by Mike Whitney, The Unz Review:
Wait, wait, wait….. the UN voted for a ceasefire in the Red Sea (where the Yemenis harmed 0 humans)…. But has yet to pass a cease fire vote after 30,000+ have been killed (in Gaza)??? Tony Montana @9mmScorpion
On Tuesday, the Houthis launched their largest attack on ships in the Red Sea to date. 21 missiles and drones –that were launched from positions on mainland Yemen– were shot-down by US and British warships patrolling the area. No casualties were reported.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
According to a Houthi spokesman, the attack was retaliation for the killing of 10 Houthi militants who were strafed by US helicopter gunships while trying to board the Maersk Hangzhou on Sunday. The western media has omitted this critical fact from their reporting in order to conceal the provocation that triggered Tuesday’s attack on US and UK warships. The Houthis say the Hangzhou refused to respond to radio calls inquiring whether the ship was bound for an Israeli port or not, which prompted their attempt to board the ship. That’s when all Hell broke loose. (The Houthis require that commercial ships acknowledge whether they are linked to Israel or not. The Maersk Hangzhou failed to do so.) Here is a brief summary of Tuesday’s incident from a post at Sputnik International:
Yemeni Ansar Allah claimed responsibility for an attack on a US Navy ship in the Red Sea, after the US attacked Houthi forces, Houthi spokesperson Yahiah Sariah said in an official statement. What is also known: Navy forces, missile forces and unmanned aircraft of Yemen’s Houthis conducted a joint military operation using a large number of ballistic and ship-based missiles and drones, targeting a US Navy ship providing support to Israel; This operation was the first response to an attack on the Houthi naval forces by the US Navy 10 days ago; Ansar Allah troops will continue to prevent ships from sailing to Israel, both in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, until the aggression against the Gaza Strip ends.@SputnikInt
And here is a summary of the Houthis demands following the killing of 10 of their fighters by US forces last Sunday: (This was not reported in the western media)
⚡️BREAKING
The Houthis want the US to hand over the Americans who killed Yemenis in the Red Sea
The Yemeni Chief of Staff warns that if the United States does not hand over these Americans for trial, the consequences will be unprecedented for the United States. pic.twitter.com/BYdiU8JVZY
— Iran Observer (@IranObserver0) January 6, 2024
In short, the Houthis attack on Tuesday was a response to a US provocation that took place two days earlier.
Houthi leaders have repeatedly said they do not want a confrontation with the US but they have also said that they won’t back-down if they are attacked. Tuesday’s incident proves that they meant what they said and are prepared to sacrifice their lives to force Israel to lift its siege of Gaza and to allow food and medicine to reach the Palestinian people. By attacking and killing the 10 Houthi fighters on Sunday, the US has made itself a party to the genocide that is taking place in Gaza. Washington has effectively declared war on Yemen and cast its lot with a government that is committed to eradicating a civilian population of 2 million people.
The Biden administration has described their actions in the Red Sea as a defense of “freedom of navigation” and ‘open seas’. But this is merely an attempt to frame the issue in a manner that best suits the objectives of the perpetrators. To the vast majority of people around the world, the US is defending the horrific depredations of the Israeli state. Not surprisingly, the western media has tried to characterize the goings-on in Gaza as an attempt to “defeat Hamas”. Fortunately, few people have been taken in by the ruse. The fact is, there has never been a more vicious bloodletting in the last half century and people everywhere are appalled by the relentless, ethnically-fueled butchery conducted by callous thugs who celebrate their savagery on TikTok. Now, we are told that the same country that is sending 2,000-pound bombs to Israel to kill women and children in their homes, should be revered as the ‘guarantor of regional security’ in the Red Sea. Naturally, many people see the administration’s behavior as hypocritical.
At present, foreign policy elites are focused almost exclusively on escalation. On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned “there will be consequences” if the Houthis persisted with their attacks on commercial vessels implying that the Biden administration is now considering military action. Keep in mind, the US has already assembled a multinational maritime task force, Operation Prosperity Guardian, to patrol the Red Sea to ensure the safety of commercial ships passing through the vital waterway. But that makeshift coalition has failed to build confidence among a number of the world’s biggest carriers who refuse to transit the Red Sea until the hostilities end. That puts the onus on the Biden administration to find a workable solution that will end the attacks and restore Red Sea traffic to what it was prior to the crisis. Regrettably, all the evidence suggests that Biden and Co. have decided that the only way forward is to intensify the fighting by bombing military sites on the mainland. This is from an article at Bloomberg News:
