President Joe Biden belatedly responded last week to Houthi attacks on international shipping. But weakly limited military strikes by the United States and the United Kingdom unsurprisingly failed to deter these Iranian-backed terrorists.
They can see that Biden is terrified of escalation and lacks the stomach to confront the threat they pose seriously. As the Washington Examiner first reported on Dec. 19, Britain was ready to conduct the strikes a month before Washington gave the go-ahead. A timid White House dithered because it feared provoking Iran, as though that tyranny and global menace would be quiescent unless goaded.
Timidity has defined the Biden administration’s approach to Iran and its proxies since the start of the current Middle East crisis. Instead of a robust response to Iranian-led escalations, Biden has broadcast his hesitation for all to see. Iran is governed by pathological anti-Americans who view weakness as an invitation for aggression, so our president’s mostly impotent hand-wringing has done nothing but encourage Tehran’s escalation. It is astonishing, for example, that it took until Jan. 17 for the White House to relist the Houthis as terrorists. The Trump administration did so, but Biden had removed them early in his presidency in the hope of sucking up to Iran and reviving the squalid and useless nuclear weapon deal then-President Barack Obama struck in 2015.
The Houthis still have the strategic initiative. They have continued to fire missiles in recent days at ships in the Red Sea. They struck a Greek-flagged vessel on Tuesday after hitting a U.S.-owned vessel the day before. Absurdly, the White House said it’s too early to tell whether last week’s military strikes were sufficient to cripple the Houthis. Houthi missiles have answered that question decisively. A critical artery of international trade remains stanched with the enemies not just of the U.S. but of the entire civilized world. Cargo vessels are having to sail around Africa, adding thousands of miles, at least an extra week at sea, and huge costs to their journeys. Shipping and insurance costs of journeys to and from Europe are surging. Industry is suffering. Unless they are restrained, the Houthis’ attacks will increasingly damage the global economy.
Our necessary response should be clear. First, Biden must authorize broader and more aggressive strikes against the Houthis. He should hit not only their long-range missiles but also their command centers in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a and the Port of Hodeidah. The Houthi organization must understand that its attacks will be met with occasional, limited, and defensive strikes but with sustained offensive action that will eliminate its military power.
This way, the U.S. and its allies would impose military costs on the Houthis sufficient to threaten their domestic power in Yemen. The Houthis would find that the cost of their attacks on international shipping suddenly far outweighed their gains. The Houthis do not benefit from the attacks beyond earning favor from their Iranian patrons. A new cost-benefit calculus must be imposed.
Iran must also be taught a lesson of American resolve. Its reliance on proxies after Hamas’s Oct. 7 pogroms in Israel shows that Tehran is reluctant to unleash Hezbollah in Lebanon and is wary of open escalation. The U.S. should exploit that fear. To do so will require sustained military action with air strikes and missiles beyond what has already been tried. It will also require clearsighted resolve from Biden, which has so far been absent.
This is necessary not only because of what’s happening in the Red Sea. China, which claims most of the international waters of the South China Sea, is watching. It is militarizing those waters to extort loyalty from Pacific nations and others that rely on access to those waters for trade.
China’s activities, like that of the Houthis, flagrantly challenge a basic tenet of international order and prosperity. If Biden keeps proving that rebels in Yemen can destroy that tenet with impunity, Beijing will understand that its own far stronger military can impose its will in the South China Sea.
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Considering that this threat bears directly on the Philippines, which the U.S. is committed by treaty to defend, Biden’s weakness is fueling a very dangerous fire. The stakes reach far beyond the Red Sea. They also risk encouraging Russian President Vladimir Putin to escalate Russia’s aggression in Eastern Europe and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s bellicosity toward South Korea and Japan.
Biden must wrench the Houthis’ strategic calculus back toward seeing America as a superpower willing to use its immense power or risk seeing this nation’s enemies gaining ground.