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US Deploys B-2 Stealth Bombers to Attack Yemen Without Congressional Approval
"Why is the U.S. bombing Yemen—with a B-2 bomber no less—with zero congressional authorization?"
Oct 17, 2024
The Biden administration on Wednesday deployed B-2 stealth bombers to launch multiple airstrikes on Yemen, attacks that underscored the United States' deep involvement in a deadly regional war that is threatening to engulf the entire Middle East.
The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement that the strikes targeted "numerous Iran-backed Houthi weapons storage facilities within Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen that contained various advanced conventional weapons used to target U.S. and international military and civilian vessels navigating international waters throughout the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden."
CENTCOM said its assessment of the damage inflicted by the strikes is ongoing and does not thus far "indicate civilian casualties." The U.S. military has routinely refused to investigate, acknowledge, or apologize for killing civilians in Yemen and elsewhere in the world.
The Houthis have repeatedly attacked vessels in the Red Sea this year in what they say is an effort to stop Israel's decimation of the Gaza Strip. The Biden administration has, in turn, bombed Yemen multiple times this year, strikes that progressive U.S. lawmakers have denounced as dangerous as well as illegal given that the White House did not seek congressional authorization, as required by the Constitution.
"Why is the U.S. bombing Yemen—with a B-2 bomber no less—with zero congressional authorization?" asked Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), following Wednesday's strikes. "Are these members of Congress literally asleep or drugged?"
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that "at the direction" of President Joe Biden, he "authorized these targeted strikes to further degrade the Houthis' capability to continue their destabilizing behavior and to protect and defend U.S. forces and personnel in one of the world's most critical waterways."
The strikes on one of the poorest nations in the world, Austin said, were "a unique demonstration of the United States' ability to target facilities that our adversaries seek to keep out of reach, no matter how deeply buried underground, hardened, or fortified"—a message that observers interpreted as a warning to Iran.
"The employment of U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit long-range stealth bombers demonstrate U.S. global strike capabilities to take action against these targets when necessary, anytime, anywhere," Austin added.
Wednesday's airstrikes reportedly marked the United States' first use of the stealth bombers against Yemen, a country that has been devastated by years of relentless attacks by a U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition.
The strikes came days after the Pentagon announced the deployment of American troops and an advanced antimissile system to Israel ahead of the Israeli military's expected attack on Iran.
A coalition of progressive lawmakers warned in response to the troop deployment that "military force will not solve the challenge posed by Iran."
"We need meaningful de-escalation and diplomacy—not a wider war," the lawmakers said. "Addressing the root causes is the only route to achieving long-term security and stability in the region. Nothing in current law authorizes the United States to conduct offensive military action against Iran. We risk becoming entangled in another catastrophic war that will inevitably harm innocent civilians and may cost billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars."
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The US Is Waging an Illegal War for Faster Shipping
Even as the Biden administration and Congress move forward with military solutions, there are alternatives to addressing the Houthi attacks on commercial shipping, namely, negotiating a cease-fire in Gaza.
Apr 04, 2024
The United States is waging an illegal war in Yemen, where major shipping routes along the country’s coastlines have been disrupted by ongoing violence in the region.
Despite widespread understanding in Washington that U.S. military operations in Yemen violate U.S. law, U.S. officials continue to insist that they must continue their military campaign, which they say is necessary to saving time and money on commercial shipping through the Middle East.
“The U.S. economy relies on open sea lanes,” U.S. General Michael Kurilla, the commander of U.S. Central Command, said at a March 7 Senate hearing, after being asked about the growing U.S. military presence in the Red Sea. “By our national security strategy, we will not allow a state or non-state actor to affect the freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, the Bab al Mandeb, or the Suez Canal.”
Although some of the Houthis’ attacks have caused casualties, the major concern in Washington has been the implications for the global economy.
Since January 11, the United States has been directing airstrikes and other military operations in Yemen. U.S. military forces have been targeting the Houthis, a militant group that has been launching missiles and other attacks against commercial vessels in the Red Sea, Bab al Mandeb, and Gulf of Aden.
For months, the Houthis’ attacks have disrupted commercial shipping. The Houthis have insisted that they will continue their attacks until Israel ends it military offensive in Gaza.
Although some of the Houthis’ attacks have caused casualties, the major concern in Washington has been the implications for the global economy. As U.S. officials have repeatedly noted, as much as 15% of global trade passes through the Red Sea, including 12% of the sea-based oil trade.
“The reason it’s so important there is this,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken explained earlier this year. “15% of commercial traffic is going through that strait every single day.” That includes “30% of the world’s container ships.”
Of particular concern to U.S. officials is the Bab al Mandeb, a narrow strait along the southwestern coast of Yemen that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. An estimated 8.8 million barrels of oil are shipped through the strait every day, making it one of the world’s “strategic chokepoints,” as Gen. Kurilla described it.
Although the White House has insisted that President Joe Biden has the legal authority to take military action against the Houthis, several members of Congress have refuted its claims. At a Senate hearing in February, several senators called attention to the War Powers Resolution, which establishes that the president cannot continue hostilities for longer than 60 days without approval from Congress.
Regardless, Congress has failed to act, even now that the deadline has passed. March 12, the day that the White House was required to cease its military operations, “came, and went, in public silence,” as The Associated Press reported.
Even as the Biden administration and Congress move forward with an illegal war, there are alternatives to addressing the Houthi attacks on commercial shipping.
As some U.S. officials have acknowledged, the ideal and perhaps most obvious alternative would be to achieve a cease-fire in Gaza. After all, the Houthis continue to insist that they will not end their attacks until Israel ends its siege of Gaza.
“I am very keen to see that there is a cease-fire in Gaza,” U.S. Special Envoy to Yemen Timothy Lenderking said during a March 29 appearance on “Washington Journal.” “I do believe that we can use that moment to deescalate some of these other crises, including the Red Sea. We must get to that moment.”
Absent a cease-fire, however, it remains possible for commercial ships to circumvent the Middle East. Data compiled by the International Monetary Fund indicates that maritime trade is being redirected around Africa. In other words, commercial ships are taking advantage of other options for reaching their destinations.
The Biden administration has opposed both approaches, however. Not only has the administration continued to support Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, despite its acknowledgment of the worsening “humanitarian catastrophe,” as Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described it, but the administration remains unwilling to tolerate the longer shipping times that are associated with the route around Africa.
“If you’re talking oil that comes through, we’re seeing a diversion of that,” Gen. Kurilla said at the March 7 Senate hearing. “It goes around the Cape of Good Hope. What that’s going to do is bring products late to market and price increases as well.”
Indeed, the priority of U.S. officials is to keep the Red Sea open for shipping. Their determination to maintain faster shipping is leading them to move forward with a war in Yemen that they know is illegal, even as they come to recognize more sensible options.
The first step in getting to a “just settlement” in Yemen “is the cease-fire in Gaza,” Lenderking said. “I think we can use that diplomatically to deescalate the situation in the Red Sea.”
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Where Are the Progressives as Biden Marches Toward War?
This should be a four-alarm fire. Is there anyone effectively organizing against Biden just casually leading us into another war?
Jan 31, 2024
The general silence around the progressive establishment as the current Democratic administration prepares to launch military strikes against more foreign targets risking a wider war in the Middle East is so depressing and disconcerting.
As deeply disturbed I am about Rep. Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) recent bizarre and absurd attacks on peace advocates, I am even more distressed about the prospect of a casual stroll into an all out war against Iran in response to the militia attack on U.S. military personnel near the Jordan/Syria border over the weekend, which killed three Americans and wounded dozens more. Why U.S. troops are even there to begin with is a whole other matter.
Since Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel on October 7 and Israel’s invasion of Gaza in response, Biden administration officials and the president himself have repeatedly said they do not want the conflict to spiral out of control in the region. But in response to the attack on U.S. troops at the Jordan/Syria border, President Biden is reportedly considering “striking Iranian personnel in Syria or Iraq or Iranian naval assets in the Persian Gulf” which, if he follows through, could carry with it a tit-for-tat path of escalation that risks spiraling out of control.
Biden and his team are sleepwalking into a direct war in the Middle East, a course of action that will be beyond devastating...
Also, the Biden administration apparently does not see a link between U.S. support for Israel’s carnage in Gaza and the violence in the Red Sea and elsewhere in the region. Instead, Politico reported this week that an unnamed U.S. official “poured cold water on a pair of alternative options the U.S. could take: Reassessing troop deployments in the region and pressuring Israel to end fighting in Gaza, since that’s what has been angering the proxy groups.”
The same report, however, quoted former State Department official and international law expert Brian Finucane saying that “non-military options are likely to be more effective at bringing about an end to attacks on U.S. troops.”
Keep in mind President Biden is already on record saying that recent U.S. strikes targeting the Houthis haven’t been working. Furthermore, Qatar has already reportedly warned that U.S. retaliation to strikes in Jordan could hurt the ongoing hostage negotiations.
There have been some in the progressive foreign policy space offering sober, level-headed progressive approaches on how to diffuse the tension. For example, Matt Duss, former foreign policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders, has suggested better non-military options like negotiating a new Iran nuclear deal, pushing for a legitimate two-state solution, and conditioning U.S. military aid to Israel. “Ultimately, you need to get to some kind of modus vivendi of which Iran is a part," he said.
Win Without War, a grassroots-focused group that promotes progressive foreign policy, has been on point as usual with their messaging imploring President Biden to change his current course in the Middle East.
But apart from that, there are not many people speaking out from the progressive mainstream and there are very few, if any calls to action.
Meanwhile, many on the right wing are filling the void and talking the most sense about the situation at this moment. For example, Tucker Carlson called Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) “f*cking lunatics” for calling on Biden to attack Iran. Former GOP presidential candidate and now Trump surrogate Vivek Ramaswamy blasted Graham and Nikki Haley for "giddily calling" for war: "It's disgusting & says a lot about the kind of GOP they're trying to recreate," Ramaswamy tweeted. And Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) piled on, asking Graham, "Is there anyone you don't want to bomb?"
This should be a four-alarm fire. If I was at my old job running the political advocacy programs at CREDO Mobile today, emails would be going out lighting up the Capitol Hill switchboards trying to prevent a Democratic president from leaning even further into this maddening military conflict (which is exactly what we did a handful of times during the Obama administration).
Where is the leadership from the Left — leaders at big organizations with outsized email programs and social media assets to deploy?
What is happening? Is there anyone effectively organizing against Biden just casually leading us into another war?
I fully support an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and an immediate release of all hostages. Those two outcomes are linked. And, I admire everyone pouring their heart and soul into their advocacy to make that a reality.
But, right now, President Biden and his team are sleepwalking into a direct war in the Middle East, a course of action that will be beyond devastating and one that requires the Left’s urgent attention.
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Biden's Choice: Gaza Cease-Fire or Devastating Regional War?
Biden can continue to give Israel carte-blanche to wipe out the people of Gaza and watch as the region becomes further engulfed in flames. Or he can take the path that leads to peace.
Jan 25, 2024
In the topsy-turvy world of corporate media reporting on U.S. foreign policy, we have been led to believe that U.S. air strikes on Yemen, Iraq, and Syria are legitimate and responsible efforts to contain the expanding war over Israel’s genocide in Gaza, while the actions of the Houthi government in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Iran and its allies in Iraq and Syria are all dangerous escalations.
In fact, it is U.S. and Israeli actions that are driving the expansion of the war, while Iran and others are genuinely trying to find effective ways to counter and end Israel’s genocide in Gaza while avoiding a full-scale regional war.
We are encouraged by Egypt and Qatar’s efforts to mediate a cease-fire and the release of hostages and prisoners-of-war by both sides. But it is important to recognize who are the aggressors, who are the victims, and how regional actors are taking incremental but increasingly forceful action to respond to genocide.
Biden has admitted that U.S. bombing will not force Yemen to lift its blockade, but he insists that the U.S. will keep attacking it anyway.
A near-total Israeli communications blackout in Gaza has reduced the flow of images of the ongoing massacre on our TVs and computer screens, but the slaughter has not abated. Israel is bombing and attacking Khan Younis, the largest city in the southern Gaza Strip, as ruthlessly as it did Gaza City in the north. Israeli forces and U.S. weapons have killed an average of 240 Gazans per day for more than three months, and 70% of the dead are still women and children.
Israel has repeatedly claimed it is taking new steps to protect civilians, but that is only a public relations exercise. The Israeli government is still using 2,000-pound and even 5,000-pound “bunker-buster” bombs to dehouse the people of Gaza and herd them toward the Egyptian border, while it debates how to push the survivors over the border into exile, which it euphemistically refers to as “voluntary emigration.”
People throughout the Middle East are horrified by Israel’s slaughter and plans for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, but most of their governments will only condemn Israel verbally. The Houthi government in Yemen is different. Unable to directly send forces to fight for Gaza, they began enforcing a blockade of the Red Sea against Israeli-owned ships and other ships carrying goods to or from Israel. Since mid-November 2023, the Houthis have conducted about 30 attacks on international vessels transiting the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden but none of the attacks have caused casualties or sunk any ships.
In response, the Biden administration, without Congressional approval, has launched at least six rounds of bombing, including airstrikes on Sanaa, the capital of Yemen. The United Kingdom has contributed a few warplanes, while Australia, Canada, Holland, and Bahrain also act as cheerleaders to provide the U.S. with the cover of leading an “international coalition.”
President Biden has admitted that U.S. bombing will not force Yemen to lift its blockade, but he insists that the U.S. will keep attacking it anyway. Saudi Arabia dropped 70,000 mostly American (and some British) bombs on Yemen in a 7-year war, but utterly failed to defeat the Houthi government and armed forces.
Yemenis naturally identify with the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza, and a million Yemenis took to the street to support their country’s position challenging Israel and the United States. Yemen is no Iranian puppet, but as with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran’s Iraqi and Syrian allies, Iran has trained the Yemenis to build and deploy increasingly powerful anti-ship, cruise and ballistic missiles.
The Houthis have made it clear that they will stop the attacks once Israel stops its slaughter in Gaza. It beggars belief that instead of pressing for a ceasefire in Gaza, Biden and his clueless advisers are instead choosing to deepen U.S. military involvement in a regional Middle East conflict.
The United States and Israel have now conducted airstrikes on the capitals of four neighboring countries: Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. Iran also suspects U.S. and Israeli spy agencies of a role in two bomb explosions in Kerman in Iran, which killed about 90 people and wounded hundreds more at a commemoration of the fourth anniversary of the U.S. assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in January 2020.
On January 20th, an Israeli bombing killed 10 people in Damascus, including 5 Iranian officials. After repeated Israeli airstrikes on Syria, Russia has now deployed warplanes to patrol the border to deter Israeli attacks and has reoccupied two previously vacated outposts built to monitor violations of the demilitarized zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Iran has responded to the terrorist bombings in Kerman and Israeli assassinations of Iranian officials with missile strikes on targets in Iraq, Syria, and Pakistan. Iranian Foreign Minister Amir-Abdohallian has strongly defended Iran’s claim that the strikes on Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan targeted agents of Israel’s Mossad spy agency.
Eleven Iranian ballistic missiles destroyed an Iraqi Kurdish intelligence facility and the home of a senior intelligence officer, and also killed a wealthy real estate developer and businessman, Peshraw Dizayee, who had been accused of working for the Mossad, as well as of smuggling Iraqi oil from Kurdistan to Israel via Turkey.
The targets of Iran’s missile strikes in northwest Syria were the headquarters of two separate ISIS-linked groups in Idlib province. The strikes precisely hit both buildings and demolished them, at a range of 800 miles, using Iran’s newest ballistic missiles called Kheybar Shakan or Castle Blasters, a name that equates today’s U.S. bases in the Middle East with the 12th- and 13th-century European crusader castles whose ruins still dot the landscape.
Iran launched its missiles, not from north-west Iran, which would have been closer to Idlib, but from Khuzestan province in south-west Iran, which is closer to Tel Aviv than to Idlib. So these missile strikes were clearly intended as a warning to Israel and the United States that Iran can conduct precise attacks on Israel and U.S. “crusader castles” in the Middle East if they continue their aggression against Palestine, Iran, and their allies.
At the same time, the U.S. has escalated its tit-for-tat airstrikes against Iranian-backed Iraqi militias. The Iraqi government has consistently protested U.S. airstrikes against the militias as violations of Iraqi sovereignty. Prime Minister Sudani’s military spokesman called the latest U.S. airstrikes “acts of aggression,” and said: “This unacceptable act undermines years of cooperation... at a time when the region is already grappling with the danger of expanding conflict, the repercussions of the aggression on Gaza.”
After its fiascos in Afghanistan and Iraq killed thousands of U.S. troops, the United States has avoided large numbers of U.S. military casualties for ten years. The last time the U.S. lost more than a hundred troops killed in action in a year was in 2013, when 128 Americans were killed in Afghanistan.
Since then, the United States has relied on bombing and proxy forces to fight its wars. The only lesson U.S. leaders seem to have learned from their lost wars is to avoid putting U.S. “boots on the ground.” The U.S. dropped over 120,000 bombs and missiles on Iraq and Syria in its war on ISIS, while Iraqis, Syrians, and Kurds did all the hard fighting on the ground.
In Ukraine, the U.S. and its allies found a willing proxy to fight Russia. But after two years of war, Ukrainian casualties have become unsustainable and new recruits are hard to find. The Ukrainian parliament has rejected a bill to authorize forced conscription, and no amount of U.S. weapons can persuade more Ukrainians to sacrifice their lives for a Ukrainian nationalism that treats large numbers of them, especially Russian speakers, as second-class citizens.
Now, in Gaza, Yemen, and Iraq, the United States has waded into what it hoped would be another “U.S.-casualty-free” war. Instead, the U.S.-Israeli genocide in Gaza is unleashing a crisis that is spinning out of control across the region and may soon directly involve U.S. troops in combat. This will shatter the illusion of peace Americans have lived in for the last ten years of U.S. bombing and proxy wars, and bring the reality of U.S. militarism and war-making home with a vengeance.
Biden can continue to give Israel carte-blanche to wipe out the people of Gaza, and watch as the region becomes further engulfed in flames, or he can listen to his own campaign staff, who warn that it’s a “moral and electoral imperative” to insist on a cease-fire. The choice could not be more stark.
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US Bombs Won’t Stop the Houthis
Short of a complete halt to Israel’s war in Gaza and a 180-degree shift in Western support for Israel’s approach, there is little that will dissuade the Houthis to change course in the foreseeable future.
Jan 24, 2024
As the Houthi militant group in Yemen ramps up its attacks on vessels in the Red Sea—ostensibly in response to what it calls Israel’s “genocidal crimes” in Gaza—the U.S. and U.K. have responded with multiple military strikes in the last week. The U.S. has also re-listed the group as a global terrorist organisation.
The hope is these strikes will pressure the Iran-aligned Houthis to back down. It won’t, however. Short of a complete halt to Israel’s war in Gaza and a 180-degree shift in Western support for Israel’s approach, there is little that will dissuade the Houthis to change course in the foreseeable future.
There are three main reasons for this, none of which are principally about Iran’s regional strategy.
The Group Has Already Survived Years of Airstrikes
The first, and most obvious, reason is the Houthi movement, whose political wing is known as Ansar Allah, has already withstood years of airstrikes in its war with a Saudi-led and Western-backed coalition from 2015-2022.
Prior to this, the Houthis fought six wars against the central Yemeni government from 2004-2010. Guerrilla warfare is not new to them, and harassing ships off their coast does not require sophisticated weapons.
The blockade that accompanied much of the recent war (which is currently in a shaky truce) also helped the Houthis to finetune their weapon smuggling networks from Iran, as well as their own domestic weapon production.
The Houthis have tapped into profound grievances about the West’s policies more generally and its record of reinforcing unpopular regimes in the face of popular action for change.
As a result, airstrikes alone are unlikely to deliver a knockout blow to their military capacity and will almost certainly increase their appetite for a fight.
That is because they can—for the first time—more strongly frame their actions in the context of fighting against the U.S. and Israel, per their slogan: “God is Great, death to America, death to Israel, a curse upon the Jews, victory to Islam.”
With Dissent Rising, the Houthis Have Found ‘Quasi-Legitimacy’
The second reason they are unlikely to be deterred is more important, but less understood, because it is about Yemen’s domestic politics.
The Houthis currently control much of Yemen, including the capital Sana'a, which accounts for around 70% of the population. The people in these regions have been subjected to years of acute and structural violence by the Houthis. This includes:
- The forced disappearances of political opponents and religious minorities;
- The extrajudicial killings of journalists and executions of civilians, including minors;
- The recruitment of child soldiers;
- Withholding public sector salaries since 2016;
- The laying of landmines in populated areas, sniper attacks on civilians, and the use of siege warfare;
- The systematic extortion of businesses and implementation of a caste-based taxation system;
- The implementation of male guardianship rules for women; and
- The weaponization of food and water, including the diversion of food aid for private enrichment.
It is important to note the Saudi-led coalition and internationally recognized Yemeni government have also been accused of committing war crimes and grave human rights violations in Yemen, including the ruthless bombardment of civilians and civilian infrastructure.
At least 150,000 people are estimated to have died violently in the war that began in 2015, though the challenges with collecting such data are considerable. This also does not include the many more thousands that have died from preventable starvation and disease.
The behavior of the Houthis in power has made them deeply unpopular. Dissent is dangerous due to the sophisticated system of repression and neighborhood surveillance the Houthis have imposed in the areas they control. But Yemenis began taking to the street in protest last year anyway in Ibb and the besieged city of Ta’izz.
By centering the defense of Palestinians in their actions, the Houthis have found a way to discredit their domestic opponents—something that has largely eluded them for 20 years.
Then on September 26, just before Hamas’ assault on southern Israel and Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, Yemenis defied the authorities in large numbers.
In protests in the capital city of Sana'a, they celebrated the anniversary of the 1962 revolution that ousted the country’s leader, the Zaydi Imam, Mohammed al-Badr—and with him, the kinship-based autocracy that many Yemenis claim the Houthis seek to reinstate.
Seeing this (rightly) as a demonstration against them, the Houthis were shaken. Amnesty International reported they responded with an “alarming wave of arrests” and “a draconian show of force.”
Against a background of rising dissent at home, the Houthis’ actions and Western retaliation have given the group the gift of “quasi-legitimacy,” according to Yemeni analysts. The U.S.-led strikes also give credence to the Houthis’ demands that critics “shut their mouths.”
And just as important, the U.S. strikes can boost the Houthis’ military recruitment efforts. And this could help them attempt to seize the government-held oil wells in Marib again, which the group needs to become economically sustainable.
Anger Is Rising Against the West Across the Region
The third reason the Houthis are unlikely to be deterred by airstrikes or a terrorist designation is that their actions articulate the wider region’s fury at Israel’s war in Gaza, which has so far claimed the lives of 25,000 Palestinians, and the decades of Western support for Israel’s policies in occupied Gaza and the West Bank.
They have also tapped into profound grievances about the West’s policies more generally and its record of reinforcing unpopular regimes in the face of popular action for change. This includes the selling of weapons and bestowing of political legitimacy to authoritarian regimes in exchange for what the West considers “stability” in the world order.
Yemenis are, however, keenly aware that the Houthis’ rise and expansion was enabled by this same external push for stability, which came at the expense of Yemenis’ ability to determine local solutions to local problems.
By centering the defense of Palestinians in their actions, the Houthis have found a way to discredit their domestic opponents—something that has largely eluded them for 20 years. This will make them even harder to dislodge from power and will likely consign ordinary Yemenis to further violence at their hands.
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Without Approval From Congress, Biden Preps 'Sustained' US Assault on Yemen
"A cease-fire in Gaza would likely end the Houthi attacks," wrote one analyst. "But Biden is choosing war instead."
Jan 22, 2024
The Biden administration is reportedly planning for a "sustained" assault on Yemen after a barrage of U.S. airstrikes in recent days failed to halt Houthi attacks on commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea.
The Washington Post reported over the weekend that the White House "convened senior officials on Wednesday to discuss options for the way ahead" in Yemen, which has endured years of deadly U.S.-backed, Saudi-led bombing.
"Officials say they don't expect that the operation will stretch on for years like previous U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Syria," the Post added. "At the same time they acknowledge they can identify no end date or provide an estimate for when the Yemenis' military capability will be adequately diminished."
On Thursday, President Joe Biden admitted publicly that the most recent U.S. airstrikes in Yemen have not worked to deter the Houthis, who say their attacks in the Red Sea won't stop until Israel ends its assault on Gaza.
Even after conceding their ineffectiveness, Biden said the U.S. strikes on Yemen would continue. Early Saturday morning, American forces launched airstrikes targeting "a Houthi anti-ship missile that was aimed into the Gulf of Aden and was prepared to launch," the U.S. Central Command said in a statement.
The following day, CENTCOM announced the deaths of two U.S. Navy SEALs who were lost at sea after a January 11 raid targeting an unflagged ship purportedly carrying Iranian weapons to Yemen's Houthis.
There's no indication that Biden intends to seek congressional authorization for the ongoing, open-ended U.S. military campaign in Yemen, rebuffing calls from Democratic and Republican lawmakers who say the hostilities with the Houthis are unconstitutional and heighten the risk of all-out regional war. Biden formally notified Congress of the latest round of U.S. airstrikes on Yemen a day after launching them earlier this month.
Ordinary Yemenis are likely to suffer most from an indefinite U.S. military campaign; American-led strikes have already disrupted aid operations in the impoverished country.
Analysts have argued that the best way to mitigate the risk of a spiraling Middle East war is to pursue a cease-fire in Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed more than 25,000 people—mostly women and children—in less than four months. But the Biden administration has stonewalled cease-fire efforts at the United Nations Security Council, opting instead to allow a humanitarian aid resolution that is failing to deliver for starving and desperate Gazans.
"This administration is off its hinges," said the Yemeni Alliance Committee. "Biden has started an illegal war on Yemen to avoid a cease-fire in Gaza."
Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, echoed that message, writing on social media that "Biden is starting another war in the Middle East just so that Israel can continue slaughtering people in Gaza."
"A cease-fire in Gaza would likely end the Houthi attacks," Parsi wrote. "But Biden is choosing war instead."
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Fears of Wider War as US, UK Bomb Yemen
One prominent critic warned that renewed U.S. strikes on Yemen mean that not only will the Houthi attacks "not be stopped, but the broader war that Biden seeks to prevent will likely become a reality."
Jan 11, 2024
This is a breaking news story... Please check back for possible updates.
The United States and United Kingdom on Thursday launched air and missile strikes on Yemen as part of the international effort to end Houthi rebels' attacks on Red Sea shipping, with the armed group
warning earlier that such aggression "will not go without response."
Thursday's U.S.-led attacks on Yemen fueled fears of a wider Middle East war amid Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza and escalating retaliation by Lebanon-based Hezbollah. Houthi forces—who have been waging a decadelong civil war against Yemen's government and a Saudi-led coalition—began launching missiles and drones toward Israel and attacking shipping traffic in the Red Sea in response to Israel's Gaza onslaught. Earlier this week, the Houthis launched a sophistical barrage of 21 missiles and drones at U.S. and U.K. warships taking part in a multinational "security" initiative in the crucial waterway.
Critics warned that attacking Yemen risks setting off a powder keg in the Middle East and possibly beyond.
"If the objective is to stop Houthi attacks without escalating matters toward a full war, then bombing them has proven quite inefficient in the past. Just ask the Saudis," Trita Parsi, executive vice president at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said on social media Thursday.
"Moreover, bombing them very likely will escalate matters, which means that not only will the attacks not be stopped, but the broader war that [U.S. President Joe] Biden seeks to prevent will likely become a reality," he continued.
"Indeed, if the objective is to stop them, a cease-fire in Gaza is far more likely to succeed," Parsi added. "The Houthis have declared that they will stop if Israel stops, and during the six days there was a ceasefire (in November), there was only one attack in the Red Sea that can be attributed to the Houthis."
U.S. forces have launched drone and other airstrikes against Yemen since the George W. Bush administration. There have also been occasional U.S. ground raids in the Middle Eastern country, including one in January 2017 that killed Nawar al-Awlaki, an 8-year-old American girl. Her American father and brother were killed in separate U.S. drone strikes during the administration of former President Barack Obama.
Responding to the attack, U.S Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said on social media that Biden "needs to come to Congress before launching a strike against the Houthis in Yemen and involving us in another middle east conflict. That is Article I of the Constitution. I will stand up for that regardless of whether a Democrat or Republican is in the White House."
Antiwar.com news editor Dave DeCamp lamented that "Biden has now bombed Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, all to ensure Israel can continue slaughtering Palestinian women and children."
Meanwhile, CNN anchor Erin Burnett seemed to welcome the development, declaring "finally" when announcing the attacks on air.
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Biden Urged to Reject Military Attack on Yemen as Red Sea Tensions Soar
"A full-blown open-ended regional war would be horrific and undoubtedly entail significant casualties to U.S. forces and civilian populations across the region," anti-war groups write in a new letter.
Dec 22, 2023
Dozens of anti-war organizations on Friday urged U.S. President Joe Biden to rule out any military escalation in Yemen as tensions in the Red Sea continue to rise following a series of Houthi attacks on shipping vessels.
"While these attacks are concerning, expanding the war into Yemen will not resolve them and instead may dramatically worsen the threats to commercial shipping both in the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and other regional waterways," the 31 advocacy groups wrote in a letter to Biden, whose administration has reportedly been "actively weighing options to strike back at Houthis in Yemen."
The groups added that "with the horrific civilian toll in Gaza, the entire region is on a knife's edge," and warned a U.S. attack on Yemen "would undoubtedly upend this tentative balance and invite more direct attacks on U.S. forces and interests throughout the region."
"A full-blown open-ended regional war would be horrific and undoubtedly entail significant casualties to U.S. forces and civilian populations across the region, adding to the horror being inflicted in Palestine," they added. "It would not serve Israel's security, either, as it would entail a dramatic escalation of the cross-border conflict with Lebanon."
The Houthis have characterized their attacks on ships in the Red Sea as a show of opposition to Israel's U.S.-backed assault on Gaza.
"If Gaza does not receive the food and medicine it needs, all ships in the Red Sea bound for Israeli ports, regardless of their nationality, will become a target for our armed forces," a Houthi spokesperson said in a statement earlier this month.
In response to the Red Sea attacks, the U.S. formed a multinational naval coalition tasked with protecting commercial shipping. Since October, the U.S. has shot down dozens of Houthi drones and missiles in the Red Sea.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is reportedly considering lifting its ban on offensive arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which is currently engaged in peace talks with Yemen—a country that has been ravaged by years of U.S.-backed, Saudi-led bombing.
But with tensions soaring in the Red Sea, the negotiations are becoming increasingly fragile. The Biden administration is currently facing calls from Republican lawmakers and pro-Israel groups to redesignate the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), a move that would potentially derail the peace talks.
"U.S. officials acknowledge that an FTO designation would block key aspects of that agreement, including the desperately-needed payment of civil servants and the long-overdue lifting of the blockade on Yemen's air and sea ports," the anti-war groups noted in their Friday letter to Biden. "Reinstating these sanctions and blocking a peace agreement would not only violate your commitments to promote humanitarian relief and seek an end to the war in Yemen, but would also further damage U.S. credibility and leadership in the region and around the world."
Politico reported last week that the Pentagon has "moved the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group from the Persian Gulf into the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Yemen, to support a potential U.S. response" to the Houthi attacks.
Hassan El-Tayyab, legislative director for Middle East policy for the Friends Committee on National Legislation, said Friday that "with the Middle East on fire over Gaza, there is an urgent need for multilateral diplomacy to address root causes of violence."
"More war is not, and has never been, the answer," said El-Tayyab. "President Biden must reject calls to launch unauthorized strikes and impose more sanctions on the Houthis, which would only deepen Yemen's humanitarian crisis. Instead, his administration must prioritize peace talks to achieve an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and promote de-escalation in Yemen and beyond."
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Red Sea Oil Spill Averted, No Thanks to the Fossil Fuel Industry
Transnational polluters like TotalEnergies, Exxon, OMV, and Occidental should be paying the estimated $140 million cost of the FSO SAFER salvage operation.
Aug 15, 2023
After more than eight years of relentless effort and numerous hurdles, the U.N.-led hazardous operation to remove more than a million barrels of oil from the decaying FSO SAFER supertanker off Yemen’s coast and scrap the ageing vessel has taken a major step towards a safe conclusion.
This momentous achievement means the almost decade-long saga is in the home stretch, highlighting the power of collective action, but also exposing the heartless indifference of the oil industry to the consequences of its actions.
Crisis Averted
The FSO SAFER, once a looming threat on the horizon of the Red Sea, is now rid of its perilous cargo. This success stands as a testament to international cooperation, determination, and the unwavering commitment of organizations like Greenpeace, Holm Akhdar, and other allies who played a pivotal role in galvanizing global awareness about the impending dangers posed by the deteriorating supertanker.
Years of tireless advocacy and collaboration have culminated in the commencement and successful completion of the operation. The fact that the operation was necessary in the first place underscores not only the remarkable feat of averting disaster but also serves as a stark reminder that too often, communities and governments are left to clean up the mess created by the oil industry.
The potential consequences of an oil spill in the Red Sea cannot be overstated. It could inflict irreparable damage on coastal communities, fragile ecosystems, and marine life, exacerbating both the ongoing humanitarian crisis and the impacts of the climate crisis in the region.
Make Polluters Pay
As we commemorate this significant milestone, it is crucial to confront a disheartening reality: The very oil companies behind this perilous situation have demonstrated a glaring lack of responsibility. Despite reaping record profits, these major polluters have abdicated their obligation to address the potential risks and consequences posed by the FSO SAFER.
Oil giants such as TotalEnergies, Exxon, OMV, and Occidental, beneficiaries of the SAFER’s operations, have not taken meaningful action to forestall a potential oil spill catastrophe in the Red Sea. These transnational polluters should be paying the estimated $140 million cost of the salvage operation. Instead, U.N. members, the private sector, and individuals from all over the world have contributed $121 million, with another estimated $22 million still needed.
This underscores the urgent necessity for heightened accountability within the oil industry, laying bare the stark disparity between financial gains and ethical responsibility.
Shipbreaking: Do No Harm
Even as we celebrate the successful resolution of the immediate FSO SAFER crisis, it is crucial to acknowledge that the journey is far from over. The legacy of neglect and disregard for environmental consequences demands a transformative shift in the oil industry’s practices. Oil companies that have used this vessel to shovel money into their coffers should pay for its scrapping in environmentally sustainable ways that safeguard against potential harm its disposal could inflict on other communities.
We agree with the NGO Shipbreaking Platform call for the vessel to be recycled in a yard that complies with the E.U.-Ship Recycling Regulations. Such facilities are also found in non-E.U. countries. The concern lies in the possibility of the U.N. opting for cheaper options to scrap the ship, driven by insufficient funding. This scenario could lead to the SAFER winding up on one of the ship scrapping shores in South Asia dismantled under rudimentary conditions, with harmful consequences for the host country and its people.
It would be a tragedy to have averted one disaster in the Red Sea only to have another impacting people elsewhere.
Yemen Oil Risk Not Over
It’s also vital to emphasize that storing the oil in a new vessel cannot be a final solution. Although the YEMEN tanker is in notably better condition than the SAFER, the crisis can only be fully mitigated by safely and completely removing the oil from Yemeni waters.
Demand Climate Justice
The salvage operation serves as a poignant reminder of the pressing need to liberate ourselves from the shackles of fossil fuels. The long-running FSO SAFER saga underscores the imperative for the oil industry to reckon with its complicity in the climate and nature crisis and to take decisive measures to rectify the damage it has caused.
Success in averting a catastrophic oil spill in the Red Sea offers a moment of reflection and inspiration, reiterating the urgent demand for accountability, sustainability, and climate justice in our relentless pursuit to safeguard our planet and the generations that will inherit it.
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UN Launches High-Stakes Effort to Prevent Catastrophic Oil Spill From Tanker Near Yemen
U.N. chief António Guterres called the initiative to transfer oil from the decaying FSO Safer to another tanker "the critical next step in avoiding an environmental and humanitarian catastrophe on a colossal scale."
Jul 25, 2023
"The United Nations has begun an operation to defuse what might be the world's largest ticking time bomb," U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres announced Tuesday.
"A complex maritime salvage effort is now underway in the Red Sea off the coast of war-torn Yemen to transfer one million barrels of oil from the decaying
FSO Safer to a replacement vessel," said Guterres.
If all goes as planned, the oil will be pumped from the abandoned supertanker to the Nautica over the next three weeks, UN News reported.
"In the absence of anyone else willing or able to perform this task, the United Nations stepped up and assumed the risk to conduct this very delicate operation," Guterres explained. "This is an all-hands-on-deck mission and the culmination of nearly two years of political groundwork, fundraising, and project development."
The U.N. chief called the oil transfer initiative "the critical next step in avoiding an environmental and humanitarian catastrophe on a colossal scale."
"Without action," he warned, "the vessel could have exploded or broken apart, spilling as much as four times the oil released in the Exxon Valdez disaster. Fishing communities would be wiped out. Hundreds of thousands of jobs would instantly disappear. Whole communities would be exposed to deadly toxins."
Moreover, "major ports including Hodeidah and Saleef would be forced to close indefinitely. Food, fuel, and life-saving supplies for millions would halt," Guterres continued. "Water, coral reefs, [and] sea life would be utterly devastated. Shipping all the way to the Suez Canal could be disrupted for weeks. The potential clean-up bill alone could easily run into the tens of billions of dollars."
"That is why we have been raising the alarm and working to mobilize support to avoid this nightmare," he added.
Peer-reviewed research published in October 2021 warned that an "increasingly likely" oil spill from the slowly corroding Safer into the Red Sea could cut off access to clean water and food aid for millions of people in a matter of days and completely decimate the region's fishing stocks within three weeks.
The 47-year-old supertanker has been moored roughly five nautical miles southwest of the Ras Issa peninsula on Yemen's west coast for more than 30 years. Maintenance of the vessel ground to a halt in 2015 amid the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition's ongoing war on Yemen. As a result, it has deteriorated to a state beyond repair.
Despite several warnings about the life-threatening dangers posed by the decaying ship—including one made in June 2020 by the head of the U.N. Environment Program to the U.N. Security Council—it has taken years to finalize a plan to remove the 1.1 million barrels of crude it is holding.
According to Guterres, "The United Nations enlisted the best in the business: a team of world-leading experts in maritime law, oil spills, salvage operations, marine engineers, naval architects, insurance brokers and underwriters, chemists, surveyors, and more."
"This operation required relentless political work in a country devastated by eight years of war," Guterres noted. "It depended on generous financial support."
"The ship-to-ship transfer of oil is an important milestone, but it is far from the end of the journey," the U.N. chief continued. "The next critical step is arrangement for the delivery of a specialized buoy to which the replacement vessel will be safely and securely tethered."
"Looking immediately ahead, we will need about $20 million to finish the project, which includes cleaning and scrapping the FSO Safer and removing any remaining environmental threat to the Red Sea," he added. "I urge donors to act at this crucial time."
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