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Though I was never in the U.S. military, my life experience has been American wars, wars, wars, and more wars. I was born during World War II. I was in grade school when the Korean War took place. I still have a faint memory of a photo of a gleaming American soldier's face from that unsettled conflict. (It might have been on the cover of LIFE magazine.) I was a protesting youth in the disastrous Vietnam War years. And that was just the beginning. Skipping over events like the invasions of Panama and Grenada and the first Gulf War of the 1990s, in my years running TomDispatch, I've dealt with a seemingly never-ending series of all-American wars (which, by the way, never -- no, never -- turn out "successfully"). From Afghanistan and Iraq to Africa, America's post-9/11 war on terror proved to be a genuine hell on Earth. If you don't believe me, just check out the figures on deaths, direct and indirect, from those decades of horror that the invaluable Costs of War Project has put together.
And what lessons have been drawn from all of that? Only that this country should pour ever more staggering sums into a Pentagon budget that's already larger than those of the next nine countries combined and still rising, support military bases across the planet, and" well, you get the idea, right?
And it never really ends, does it? In fact, as Tomdispatch regular Juan Cole, creator of the must-read Informed Comment website, points out today, this country could well be on the verge of -- yes! -- yet another conflict from hell, this one in -- would you even believe it? -- the Red Sea area. After all, almost unnoticed here, American planes have been unsuccessfully striking at the Houthi rebels in Yemen for months now, while American naval ships continue to patrol that sea (as the disaster in Gaza only grows ever worse). As retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and historian Bill Astore wrote recently at his Bracing Views substack, "How would I feel as a Navy officer covering the flanks of Israel so that the IDF [the Israeli military] can concentrate its forces in murderous assaults on Gaza?" How, indeed? It's possible that, if things go as they so often have in these years, all too many American naval officers will indeed find out. Now, let Cole take you into another world about which most Americans know next to nothing where, in the months to come, we might indeed find ourselves at war. Tom
Turning the Red Sea Redder
Will America's Backing for Israel's War in Gaza Torch the Red Sea Region Too?
By Juan Cole
In mid-June, the Associated Press announced that the U.S. Navy had been engaged in the most intense naval combat since the end of World War II, which surely would come as a surprise to most Americans. This time, the fighting isn't taking place in the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans but in the Red Sea and the adversary is Yemen's -- yes, Yemen's! -- Shiite party-militia, the Helpers of God (Ansar Allah), often known, thanks to their leading clan, as the Houthis. They are supporting the Palestinians of Gaza against the Israeli campaign of total war on that small enclave, while, in recent months, they have faced repeated air strikes from American planes and have responded by, among other things, attacking an American aircraft carrier and other ships off their coast. Their weapons of choice are rockets, drones, small boats rigged with explosives, and -- a first! -- anti-ship ballistic missiles with which they have targeted Red Sea shipping. The Houthis see the U.S. Navy as part of the Israeli war effort.
The Gate of Lamentation
In a sense, it couldn't be more remarkable, historically speaking. Modest numbers of Yemenis have managed to launch a challenge to the prevailing world order, despite being poor, weak, and brown, attributes that usually make people invisible to the American establishment. One all-too-modern asset the Houthis have is the emergence of micro-weaponry in our world -- small drones and rockets that, at the moment, can't be easily wiped out even by the sophisticated armaments of the U.S. Navy.
Another is geographical. The Houthis command the Tihamah coastal plain, the eastern littoral of the Red Sea. It stretches from the Bab el-Mandeb Strait (the entry point to that sea from the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean) to the Suez Canal, which connects the shipping in those waters to the Mediterranean, and so to Europe. The Bab el-Mandeb, known for being treacherous to navigate even in the most peaceable of times, is said to mean "the Gate of Lamentation," and these days, it's living up to its name. Keep in mind that 10% of world seaborne trade flows through the Suez Canal and, perhaps even more importantly, 12% of the world's energy supplies.
What we might call the Battle of the Tihamah has already lasted seven months and, surprisingly enough, given the opponents, its outcome remains in doubt. The Associated Press quotes Brian Clark, a senior fellow at the neoconservative Hudson Institute and a former Navy submariner, as expressing concerns that the Houthis are on the verge of penetrating American naval defenses with their missiles, raising the possibility that they could inflict significant damage on a U.S. destroyer or even an aircraft carrier. Repeated American and British air strikes against suspected Houthi weapons sites in and around the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, have so far failed to halt the war on shipping. Even high-tech American Reaper drones are no longer assured of dominating Middle Eastern airspace since the Houthis have shot down four of those $30 million weapons so far.
Idling the Suez Canal
Given how little Americans generally know about Yemen, some historical background is perhaps in order. The Houthi movement has its roots in Zaydi Shiism, which took hold in northern Yemen in the 890s. (Yes, the 890s, not the 1890s!). Today's Zaydis are upset by Israeli atrocities in Gaza. Last December, large crowds of them came out in the Zaydi stronghold of Saadeh and other northern Yemeni towns to protest Israel's intensive bombing of that 25-mile strip of land. Waving Yemeni and Palestinian flags, they pledged support against "the armies of tyranny," shouting, "We closed Bab el-Mandeb, O Zionist, do not approach!" and "The Yemeni response is legitimate, and the Red Sea is forbidden!"
The Houthis have indeed struck commercial container ships in the Red Sea, even seizing one, the Galaxy Leader (which, believe it or not, they turned into a tourist attraction). They also sank two cargo ships, killing three crew members. Although they maintain that they are only hitting Israeli-owned vessels, most of their attacks have, in fact, targeted the vessels of unrelated third parties like Greece. Their strikes have, however, caused a major disruption in world trade.
The Houthis have also fired large numbers of ballistic missiles at the Israeli Red Sea port of Eilat, idling it since November. Some five percent of Israel's imports once arrived through Eilat. Now, such trade has been rerouted to Mediterranean ports at a distinctly higher cost, while southern Israel's economy has taken a big hit. Gideon Golber, the CEO of the Port of Eilat, demanded that the United States intervene. And Israel is anything but the only country to suffer from such attacks. Ports such as Massawa, Port Sudan, and Berbera in the Horn of Africa have also become ghost towns, while the traffic through the Suez Canal is now so light that Egypt, which collects transit tolls, is suffering significant economic damage.
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