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“A Breach of Yemeni Sovereignty”: Biden Becomes Fourth U.S. President to Bomb Yemen (www.democracynow.org)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml
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[–] 77 points 2 years ago (3 children)

They got a pass for taking pot shots at Israel, because that's an internal regional conflict. Shooting at civilian trade ships in one of the most important shipping lanes on the planet is a completely different thing. We're not watching gas prices skyrocket, a resurgent Russia, a global economic downturn, etc. just because some religious fanatics are throwing a temper tantrum.

The Houthis were warned repeatedly to cut that shit out, and they didn't listen. These are the consequences.

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  • [+] -10 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Ansar Allah have said explicitly that they are attempting to enforce a Naval blockade in the Red Sea against Israel. They have also stated that they believe under international law they are obligated to do whatever they can to prevent genocide.

    I don’t see any reason why they can’t be negotiated with. Calling them “religious fanatics” that are “throwing a temper tantrum” is just a silly way to dismiss non violent solutions to the conflict.

    Biden’s decision to threaten and subsequently bomb them is just plain arrogant belligerence. The US backed campaign to bomb and starve out the Houthis didn’t work previously so why does Biden think it’ll work now?

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  • [–] 25 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    Firstly, the Houthi flag includes the words, “Death to America.” These are not rational actors. They are fanatic jihadis and all attempts to reason with them have failed. Acting like the Houthis are the same as a regular nation state is borderline intellectually dishonest.

    If they have a problem with Israel, keep firing at Israel. If they want a problem with the rest of the world, keep firing at our CIVILIAN ships. Firing at those ships is an act of war, and it was going to provoke a response.

    Biden waited a very long time to act, which emboldened Iran to take an oil tanker. That move virtually guaranteed a response, and it’s good that the response was limited to Yemen. Biden is playing the cards he’s been dealt, and he’s playing them reasonably.

    Also, it should be mentioned that the Houthis themselves said the casualties were ~5 dead and 6 wounded. Warming was given far in advance so they could evacuate and minimize casualties. If Biden had wanted to play dirtier, he could have. A deliberate decision was made to minimize civilian casualties. If the positions were reversed, the Houthis would nuke Tel Aviv, DC, and every other major city in both the US and Israel.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    You do realize that the US supported a campaign of bombing and a blockade against Yemen for the better part of the past decade? It’s not irrational of them to hate the US. They certainly aren’t more or less religious fanatics than Israel or the Christian Zionists in the US that support Israel.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago* (2 children)

    Why is it that every time that you're confronted with information that proves you wrong you always just pivot back to

    "Well what does it matter anyway, America is worse"?

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    I explained why the Houthis have reason to hate the US after their hate was cited as a reason why they must be irrational. That’s not a pivot. It’s a very direct response. You should work on your reading comprehension.

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  • [–] -3 points 2 years ago

    They certainly aren’t more or less religious fanatics than Israel or the Christian Zionists in the US that support Israel.

    The world would be a great place if everyone behaved rationally. It’s sad that they don’t.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    20 years of bombing as the title of this thread implies is probably the cause they are angry with america. Ironically by taking position against israel genocide they are doing more than the west at preventing fanaticism as it has been said over and over that the indiscriminate bombing of gaza can only breed more terrorists. Whoever leads them is probably a scummy individual but just as much as Biden or the other 3 presidents that bombed them.

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  • [–] -1 points 2 years ago

    Their country has been fucked up by said parties. It has nothing to do with religion.

    You're comparing someone who fights back against a bully and then says he would be even worse than the bully if he were in that position.

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  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    The Houthis are the ones attacking civilians and American warships alike. The international community tried to get them to stop for months before resorting to retaliation.

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  • [+] -12 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    What do you think enforcing a naval blockade looks like?

    Also as far as I can tell, the only attempts at negotiation were just open threats telling them to stop or else.

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  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    A blockade is an act of War. As is firing upon military and civilian ships. Whine about almost certain consequences all you like, they've no one to blame but themselves.

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  • [–] -5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Yes a blockade is an act of war. Ansar Allah declared war on Israel. What’s your point? The US is still solely responsible when it decides to bomb a country instead of negotiating.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    And they got War in return as they were repeatedly warned would happen. What's your point? And the US has bombed crap tons of people into the stone age for being threats to its monied interests. Why would anyone be stupid enough to think a different outcome would occur? Why would anyone be stupid enough to think after all the people the US has had killed, killing these really really self important fools would be a bridge to far?

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  • [–] -3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Do you really think Ansar Allah thought the US wouldn’t retaliate militarily? Of course they did. The US has been complicit in committing war crimes against Yemen for the better part of the last decade. Frankly that’s probably a significant reason why they felt the need to do whatever they could to stop the US backed genocide in Gaza. Maybe just maybe bombing them isn’t the answer here.

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  • [–] -3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    The time for negotiating with these silly people is over.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    The US never negotiated, and they probably wouldn't listen considering we tried to genocide them by blockade since 2015 until Saudi Arabia decided they wanted to keep their oil refineries.

    The only silly person here is the one that expects a people we tried, and failed, to genocide would be afraid of the people that did it.

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  • [–] -4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    The US never tried to negotiate.

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  • [+] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)
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  • [–] -2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    “Stop or else I’ll bomb you” is not much a negotiation lol

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  • [–] -5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    That’s a matter of opinion

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  • [–] -4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    nope, just facts as they occurred

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  • [–] -3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    yeah, like the Houthis shooting at US ships, and US ships responding

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  • [+] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)
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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    So how does bombing them change any of that? Their immediate demands are that Israel ends their genocidal campaign against Palestinians in Gaza. If Israel complies and the Houthis continue their attacks the world is still better off so why not try that before resorting to violence?

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  • [+] -5 points 2 years ago (1 child)
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  • [+] 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)
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  • [+] -6 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    And this is relevant to indiscriminately firing into international shipping lanes how?

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  • [+] 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)
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  • [–] -3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    How did they not? Surely you can't be arguing that the civilian shipping vessels did something to deserve being fired upon?

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  • [+] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)
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  • [–] -4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Which civilians? The retaliatory strike targeted military targets only, and was intentionally telegraphed to destroy weapons with minimal loss of life.

    If you're talking about previous conflicts in Yemen, those are completely irrelevant to the recent attacks on commercial shipping.

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