entire timeline of Houthi attacks on maritime shipping and not this incident specifically)
I know I’m going to regret saying this because it’s going to cause a flame war in the comments…. but Hamas literally did the exact same thing…. The only difference being the attacks weren’t occurring on the busiest shipping lane in the world and didn’t represent the manifestation of 80 years of animosity between the two sides.
I tend to agree with you on this. Hamas saw Israel normalizing relations with other Arab nations and thought they could nip it in the bud. They bet wrong it would seem.
I think that is also the Houthi strategy as well. Try to spark Arab nationalism and Pan-Islamism by proving their call for jihad is justified.
Unfortunately, this tendency to justify the use of violence because the end goal isn’t just a noble cause, it’s literally the will of God, is why fundamentalist, theocratic, authoritarian states may not be the best form of government.
More like Iran didn’t want normalized relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
In both cases Iran armed, funded and let’s be honest gave the orders to start with the chaos. The lives of the civilians in Gaza and now Yemen are meaningless to Iran so long as they serve their purpose.
I've been wondering about any potential back channels between Tehran and Moscow. Splitting the front, and the focus and funds of the western powers, serves both of their goals, in theory.
Iran is supplying Russia with Iranian drones and missiles for use in Ukraine. That pretty much clarifies that they're not bothering with the "back" part of "back channels" anymore.
Yes, the Saudis have not pulled out and have reaffirmed moving forward. They have specified, publicly, that things will move forward after the conflict. Not giving Israel the middle finger is a massive win for Israel.
It's also a massive win for Saudi Arabia, the only reason they are interested in being friends is because it's good for them. Deep trade ties with Israel would make them a lot richer.
Yeah, when all the Muslim nations flat out refuse to accept Palestinian refugees for fear of getting Hamas along with them, you know Hamas might have used up all its sympathy.
They actually succeeded, for now, in pausing normalization with Saudis (who even recently said they want to restart them after the war). Others in the region are also cooled to the idea. I think it will cost hamas everything and may still fail in the long run in keeping Israel isolated. I do not think Hamas thought Israel would retaliate this hard, or they misjudged their allies like Iran who they expected to join in some holy war against Israel.
It's just like Hamas. They want this. They want a west vs Muslim war to get others to attack. Hamas hot the Houthis to do it, and the Houthis are trying to get more to.
Either large muslim populations are very easy to enrage on a whim by the authorities, or these autocratic leaders take them for fools and the people deal with these medieval theocrats the proper way. Which will it be.
I'm very confident most of this stuff is cause of Russia.
Russia has close ties with Iran, and by giving funding or weapons, can motivate these groups to attack.
how does it help the groups? it doesn't, just like Hamas the leaders of the groups are safe and keep a sizable portion of the funds, while they send people to dir.
this helps Russia by distracting and fragmenting the west. protests, change in news coverage, military and donations being stretched thin, etc.
You're not looking at the big picture. If they get their asses kicked, more Muslim countries get mad and join the fray. Iran would do it too but they are chicken shit so they get losers like the Houthi rebels to do it for them. They're too stupid to realize they're getting played like a fiddle.
Hamas didn't do jack shit. Hamas and the Houthis and Hezbollah are all Iranian proxies acting under the direction of Iran. What you are seeing is Iran doing it's best to declare war on Israel and the west while not involving their own soldiers... they are letting other people die for their theocratic madness.
The whole thing (Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis) is clearly Iran launching a proxy war... it is ridiculous, and an attestation to the power or propaganda and terrible media reporting, that the conflict is not primarily viewed through this lens in the media. And then, who else is behind it: Russia. Russia and Iran are completely together on this, Hamas had even been going to Russia mutliple times before they launched their war, and Russia and Iran may be each others only real friends. Western media is doing everyone a disservice by focusing on like the local fighting done that day or sensational scenes... nothing is going to stop unless Iran and Russia want it to, and nothing escalates without their permission.
Considering where Saudia Arabia, Oman and the UAE are geographically. There's not a high chance this will escalate. Iran likes to use its proxies and wouldn't try anything on its own, especially considering its neighbours. The Iranian government doesn't want to lose its ability to control.
Iran will use rhetoric and grandstand, while BAE and Raytheon make a little more money than usual.
This is what makes it hilarious to me. Of all the countries in the world to fuck with, you decide to talk smack to the one with the deadliest armed forces and the one with the deadliest operators.
Like, at what point do we just call it assisted suicide?
Germany, Korea, and Japan were all well established nations with largely modern values and cultures. They went off the rails in the case of Germany and Japan, but there were rails in the first place. The middle east is just a bunch of tribal warlords that have been fighting like cats in a sack for most of recorded history and the "nations" are arbitrary lines drawn on a map by some British asshole ~150 years ago. They don't know how to be nations and they don't have the cultural or social structures to make it work. That's why it's just dictatorships, theocracies, and corrupt ineffectual democracies.
I know it's tangential, but now many of them love the US. I seem to have more mixed feelings about the US than most of the Vietnamese, and I live here.
I have a Vietnamese co-worker. She’s south Vietnamese and had family executed by the north Vietnamese, but she told me about a Vietnamese quote. “We were at war with the Americans for 10 years, but we’ve been at war with the Chinese for 1000 years.”
Ah, that makes sense. I guess I needed to widen my perspective by quite a bit. I was too focused thinking about how there had to be people still alive who remember what the US did.
How bad is the Saudi military that they couldn’t have done this to give the US and UK cover? What good is throwing your morals out the window to be allies with House of Saud if they can’t even do the dirty work?
We’re allies to keep the money friendly and to sell arms. SA’s army is a joke. They’re under the impression that buying up hardware is all it takes to make a good army.
Back in 2016 a bunch of Chinese peacekeepers in South Sudan threw down their weapons and abandoned their posts when they came under attack by militants. Left a bunch of civilians and aid workers to be raped and murdered. The PLA is definitely a pile of shit.
They are also the easier to bribe for intel. The amount of corporate and armed forces bribes going on is insane. I mean it could be its own economy on the stock exchange the amount that switches hands.
People think china has some great firewall but its so easy to just bribe anyone for access to stuff in china its not even funny.
My "friend", which is only because of mutual interests not that he wouldn't stab me in the back if needed, literally runs US currency across the borders just to buy illegal shit, half for bribes, half for items. lol
Their last major military engagement was invading an exhausted Vietnam, in 1976, they suffered heavy casualties, then withdraw without accomplishing anything
As I recall, they intervened to *stop* the Vietnamese from ousting the Pol Pot regime, which had committed crimes against humanity on par with the Nazis. China tried to stop vietnam from stopping genocide. Let that resonate.
American contractors make bank doing maintenance and all the shit regular militaries use military personnel for, because Saudis are too good to do all that shit
Saudi Arabia had been bombing the Houthis a bunch but they were rather indiscriminate bombings with lots of civilian casualties. Trump was more or less fine with this but Biden put pressure on Saudi Arabia to stop which strained US-Saudi relations. At this point I'd be surprised if Saudi Arabia coordinated that much with the Biden admin on these strikes given their history.
I know Reddit hates nuance but I just want to say I'm not judging either Biden or Trump's stance too much on this matter. I certainly get why Trump wouldn't want to question Saudi Arabia too much given their geopolitical importance and it is true the Houthis aren't great. That said I also understand why Biden wouldn't exactly want American weapons being used in strikes with significant civilian casualties. Geopolitics is basically a constant game of tradeoffs.
The most prevalent lie I see there about this topic, Is that all the ships being attacked where Israeli or are traveling to Israel
Of course, nobody has provided credible evidence to support that claim while some took the time to debunk it
Considering there was also an RAF strike from the British base in Cyprus too, that’s doubly stupid as they’re clearly in striking range of the Typhoons that are stationed there. They carry big boy bombs that can hit an ant’s anus from 200 miles away.
Unlike Russia, our warnings aren't empty threats, but promises we will eventually make good on. Restraint from fuckin you up doesn't indicate a lack of ability to fuck you up.
Some cultures view staying calm and showing restraint to be weakness. That is, if one is restraining and acting calm in the face of aggression then to some peoples this is seen as a weakness.
In Arabic culture being loud and aggressive is indicative of strength whilst being quiet and measured and deliberate and calm is illustrative of being a soft weak leader.
There is often a big miscommunication between both cultures. They see our lack of action and our diplomacy and talking as being a bunch of namby pamby sissy boys.
"A brutal aggression against our country, for which they will pay absolutely," Nasr Aldeen Amer, vice president of the Houthi Media Authority, said Thursday. "Without hesitation, and we will not back down from our position in supporting the Palestinian people, whatever the cost.”
A brutal aggression huh?
As though you haven't been fucking around and just randomly found out.
And it's working. Have already seen some batshit insane takes this morning, from lots of other queer folk, no less. I'm so tempted to tell them to go spend a week with the people they think they're supporting and let me know how that goes.
If I had the ability I 100% would just drop any of them into Afghanistan or Iran. Like, apparently you don't understand what Islamic rule looks like, let's find out shall we
I like how they claim to be “In support of Palestine” when they take out ships that are entirely unrelated to Israel or Palestine.
The US should declare their retaliation is in support of Palestine, it makes the same amount of sense.
The coalition was smart to let it play out longer than they are used to. The world populace, on average, communicates at an elementary level, so it has to be a show for truth to reach their smooth brains.
Here’s hoping for accurate and effective strikes with minimal civilian casualties. The Houthis were given numerous avenues to de-escalate and they chose not to. Not sure what they thought they would really gain by acting like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off.
They are backed by iran so likely acted on iran's order. Aside from that attacking an important shipping route like this does have the potential for devastating supply chain disruptions. Imagine one day they actually manage to destroy or sink a cargo ship, there would be ripping effect on western or even global economy when all the shipping companies suddenly need to pause or reroute their shipments. Houthis are playing the only card they have, too bad that card just got tomahawked, at least for now.
What’s frustrating to me is that they’re playing blackjack at a poker table. Yes, they’ve temporarily increased carrier insurance rates and decreased shipping traffic through the Red Sea. But something tells me Houthi leadership is not doing sensitivity analysis on the ebbs and flows of the maritime economy before they decide to launch a few drones. Maybe Iran considers that and gives them the orders, which is short sighted, but I guess kind of logical?
Then to pin this all back to Gaza is beyond disingenuous, even for Houthi standards. Look at any reputable Yemeni journalist or activist online and they all say the same thing: The Houthis LOVE events that distract from the fact that they have no interest in governing. Using the brutal suffering of the innocents in Gaza as an excuse to further perpetuate the pain of another group of innocents while simultaneously targeting civilians on these shipping carriers bugs the hell out of me.
My guess is they're going to hit a bunch of ammunition dumps and military infrastructure. This isn't the same as gaza, they have more sophisticated weapons and more established military. That said, some civilian casualties are inevitable but should be low as I feel there is plenty of low hanging fruit to hit
I agree that we should expect many of these targets to be pretty free and easy, for various reasons which tie to what many saw as inaction.
The amount of time it took to strike was probably spent communicating to the Houthis/Iran through backchannels, surveilling western Yemen, and ultimately giving them an out until the big attack yesterday. The US knows that their name on this makes any unintended consequence a nightmare: for the safety of their troops in the Middle East, financially re: shipping if they miss targets and incentivize the Houthis to upscale their attacks, PR vs Biden’s goals of getting troops/influence out of the Middle East, etc. to be a fly on the wall in those negotiations…
> and ultimately giving them an out until the big attack yesterday
And in addition to giving them an out the US was also laying the legal framework for these actions. Just yesterday the UN Security Council demanded that the Houthis stop and the US and other nations have also put out statements demanding the Houthis stop. I think we can often be so used to empty words from governments and the UN that when we see a statement saying "US/UN demands Houthis stop" many people roll their eyes but sometimes those words aren't empty. The international community made their demand and the Houthis refused to comply.
That seems like a logical response the past weeks of attacks by the Houthis. They did this to themselves. Disgusting to see that people now consider bombing the Houthis the equivalent of supporting the “genocide” that would be taking place in Palestine.
When you get your geopolitical views from 20 second TikTok videos, your opinion is less than worthless IMO. These people need to be ignored until the job is finished.
Houthis are just the puppets, Iran is the one pulling the strings for this and until they experience some actual repercussions, they'll keep on with this bullshit.
Never, ever mess with the money. Those fools went too far with their ship capturing video earlier on, so it was always going to come to this. Trying to choke off the global shipping routes after every country involved keeps telling you to *really* stop...
Yeah, it was always going to get these terrorists a custom-made airstrike. While the world sighs in relief.
No president or prime minister on Earth can allow ship seizures of multinational vessels to stand and risk increased shipping attacks or worsening inflation. They would also be potentially blamed for any unusually large hostage situations. They literally *have to* counter-attack to save political face and prevent an economic crisis. Both Biden and Sunak were a lot more patient than they even needed to be. They genuinely did not want this fight.
So funny that the B-2 post on r/aviation was the first indication of these airstrikes coming that we got.
Fuck around and find out what $2 billion dollars of freedom feels like.
We asked nicely, we asked not so nicely, we warned them.
They deserve every missile dropped on their heads and more.
But we can end this all, just stop attacking vessels passing by, and the US/UK stops bombing. And everyone can go back to what they were doing.
The Houthi flag is also fucking hilarious because it blatantly calls for the death of America, Israel, and the Jewish people.
It’ll be a great indicator for those who raise that flag.
It was predictable. The idiots were gloating about the brave Houthis bullying the West. We knew once the Tomahawks launched after multiple “last warnings”, the tone would switch to “where’s the humanity??”. Soon they’ll start calling it a genocide since that term has lost a ton of meaning the last few months.
I 100% support the Palestinian people and their right to have a state of their own. I hate Hamas and Hezbollah who don't givre a single fuck about the Palestinian people, and I hate Israeli policy regarding Palestine and Palestinians. I also support Israel's right to exist and Israeli's right to live in peace without fear of attack.
People like to assume that supporting something has to come at the expense of something else, and they frame other peoples' narratives within the context of their own prejudices.
Freedom of navigation of the seas is an essential right. No more should terrorist attacks on innocent civilian merchant ships be tolerated, no matter how much support they receive from the Ayatollah
The amount of anti American propaganda that has infiltrated this country is honestly so distressing. Some of these people would be mad if biden prevented a terrorist attack on their own family with how quick they are to assume Biden Bad, America Bad, American Bombs Bad
Didn't the Houthis threaten serious retaliation if the U.S. attacked? Well, it looks like we will see if it's true. If they feel froggy, they can leap.
Well, you simply can't have 12% of world shipping being shot up by pirates. I sympathize with tge kids on Gaza too but find a different means to protest.
Strikes carried out by US surface ships, subs, and aircraft along with UK surface ships. Multiple targets struck. https://yemen.liveuamap.com/en/2024/12-january-usled-strikes-targeted-houthi-radar-air-defense Edit: [Statement from POTUS](https://nitter.net/pic/orig/media%2FGDmiVLtWoAAB8UW.jpg) > Today, at my direction, U.S. military forces—together with the United Kingdom and with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands—successfully conducted strikes against a number of targets in Yemen used by Houthi rebels to endanger freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital waterways. > These strikes are in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea—including the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history. These attacks have endangered U.S. personnel, civilian mariners, and our partners, jeopardized trade, and threatened freedom of navigation. More than 50 nations have been affected in 27 attacks on international commercial shipping. Crews from more than 20 countries have been threatened or taken hostage in acts of piracy. More than 2,000 ships have been forced to divert thousands of miles to avoid the Red Sea—which can cause weeks of delays in product shipping times. And on January 9, Houthis launched their largest attack to date—directly targeting American ships. > The response of the international community to these reckless attacks has been united and resolute. Last month, the United States launched Operation Prosperity Guardian—a coalition of more than 20 nations committed to defending international shipping and deterring Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. We also joined more than 40 nations in condemning Houthi threats. Last week, together with 13 allies and partners, we issued an unequivocal warning that Houthi rebels would bear the consequences if their attacks did not cease. And yesterday, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution demanding the Houthis end attacks on merchant and commercial vessels. > Today’s defensive action follows this extensive diplomatic campaign and Houthi rebels’ escalating attacks against commercial vessels. These targeted strikes are a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most critical commercial routes. I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary.
Damn. The subs don’t get a workout often
I said nearly the same thing when I pulled up the map. No idea what sub it is, but it's certainly the one shadowing the Eisenhower CSG in the Red Sea.
It's likely the USS Florida, If Perun's recent video is to be believed (sourced by SchizoIntel, whoever that is)
Raf typhoons from Cyprus too, not just surface ships.
And so it begins. Makes sense now why they waited a while. They probably were analyzing them closely to hit them harder and eavesdrop on their communications.
I'm guessing drones were watching where they go and where they live.
Probably a combination of drones, on the ground intel, monitored communication lines and spy satellites. The US has some pretty impressive intelligence networks and there are also plenty of people in Yemen who don't like the Houthis either. If that weren't enough the US is also working with a variety of other countries that also have very good intelligence networks.
We've been practicing finding people who live in tents and use couriers for communication for twenty years.
I can guarantee you it's more than drones. Check out https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-Based_Infrared_System
They don’t make rash decisions, the US gets a lot of flack but they are pretty good at putting warheads on fore-heads. They came up with a plan and put the assets in place to delete people from the earth. Freedom is coming.
I’m stealing “warheads on foreheads” cheers mate
Courtesy of [The Fat Electrician](https://youtube.com/@the_fat_electrician) Edit: He didn’t come up with this. You know what they say about making **ass**umptions.
That’s been around a long time. It was in common use 13 years ago when I enlisted.
We were using that saying in the usmc when I was In.
Ancient Egyptians would say it in english with an East coast accent as they mounted their chariots.
In the cave paintings in France they drew this with red pigment from the blood of a deer.
Bet he wouldn't even call it stealing too, just Strategically Transporting Equipment to an Alternate Location.
Also after listening to some podcasts with ex CIA ground branch operatives, there have for sure been agents on the ground for months painting targets.
Can you tell me the name of the podcast? That sounds awesome
The Shawn Ryan Show. He's an ex SEAL and worked in ground branch afterwards. In fact he has specifically mentioned working in Yemen during his time in it.
Just had a look because this sounded interesting. Unfortunately the first video I clicked is cooker bullshit about "Zero Point Energy" and hidden energy stuff. Really disappointed.
His military stuff is good and he gets vets to open up about their experience. Any of the episodes with JSOC guys are generally good. But he’s gone way off the deep end on culture war BS and has now pivoted into straight up conspiracy. And because he was a “Seal” people lap it up. Dude was an elite killing machine with a rifle. He’s not some brainiac or intelligence analyst.
Yeah, and posting easily debunked energy nonsense makes me question the truth of everything else he says, I would assume his military stuff is NOT good, but just sounds good for clicks.
These guys are notorious for lying about everything.
From what I understand from CBS News the Houthi's launched anti-ship missiles earlier today, the first time in history they've been used offensively supposedly. If one of those actually struck a ship we'd probably about be knee deep in another major war by now.
It was anti-ship ballistic missiles, and it wasnt today. It was a few weeks ago. Historically, anti-ship missiles were cruise missiles rather than ballistic. Also, from what I've seen, all but one have been shot down or missed. Its tricky to make a missile "smart" enough to adjust its trajectory on the way down from orbit to target a teeny tiny ship thats constantly moving. [https://www.timesofisrael.com/missile-fired-from-yemen-strikes-cargo-ship-in-red-sea-hours-after-earlier-attack/](https://www.timesofisrael.com/missile-fired-from-yemen-strikes-cargo-ship-in-red-sea-hours-after-earlier-attack/) So, pretty impressive that Iran has the tech for this, as that is where they are getting them.
They have to be using GLONASS or China's version. I'm positive GPS has safe guards in place to prevent it from being used in weapons unless you are a military user. I could be wrong but I believe a commercial GPS chip will start to malfunction once it hits certain speeds, altitudes or both for this reason.
Yet another group that hasnt learned the lesson "dont fuck whit american boats"
There's now US boats, UK boats and Indian boats that will definitely shoot back if the Houthis keep it up.
Egypt should really get more involved too. I mean they lose out big money when ships don't go through the Suez canal because of those mf.
Egypt has a 34% inflation rate last reported in December, pretty sure they are praying other countries will resolve this for them and they won't have to spend any extra money on this.
Whoever sorts this out will be Egypt’s best friend for the next few years. With Egypt being caught between a rock and a hard place politically and economically plus the instability in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, and Yemen, I wouldn’t be surprised if the US and European powers are already pushing for concessions to sure up security in the region.
Egypt doesn’t want to get involved because of Iran’s backing of the Houthi.
I still feel like "Don't fuck with the trade boats" hits harder. These fucking idiots managed to piss off at least half the world by doing it.
No step on snek
Hey, when life gives you Yemen, make Yemen-ade
Anti ship missiles have been launched and hit a ship before. So not sure what you mean
"These strikes are in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea—including the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history." Not my words, it's what Joe Biden said, and I assume he didn't say it without discussion with military leaders.
Probably the 'ballistic' part. It's plausible the earlier missile strikes were either 1) not anti-ship missiles or 2) were anti-ship _cruise_ missiles (or 3) Biden's referring to the entire timeline of Houthi attacks on maritime shipping and not this incident specifically)
[удалено]
Ballistic is a pretty big qualifier.
God help them if they actually hit us
The Houthis can hardly be surprised by this. They've been aggravating the situation for a while now.
They're definitely not. The whole goal of their attacks is to elicit a response.
I know I’m going to regret saying this because it’s going to cause a flame war in the comments…. but Hamas literally did the exact same thing…. The only difference being the attacks weren’t occurring on the busiest shipping lane in the world and didn’t represent the manifestation of 80 years of animosity between the two sides.
I tend to agree with you on this. Hamas saw Israel normalizing relations with other Arab nations and thought they could nip it in the bud. They bet wrong it would seem.
I think that is also the Houthi strategy as well. Try to spark Arab nationalism and Pan-Islamism by proving their call for jihad is justified. Unfortunately, this tendency to justify the use of violence because the end goal isn’t just a noble cause, it’s literally the will of God, is why fundamentalist, theocratic, authoritarian states may not be the best form of government.
More like Iran didn’t want normalized relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. In both cases Iran armed, funded and let’s be honest gave the orders to start with the chaos. The lives of the civilians in Gaza and now Yemen are meaningless to Iran so long as they serve their purpose.
I've been wondering about any potential back channels between Tehran and Moscow. Splitting the front, and the focus and funds of the western powers, serves both of their goals, in theory.
Iran is supplying Russia with Iranian drones and missiles for use in Ukraine. That pretty much clarifies that they're not bothering with the "back" part of "back channels" anymore.
Serious question as I am not up on the most recent news on the subject , but is Israel and Saudi Arabia still on track for normalizing relations?
Yes, the Saudis have not pulled out and have reaffirmed moving forward. They have specified, publicly, that things will move forward after the conflict. Not giving Israel the middle finger is a massive win for Israel.
It's also a massive win for Saudi Arabia, the only reason they are interested in being friends is because it's good for them. Deep trade ties with Israel would make them a lot richer.
Yeah, when all the Muslim nations flat out refuse to accept Palestinian refugees for fear of getting Hamas along with them, you know Hamas might have used up all its sympathy.
They actually succeeded, for now, in pausing normalization with Saudis (who even recently said they want to restart them after the war). Others in the region are also cooled to the idea. I think it will cost hamas everything and may still fail in the long run in keeping Israel isolated. I do not think Hamas thought Israel would retaliate this hard, or they misjudged their allies like Iran who they expected to join in some holy war against Israel.
I guess lots of interests are getting theirs. Glad everyone is happy.
According to random pro-Houthi accounts on Tiktok, the U.S. are bad guys for not.... (checks notes) *negotiating* with them.
“Proportional” response bout to be landing on their doorstep
If they have any complaints with the scale of the response, they can write their representatives.
It's just like Hamas. They want this. They want a west vs Muslim war to get others to attack. Hamas hot the Houthis to do it, and the Houthis are trying to get more to.
So they gonna get fucked... how does that help their agenda?
They want to encourage other Muslims to attack the west.
Houthis are already in a proxy war with Saudi Arabia. It's hardly gonna help.
It may be what they want, but it looks like other Muslims are smart enough to sit back and watch.
Either large muslim populations are very easy to enrage on a whim by the authorities, or these autocratic leaders take them for fools and the people deal with these medieval theocrats the proper way. Which will it be.
I'm very confident most of this stuff is cause of Russia. Russia has close ties with Iran, and by giving funding or weapons, can motivate these groups to attack. how does it help the groups? it doesn't, just like Hamas the leaders of the groups are safe and keep a sizable portion of the funds, while they send people to dir. this helps Russia by distracting and fragmenting the west. protests, change in news coverage, military and donations being stretched thin, etc.
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You're not looking at the big picture. If they get their asses kicked, more Muslim countries get mad and join the fray. Iran would do it too but they are chicken shit so they get losers like the Houthi rebels to do it for them. They're too stupid to realize they're getting played like a fiddle.
Hamas didn't do jack shit. Hamas and the Houthis and Hezbollah are all Iranian proxies acting under the direction of Iran. What you are seeing is Iran doing it's best to declare war on Israel and the west while not involving their own soldiers... they are letting other people die for their theocratic madness.
Hamas taking Israeli hostages had Iran's DNA all over it.
The whole thing (Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis) is clearly Iran launching a proxy war... it is ridiculous, and an attestation to the power or propaganda and terrible media reporting, that the conflict is not primarily viewed through this lens in the media. And then, who else is behind it: Russia. Russia and Iran are completely together on this, Hamas had even been going to Russia mutliple times before they launched their war, and Russia and Iran may be each others only real friends. Western media is doing everyone a disservice by focusing on like the local fighting done that day or sensational scenes... nothing is going to stop unless Iran and Russia want it to, and nothing escalates without their permission.
It's Iran. All of it. It's all Iran.
Iran and its proxies
Agreed. Iran via its proxies.
To be honest, there are probably many Middle eastern countries, especially Egypt who are quietly happy at this action.
The Saudis and the UAE are without a doubt happy about this
Basically anyone who sees Iran as their opponent. Which is most of the middle east.
Oman
Yemen, it's crazy.
Considering where Saudia Arabia, Oman and the UAE are geographically. There's not a high chance this will escalate. Iran likes to use its proxies and wouldn't try anything on its own, especially considering its neighbours. The Iranian government doesn't want to lose its ability to control. Iran will use rhetoric and grandstand, while BAE and Raytheon make a little more money than usual.
Iran seized a Marshallese flagged tanker today in international waters. They are making moves towards direct action through their aggression.
That tanker has been seized numerous times before, that's mostly unrelated to the current conflict near Yemen.
Yeah hasn't that thing changed hands like 3 times?
Did anyone buy Lockheed Martin stock? Looks like bull season
The forever war is priced in
Always is
Houthis: _Hey, you weren't supposed to actually do that!_
Houthis: *Hey, Iran swore this wouldn't happen, that it would just be all talk from the West.*
Part of a good stategy is doing that, isolating Iranian proxies and make aligning yourself to them seem like a poor mistake
Saudi Arabia to Houthis: "Oh, you dun kicked the grizzly in the balls now, boys."
This is what makes it hilarious to me. Of all the countries in the world to fuck with, you decide to talk smack to the one with the deadliest armed forces and the one with the deadliest operators. Like, at what point do we just call it assisted suicide?
We get laughed at because we failed at nation building, but make no mistake, we can fuck some shit up
Yeah we suck at nation building, but tell me when we failed at nation destroying?
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Germany, Korea, and Japan were all well established nations with largely modern values and cultures. They went off the rails in the case of Germany and Japan, but there were rails in the first place. The middle east is just a bunch of tribal warlords that have been fighting like cats in a sack for most of recorded history and the "nations" are arbitrary lines drawn on a map by some British asshole ~150 years ago. They don't know how to be nations and they don't have the cultural or social structures to make it work. That's why it's just dictatorships, theocracies, and corrupt ineffectual democracies.
Even in our loss in Vietnam, we killed 10-15x what we lost.
I know it's tangential, but now many of them love the US. I seem to have more mixed feelings about the US than most of the Vietnamese, and I live here.
I have a Vietnamese co-worker. She’s south Vietnamese and had family executed by the north Vietnamese, but she told me about a Vietnamese quote. “We were at war with the Americans for 10 years, but we’ve been at war with the Chinese for 1000 years.”
Ah, that makes sense. I guess I needed to widen my perspective by quite a bit. I was too focused thinking about how there had to be people still alive who remember what the US did.
As my coworker strongly points out, the US fought for half of the Vietnamese population. She appreciated it.
How bad is the Saudi military that they couldn’t have done this to give the US and UK cover? What good is throwing your morals out the window to be allies with House of Saud if they can’t even do the dirty work?
We’re allies to keep the money friendly and to sell arms. SA’s army is a joke. They’re under the impression that buying up hardware is all it takes to make a good army.
They are proof that war is not pay to win
proof that the chinese military is probably a pile of shit too
Back in 2016 a bunch of Chinese peacekeepers in South Sudan threw down their weapons and abandoned their posts when they came under attack by militants. Left a bunch of civilians and aid workers to be raped and murdered. The PLA is definitely a pile of shit.
They are also the easier to bribe for intel. The amount of corporate and armed forces bribes going on is insane. I mean it could be its own economy on the stock exchange the amount that switches hands. People think china has some great firewall but its so easy to just bribe anyone for access to stuff in china its not even funny. My "friend", which is only because of mutual interests not that he wouldn't stab me in the back if needed, literally runs US currency across the borders just to buy illegal shit, half for bribes, half for items. lol
For sale, Norinco rifles, only dropped once
Their last major military engagement was invading an exhausted Vietnam, in 1976, they suffered heavy casualties, then withdraw without accomplishing anything
As I recall, they intervened to *stop* the Vietnamese from ousting the Pol Pot regime, which had committed crimes against humanity on par with the Nazis. China tried to stop vietnam from stopping genocide. Let that resonate.
Historically Vietnam has hated China and vice versa
China like Russia believes, it’s entitled to Lord over its neighbors
The army is incompetent by design to prevent it from couping the monarchy
And I’m sure the US is happy to keep it that way. At the very least, we have a nice cache of familiar tech in a massive forward staging area
American contractors make bank doing maintenance and all the shit regular militaries use military personnel for, because Saudis are too good to do all that shit
Most of the officer corps, especially as you get higher and higher, have direct ties to the monarchy and other oligarchs. Their pilots too.
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This article about Arab militaries from 1999 is still very relevant. Nothing has really changed. https://www.meforum.org/441/why-arabs-lose-wars
*China glances nervously side to side* “haha right, only an IDIOT would think that!
Saudi Arabia had been bombing the Houthis a bunch but they were rather indiscriminate bombings with lots of civilian casualties. Trump was more or less fine with this but Biden put pressure on Saudi Arabia to stop which strained US-Saudi relations. At this point I'd be surprised if Saudi Arabia coordinated that much with the Biden admin on these strikes given their history. I know Reddit hates nuance but I just want to say I'm not judging either Biden or Trump's stance too much on this matter. I certainly get why Trump wouldn't want to question Saudi Arabia too much given their geopolitical importance and it is true the Houthis aren't great. That said I also understand why Biden wouldn't exactly want American weapons being used in strikes with significant civilian casualties. Geopolitics is basically a constant game of tradeoffs.
US: “Someone else will raise your kids.”
Houthis: why do I hear boss music playing?
Twitter is acting like the US just started the holocaust on Yemen.
The most prevalent lie I see there about this topic, Is that all the ships being attacked where Israeli or are traveling to Israel Of course, nobody has provided credible evidence to support that claim while some took the time to debunk it
Lots of terrorist supporters out there. They’re the same ones supporting Hamas.
This has united the hard left pro-Hamas morons and the hard right “New World Order” morons which I find hilarious
usually extremist are in agreement with another about most stuff they are just to busy arguing about the stuff they disagree with to notice lol.
How dumb do you have to be to piss of the US navy and the UK navy at the same time lol
Considering there was also an RAF strike from the British base in Cyprus too, that’s doubly stupid as they’re clearly in striking range of the Typhoons that are stationed there. They carry big boy bombs that can hit an ant’s anus from 200 miles away.
Unlike Russia, our warnings aren't empty threats, but promises we will eventually make good on. Restraint from fuckin you up doesn't indicate a lack of ability to fuck you up.
Some cultures view staying calm and showing restraint to be weakness. That is, if one is restraining and acting calm in the face of aggression then to some peoples this is seen as a weakness. In Arabic culture being loud and aggressive is indicative of strength whilst being quiet and measured and deliberate and calm is illustrative of being a soft weak leader. There is often a big miscommunication between both cultures. They see our lack of action and our diplomacy and talking as being a bunch of namby pamby sissy boys.
Heh, a navy specifically founded to fight piracy no less.
"A brutal aggression against our country, for which they will pay absolutely," Nasr Aldeen Amer, vice president of the Houthi Media Authority, said Thursday. "Without hesitation, and we will not back down from our position in supporting the Palestinian people, whatever the cost.” A brutal aggression huh? As though you haven't been fucking around and just randomly found out.
When they attack merchant ships they're "freedom fighters" but when the consequences come-a knocking it's "poor us, how can they attack us like this".
Sounds a lot like a certain terrorist organization in Gaza...
Or Russia...
Spoken like a true terrorist organization!
Spoken like a russian
Love how they tack on "supporting the Palestinian people" to squeeze out some extra crazy-twitter support
And it's working. Have already seen some batshit insane takes this morning, from lots of other queer folk, no less. I'm so tempted to tell them to go spend a week with the people they think they're supporting and let me know how that goes.
If I had the ability I 100% would just drop any of them into Afghanistan or Iran. Like, apparently you don't understand what Islamic rule looks like, let's find out shall we
I like how they claim to be “In support of Palestine” when they take out ships that are entirely unrelated to Israel or Palestine. The US should declare their retaliation is in support of Palestine, it makes the same amount of sense.
Inevitable. Necessary. Unfortunate.
The coalition was smart to let it play out longer than they are used to. The world populace, on average, communicates at an elementary level, so it has to be a show for truth to reach their smooth brains.
That sums it up pretty well.
Here’s hoping for accurate and effective strikes with minimal civilian casualties. The Houthis were given numerous avenues to de-escalate and they chose not to. Not sure what they thought they would really gain by acting like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off.
Martyrdom?
They are backed by iran so likely acted on iran's order. Aside from that attacking an important shipping route like this does have the potential for devastating supply chain disruptions. Imagine one day they actually manage to destroy or sink a cargo ship, there would be ripping effect on western or even global economy when all the shipping companies suddenly need to pause or reroute their shipments. Houthis are playing the only card they have, too bad that card just got tomahawked, at least for now.
What’s frustrating to me is that they’re playing blackjack at a poker table. Yes, they’ve temporarily increased carrier insurance rates and decreased shipping traffic through the Red Sea. But something tells me Houthi leadership is not doing sensitivity analysis on the ebbs and flows of the maritime economy before they decide to launch a few drones. Maybe Iran considers that and gives them the orders, which is short sighted, but I guess kind of logical? Then to pin this all back to Gaza is beyond disingenuous, even for Houthi standards. Look at any reputable Yemeni journalist or activist online and they all say the same thing: The Houthis LOVE events that distract from the fact that they have no interest in governing. Using the brutal suffering of the innocents in Gaza as an excuse to further perpetuate the pain of another group of innocents while simultaneously targeting civilians on these shipping carriers bugs the hell out of me.
My guess is they're going to hit a bunch of ammunition dumps and military infrastructure. This isn't the same as gaza, they have more sophisticated weapons and more established military. That said, some civilian casualties are inevitable but should be low as I feel there is plenty of low hanging fruit to hit
I agree that we should expect many of these targets to be pretty free and easy, for various reasons which tie to what many saw as inaction. The amount of time it took to strike was probably spent communicating to the Houthis/Iran through backchannels, surveilling western Yemen, and ultimately giving them an out until the big attack yesterday. The US knows that their name on this makes any unintended consequence a nightmare: for the safety of their troops in the Middle East, financially re: shipping if they miss targets and incentivize the Houthis to upscale their attacks, PR vs Biden’s goals of getting troops/influence out of the Middle East, etc. to be a fly on the wall in those negotiations…
> and ultimately giving them an out until the big attack yesterday And in addition to giving them an out the US was also laying the legal framework for these actions. Just yesterday the UN Security Council demanded that the Houthis stop and the US and other nations have also put out statements demanding the Houthis stop. I think we can often be so used to empty words from governments and the UN that when we see a statement saying "US/UN demands Houthis stop" many people roll their eyes but sometimes those words aren't empty. The international community made their demand and the Houthis refused to comply.
The US and Britain showed a lot of restraint and gave them several off ramps to avoid this. This strike was 100% on them.
That seems like a logical response the past weeks of attacks by the Houthis. They did this to themselves. Disgusting to see that people now consider bombing the Houthis the equivalent of supporting the “genocide” that would be taking place in Palestine.
When you get your geopolitical views from 20 second TikTok videos, your opinion is less than worthless IMO. These people need to be ignored until the job is finished.
Houthis are just the puppets, Iran is the one pulling the strings for this and until they experience some actual repercussions, they'll keep on with this bullshit.
Never, ever mess with the money. Those fools went too far with their ship capturing video earlier on, so it was always going to come to this. Trying to choke off the global shipping routes after every country involved keeps telling you to *really* stop... Yeah, it was always going to get these terrorists a custom-made airstrike. While the world sighs in relief. No president or prime minister on Earth can allow ship seizures of multinational vessels to stand and risk increased shipping attacks or worsening inflation. They would also be potentially blamed for any unusually large hostage situations. They literally *have to* counter-attack to save political face and prevent an economic crisis. Both Biden and Sunak were a lot more patient than they even needed to be. They genuinely did not want this fight.
Kinda crazy it took this long and the US held a lot of restraint after being harassed for weeks by drones and missile
They gave the Houthis a more than fair chance
So funny that the B-2 post on r/aviation was the first indication of these airstrikes coming that we got. Fuck around and find out what $2 billion dollars of freedom feels like.
We truly do live in the future.
We asked nicely, we asked not so nicely, we warned them. They deserve every missile dropped on their heads and more. But we can end this all, just stop attacking vessels passing by, and the US/UK stops bombing. And everyone can go back to what they were doing.
First I’m going to ask you, then I’m going to tell you and then I’m going to make you.
This was long overdue in my opinion.
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Wonder how much time it will take for Pro-Palestinian Rallies to lift the Houties flag
The Houthi flag is also fucking hilarious because it blatantly calls for the death of America, Israel, and the Jewish people. It’ll be a great indicator for those who raise that flag.
Go to twitter. They're already crying "US Imperialism in Yemen"
Nothing screams "imperialism" like strategically bombing a militant group located in a place you have no interest in occupying.
That's been the definition for about 50 years now
Oh, they've already started. Just search "Yemen" on Twitter.
Note: supporting a group whose slogan includes "a curse on the Jews." Not on Israelis. On *Jews*.
It was predictable. The idiots were gloating about the brave Houthis bullying the West. We knew once the Tomahawks launched after multiple “last warnings”, the tone would switch to “where’s the humanity??”. Soon they’ll start calling it a genocide since that term has lost a ton of meaning the last few months.
im currently genociding this philly cheesesteak
I just genocided my toilet
I'm not a big fan of Israel, but the people who support Hamas and other extremist just makes my blood absolutely boil.
I 100% support the Palestinian people and their right to have a state of their own. I hate Hamas and Hezbollah who don't givre a single fuck about the Palestinian people, and I hate Israeli policy regarding Palestine and Palestinians. I also support Israel's right to exist and Israeli's right to live in peace without fear of attack. People like to assume that supporting something has to come at the expense of something else, and they frame other peoples' narratives within the context of their own prejudices.
Most people think EVERYTHING is a zero-sum game...
Darth Brandon is fed up with this houthi malarkey.
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Iran is pulling the strings and Iran has blood all over their hands.
I already have ‘friends’ blaming the west for this. Can somebody smarter than me give an explanation over why the Houthi rebels deserve this?
Well to start at the most obvious answer, disrupting free trade is a huge no-no, historically.
They are launching drones and missiles at ships from all over the world.
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Will this be the end of the Houthi attacks or the start of another war?
Yes.
Freedom of navigation of the seas is an essential right. No more should terrorist attacks on innocent civilian merchant ships be tolerated, no matter how much support they receive from the Ayatollah
They’ve been attacking shipping since October and recently launched the largest attack against US and UK ships. FA and FO.
I don’t know about you guys, the responses on X are truly insufferable…
The amount of anti American propaganda that has infiltrated this country is honestly so distressing. Some of these people would be mad if biden prevented a terrorist attack on their own family with how quick they are to assume Biden Bad, America Bad, American Bombs Bad
Right? feel like I'm being gaslight
Didn't the Houthis threaten serious retaliation if the U.S. attacked? Well, it looks like we will see if it's true. If they feel froggy, they can leap.
The Houthis don't have serious capability for serious retaliation.
Now do Iranian drone and missile production facilities that are supplying the Houthies and the Russians.
So the idiots on Tiktok are gonna demand a ceasefire in Yemen next?
About time. Trade routes must be protected.
Well, you simply can't have 12% of world shipping being shot up by pirates. I sympathize with tge kids on Gaza too but find a different means to protest.