‘The situation’s gotten worse’: Esper warns US Houthi response ‘very insufficient’
Mike Brest
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The United States’s response to the ongoing series of Houthi attacks against commercial vessels in the Red Sea has been “very insufficient,” according to former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.
U.S. Central Command announced late Tuesday night that the Houthis had targeted their 24th commercial vessel transiting the waterways around Yemen since mid-November, when their attacks began. Houthi leaders have claimed they’re targeting these vessels in response to Israel’s war in Gaza against Hamas.
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The U.S. military has largely not responded to the Houthi attacks, which Esper believes is a mistake.
“I think it’s been very insufficient,” he told the Washington Examiner. “We’ve yet to respond beyond the self-defense actions taken by the Navy last few days, but my view has been that we need to go after the Houthis, attack the missile sites or the drone sites where they’re being launched or where they’re being stored, and inflict some punishment on them so that we can restore deterrence. Otherwise, the Houthis are going to continue to do what they’re doing because they face no punishment.”
The former secretary said “the situation’s gotten worse” over time and questioned the Biden administration’s strategy.
“The Biden administration has this mistaken fear that if somehow we respond and take out the Houthi launch sites or missile inventories, somehow it will escalate in the region, and my view is just the opposite,” he said. “My view is if you don’t strike back and get rid of their capability to attack, then they’re going to continue to escalate, and at some point, they’re going to sink a ship or they’re going to kill an American, injure an American, who knows. But I think you risk more escalation.”
The Houthis’ attacks have led major shipping companies to consider whether to reroute some of their cargo to avoid the Red Sea and, ultimately, the Suez Canal. A joint statement released on Wednesday from the governments of about a dozen countries, including the U.S., said, “Nearly 15 percent of global seaborne trade passes through the Red Sea, including 8 percent of global grain trade, 12 percent of seaborne-traded oil and 8 percent of the world’s liquefied natural gas trade.”
The governments of the U.S., Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom signed onto the statement, which said the attacks are “illegal, unacceptable, and profoundly destabilizing.”
“There is no lawful justification for intentionally targeting civilian shipping and naval vessels. Attacks on vessels, including commercial vessels, using unmanned aerial vehicles, small boats, and missiles, including the first use of anti-ship ballistic missiles against such vessels, are a direct threat to the freedom of navigation that serves as the bedrock of global trade in one of the world’s most critical waterways,” it continued. “Let our message now be clear: we call for the immediate end of these illegal attacks and release of unlawfully detained vessels and crews. The Houthis will bear the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and free flow of commerce in the region’s critical waterways.”
Last weekend, U.S. Navy helicopters from the USS Eisenhower and USS Gravely responded to a distress call from the Maersk Hangzhou vessel, and “in the process of issuing verbal calls to the small boats, the small boats fired upon the U.S. helicopters with crew served weapons and small arms,” CENTCOM said in a statement. The Navy returned fire in self-defense, sinking three of the four boats, while the fourth boat escaped, while CENTCOM confirmed no damage to U.S. personnel or equipment.
A senior Biden administration official praised the U.S. military’s response and said it demonstrated the “significance” of the U.S.-created international task force to safeguard commercial vessels in the region against Houthi attacks. The task force, dubbed Operation Prosperity Guardian, was announced in mid-December.
Following the incident, President Joe Biden convened his national security team this past Monday to discuss options for actions, the official told reporters on Wednesday. While the official did not want to get ahead of any potential decision from the president, they noted that the joint statement from various governments was one of the outcomes of that meeting.
Maersk, one of the major shipping companies, said Tuesday afternoon it decided to pause all shipping activity through the Red Sea “until further notice” and that its vessels will be rerouted around Africa in the near term.
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National security council coordinator John Kirby warned on Wednesday that shipping companies who decide to avoid the Red Sea will be forced to add “weeks onto voyages” to go all the way around the Cape of Good Hope. He noted that if the threat goes on for long enough, it could have an effect on the global economy.
Various U.S. officials have said Iran is providing the Houthis with the intelligence and weapons they need to carry out these attacks.