from WND:
‘The Houthis are the symptom and Iran is the disease’
The escalating firefight between the Yemen-based Houthi rebels and U.S. forces in the Red Sea is not likely to simmer down until the Biden administration stops a cycle of self-sabotage that could lead to an extended conflict, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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Biden administration officials, not to mention the rebel group itself, have acknowledged that the U.S. strikes on Houthi missile assets in Yemen will do little to dissuade them so far against continuing to attack international shipping in the Red Sea. Neither the administration nor experts see an imminent end to the hostilities, and the president has few other options aside from putting direct pressure on Iran, the source of the Houthis’ military capability, experts told the DCNF, as fears grow about the U.S. becoming entangled in more protracted hostilities in the Middle East.
“Are they stopping the Houthis? No. Are they going to continue? Yes,” President Joe Biden said Thursday after the latest round of self-defense strikes on missiles prepared to launch against commercial vessels.
Surgical attacks directed only against imminent attacks fall along well-worn paths as the Biden administration seeks to avoid actions Iran could perceive as provocative.
The Houthis will continue firing missiles and drones toward U.S. vessels indefinitely, experts told the DCNF.
“I think it’s going to last as long as the Biden administration continues to fight with one hand behind its back in order to make this stop,” Nathan Sales, the former State Department coordinator for counterterrorism, told the DCNF. “They shouldn’t be more afraid of us than we are of them, but right now I don’t get that sense.”
The Houthis vowed the aerial bombardment would not prevent their attacks, and expanded the scope of defined targets to include U.S. owned and operated vessels. Previously they said only shipping linked to Israel was under threat, although their attacks in reality do not appear to discriminate. More than 50 nations associated with cargo ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden have been affected by the attacks, the Pentagon has said.
Playing whack-a-mole with individual Houthi capabilities is not a long-term solution, experts said. “A tit-for-tat strategy ensures the Houthis and Iran will continue to target shipping,” Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the DCNF, adding that the Houthis will most likely achieve what they hope to “until they pay a real price.”
