Blasting the Houthis: Yemen rebels get wacked for their Red Sea piracy

For centuries, the Royal Navy has guaranteed worldwide freedom of navigation, fighting pirates and other raiders of commerce on the high seas. The U.S. Navy’s first battles were against the Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean off the north coast of Africa (as the Marines sing “ To the shores of Tripoli “), so the joint American/British attack on the Houthi rebels in Yemen is both entirely appropriate and justified.

The Houthis, the Iran backed group fighting a civil war with Yemen’s government, backed by Saudi Arabia, have engaged in aggression and piracy against international shipping using the Red Sea, which connects to the Israeli port of Eilat and Egypt’s Suez Canal . Their crimes have threatened global trade and could not be allowed to continue.

Since the Iran proxy Hamas in Gaza attacked Israel on Oct. 7 , Iran proxies Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen have tried to add to the chaos at the behest of the ayatollahs in Tehran. Hezbollah has been firing on Israel’s north and the Houthis have been lobbing rockets and interfering with navigation.

President Biden sent a stern warning to Hezbollah to watch it by sending the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford offshore of Lebanon. To keep the Houthis in check, he sent the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower to the Red Sea. But the Houthis weren’t deterred. They have boarded vessels, fired missiles and deployed armed drones, all to harass ships using the waterway and causing some shipping companies to avoid the Red Sea and the Suez Canal and sail around the entire African continent, adding as much a week to their voyages for more than 2,000 ships.

Food, fuel, medicine and all kinds of goods are affected, adding to the price and causing delays. There have been more than two dozen ships attacked. President Biden and a coalition of countries have repeatedly demanded that it stop and given the Houthis plenty of warnings. The warnings ended at 2:30 a.m.

Friday morning in Yemen when American F 18s flying off of the Eisenhower and Royal Air Force Typhoon jets flying out of Cyprus bombed Houthi military sites, along with a naval bombardment of Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from the attack sub USS Florida, the cruiser USS Philippine Sea and destroyers USS Gravely and USS Mason.

Dozens of targets were hit and the Houthis and the Iranians got the message, that came not just from Washington and London, but from Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands, which all aided the operation. And no, complaining members of Congress on the left, this is not a violation of the War Powers Act that requires Congress approve the Pentagon’s action.

Defending American military and commercial shipping on the high seas from piracy is allowed and is required of the president. The same waterway, the Red Sea, was closed to Israeli shipping by Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser, in 1967, in breech of international law and the freedom of navigation. It was a casus belli that brought on the Six Day War and a humiliating defeat for Nasser by Israel.

Israel and every other nation has a right to use the Red Sea for their vessels. The Houthis don’t have to like it, but they can’t stop it. And the Royal Navy and U.S. Navy will make sure of it..