The United States and Britain launched dozens of military strikes on Yemen on Thursday, raising fears of an escalation of conflict in the region. The strikes, launched in response to Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea that have disrupted global trade, left at least five people dead. The Houthi movement began targeting ships in November “essentially using a naval blockade in the Red Sea to prevent the blockade against civilians in Gaza,” according to our guest, Yemeni American scholar Shireen Al-Adeimi. “This is an offensive act. This is a breach of Yemeni sovereignty,” she says about the U.S. coalition’s strikes, which were launched without approval from Congress, and which Al-Adeimi additionally characterizes as “a defense of capitalism.”
So how does bombing them change any of that? Their immediate demands are that Israel ends their genocidal campaign against Palestinians in Gaza. If Israel complies and the Houthis continue their attacks the world is still better off so why not try that before resorting to violence?
It’s a simple case of “they started it”. The Houthis are the ones who resorted to violence, against innocent civilians who had nothing to do with the conflict in any way.
Just because we have so far successfully shot down their missiles doesn’t change the intent behind the attacks, to kill civilians and cripple international shipping.
You don’t negotiate with a madman shooting wildly into a crowd, you take him down. And they did so in the most humane way they could, targeting only missile sites, basically they are trying to take the gun away from a violent idiot.
Which civilians? The retaliatory strike targeted military targets only, and was intentionally telegraphed to destroy weapons with minimal loss of life.
If you’re talking about previous conflicts in Yemen, those are completely irrelevant to the recent attacks on commercial shipping.
So how does bombing them change any of that? Their immediate demands are that Israel ends their genocidal campaign against Palestinians in Gaza. If Israel complies and the Houthis continue their attacks the world is still better off so why not try that before resorting to violence?
It’s a simple case of “they started it”. The Houthis are the ones who resorted to violence, against innocent civilians who had nothing to do with the conflict in any way.
Just because we have so far successfully shot down their missiles doesn’t change the intent behind the attacks, to kill civilians and cripple international shipping.
You don’t negotiate with a madman shooting wildly into a crowd, you take him down. And they did so in the most humane way they could, targeting only missile sites, basically they are trying to take the gun away from a violent idiot.
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And this is relevant to indiscriminately firing into international shipping lanes how?
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How did they not? Surely you can’t be arguing that the civilian shipping vessels did something to deserve being fired upon?
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Which civilians? The retaliatory strike targeted military targets only, and was intentionally telegraphed to destroy weapons with minimal loss of life.
If you’re talking about previous conflicts in Yemen, those are completely irrelevant to the recent attacks on commercial shipping.
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