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.
US confirms first US servicemember deaths in the new US-led conflict against Yemen, which was never authorized by Congress https://t.co/rJmdzXwWpC
— Just Foreign Policy (@justfp) January 22, 2024
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.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy