Are The Iran-Backed Houthi Rebels Outsmarting The U.S. With DRONES?

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels are using drones in an attempt to shock the global economy. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss on The Young Turks.

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Read more HERE: https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/19/middleeast/red-sea-crisis-explainer-houthi-yemen-israel-intl/index.html#:~:text=World%20%2F%20Middle%20East-,Who%20are%20the%20Houthis%20and%20why%20are,ships%20in%20the%20Red%20Sea%3F&text=Yemen’s%20Iran%2Dbacked%20Houthi%20rebels,its%20military%20campaign%20in%20Gaza.

“Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels are stepping up their strikes on ships in the Red Sea, which they say are revenge against Israel for its military campaign in Gaza.

The attacks have forced some of the world’s biggest shipping and oil companies to suspend transit through one of the world’s most important maritime trade routes, which could potentially cause a shock to the global economy.”

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231219__TA04_Iran_Backed_Houthi

U.S. defense officials saying the USS Carney shot down 14 attack drones in the Red sea launched from areas of Yemen controlled by Houthi rebels. The Houthis say they were targeting Israel. This is just the latest in a series of instances since October 7th, of US ships

Destroying drones and missiles launched by the Iran backed rebels, either directly at Israel or at ships they believe are connected to Israel the Red sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Suez Canal all see about 30% of the world’s container ships,

And now several major shipping companies say their ships will not use that route, which could impact the global economy. That’s right. Ongoing skirmishes between the United States and the Iran backed Houthi rebels in the Red sea are further legitimizing concerns that the war in Gaza will expand

To a broader war in the region. Now, let’s get to a timeline of events involving the United States fighting Houthi rebels, as the Houthis basically retaliate against Israel for what it is carrying out in the Gaza Strip. So after Israel began carrying out its aerial bombardment of Gaza,

Which has killed thousands of innocent civilians, including women and children, basically Houthi rebels started to retaliate in the Red sea with their own military operations. So the Yemeni group has basically been targeting commercial ships in protest over Israel’s war in Gaza. And they’re disrupting one of the world’s busiest shipping routes maritime trade.

In response to the war in Gaza, the Houthis have said that they would target any ship that travels specifically to Israel and does not stop if Israel refuses to stop its aerial bombardment and military operations in the Gaza Strip,

And also refuses to allow for humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip, and they’re also reiterating that they’re specifically targeting ships headed toward Israel. Other maritime trade will not be disrupted by them. That is what they’re claiming now, a member of the Houthi ruling council told The Washington Post the following.

Participating in a coalition to protect the perpetrators of genocidal crimes is a disgrace in the history of the participating countries. If America had moved in the right direction, it would have obliged Israel to stop its crimes without the need to expand the scope of the conflict.

Now, what is this person referring to here? Well, basically, in response to what the Houthi rebels are doing, the United States has basically put together a coalition of other nations to basically protect these shipping routes in order to prevent any disruption of maritime trade.

And so I want to get to a more specific timeline in just a moment. That gives you a sense of how this, this ongoing conflict has kind of continued to develop between the United States and the Houthi rebels. And what I’m concerned about is there are also calls by the Israeli government

To get the United States involved in a conflict with both Lebanon and Iran. We’re going to get to that in just a moment. – But, Jake, what are your thoughts so far? – Yeah. So this is a really important development in and we’re at a turning point here

In the for the last about 40 years, at a minimum, America has dominated the skies so thoroughly. And we have such an enormous military advantage that no one could really threaten our interests. There might be terrorist attacks and and we might not win the aggressive offensive wars that we start.

But overall, we we were in charge and everybody knew it. Now, because of drones, everything has changed. So the Houthis were the most marginalized, powerless group, arguably on the planet. They’ve been abused by the the Sunni, government in Yemen and by their allies in Saudi Arabia.

America helped that abuse, and they had no power at all. But they gained some power when they took the capital, about a decade ago, close to a decade ago. And, and, and did a huge war with basically Saudi Arabia backed, folks in Yemen. And now they have just a little bit of power.

But with drones, you can go and bomb all the ships coming through the Suez Canal. And then all of a sudden you have tremendous power and leverage. Now they are not bombing all the ships. We are gathering an alliance of 40 different countries to protect the amount of like the price

That Israel pays for goods. That’s right. So let’s be super specific because they’re only targeting ships that are going to Israel and they could still get there. They just have to go around Africa which makes them a little bit more expensive.

The products going to Israel. So we might start a gigantic war in the Middle East to make sure that Israeli citizens don’t pay quite as much for their goods because of what’s happening here. I don’t think that’s worth starting a war over. And so now, tactically, if you’re the Houthis and you’re looking

To support the Palestinians, it is a very effective way of doing it. And so it is hard to stop. What are we going to do? We’re going to go into Yemen. I mean, that’s a disaster. We were already in Yemen, in effect through the Saudis, right.

And we couldn’t defeat them anyway. What are we going to go get? American kids killed there because the Israelis don’t want a 10% hike on products on a war that they started. And economic pressure is usually the way to affect everything. And this is creating economic pressure.

Now, look, I’m not in favor of it. I don’t want global prices going up. I, you know, and it could affect more than just Israel because oil goes through there, etc.. But for the moment being, they are only targeting ships that are going to Israel,

And Israel is in the middle of a genocide, and this is them fighting back with whatever leverage they have when it is actually not their interest. They have nothing to do with it except for the fact that they care about the Palestinians. And so they’re striking back in that regard.

And you could have any decision you want about the morality of that action. But as a matter of practical interest, it is effective and it is making a big difference. And we should all get used to the new warfare where America does not

And Israel does not have the dominance that it used to because of drones. Now, over the weekend, the United States did in fact shoot down 14 drones from the Houthi rebels. And Jake is correct in that the United States has put together a coalition of countries to essentially protect maritime trade

That goes through the Red Sea to Israel. It’s known as Operation Prosperity Guardian. – It was launched on Monday of this week. – Hold on. Sorry to interrupt, but look at even the name of the I know Operation Prosperity Guardian. They’re not even hiding it. This is all about the money.

– I mean. – Yeah, of course, of course it is. Now, the US led coalition will include the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and also Spain. And so, in regard to the Houthi rebels attacking the maritime trade, shipping

To Israel, Lloyd Austin said on Monday that the he basically labeled the Houthi attacks as reckless and said that they involved ballistic missiles and drones and targeted at least ten merchant vessels transiting international waters. And, let’s go to graphic two here, because there are some pretty big name

Companies that have decided to pause their shipments through the Red sea. On Monday, for instance, oil giant BP became the latest company to announce it would be pausing its shipments through the Red sea. Several shipping companies, including MSC Maersk, Euronav and The Evergreen Group, have said that they are also

Avoiding the Suez Canal as militants target target these cargo vessels. And in response to all of this, the Houthi rebels released other statements including, quote, our war is a moral war and therefore, no matter how many alliances America mobilizes, our military operations will not stop.

They’re making it clear that they do not intend to stop until Israel stops its assault on the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian people. And they say we reiterate the safety of maritime routes in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea, ensuring no threat to ships from any nation except those linked to the enemy

Entity or destined for Israel’s ports. Now, final thing I want to just draw attention to is what I alluded to earlier in this story, which is Israel seems to want to drag the United States into a broader conflict in the region, and they’re specifically looking at Lebanon and Iran.

Now, it’s no surprise that they want us to engage in a war with Iran. Netanyahu has been very vocal about this for years. In fact, Netanyahu is the main reason why Donald Trump decided to tear up the Iran nuclear deal, which ensured that Iran was no longer

Developing any, you know, anything that could be used for nuclear weapons. There wasn’t even any confirmation that they were developing nuclear weapons. But nonetheless, I thought that this moment in Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s press conference yesterday was illuminating because an Israeli journalist asked him a question.

I think you should pay close attention to the framing of the question and also Lloyd Austin’s response to it. Let’s watch. Israel says, and the Minister Galant, has just repeated that it will attack Lebanon if there won’t be an acceptable solution that will include the Hezbollah withdrawal north to the Litani River.

Jake Sullivan was here last week, and he was quite confident that such a solution can be achieved. What is the the US position if Israel attack? And will you order the US Army to strike and even destroy Hezbollah and Iranian targets if required? On Lebanon?

We’ve been clear that we don’t want to see this conflict widen into a larger war or a regional war. And and we call upon, Hezbollah, to make sure that they don’t do things that would provoke a wider conflict. Okay, but if Hezbollah is not effectively pushed back to the area or the region

Of Lebanon that Israel is demanding, and Israel decides to carry out airstrikes in Lebanon and basically intensifying this ongoing war, what is the United States going to do? – That’s the question. – Yeah. Well, look, he answered it by not denying it.

And by the way, did you notice how the question was phrased? They said if Israel orders you to attack Lebanon, and he didn’t say, who the hell would order the America to attack? No, no foreign country said, order us to attack anywhere, right? No, he didn’t say that at all.

He said, well, if Hezbollah makes them do it. Who’s in charge here? So I look, guys, there’s anti-Semitic tropes about how Jews control the world, etc. that’s not what this is about. But if you think that America is telling Israel what to do, well, you’re not following the news at all.

Israel sets the agenda and then America follows it 100%. So prove me wrong. There is there isn’t any instance of in this conflict where America has said, no, Israel, we do not support that action. You’re going too far. They’ve said, oh, we’re worried. We’re we’re talking we’re having a lot of conversations, right?

No, we’ve never drawn the line. Whatever Israel says America does, that’s just a fact. If that fact makes you uncomfortable, that’s on you. Okay, so now back to the Houthis for one more second here. Economic pressure has worked. It is the one thing that almost always works.

So apartheid, crumbled because of the boycotts and the economic pressure that was put on the South African government, because it affected the actually powerful people in South Africa, which were the businessmen, the business communities. Same exact thing as in Egypt. The Egyptian revolution worked because they called a general strike

And all the laborers stopped working. And that affected Egyptian business interests. And that’s what led to Mubarak being deposed. So here they are creating economic pressure on Israel with whatever resources that they have. And and look on this program a long time ago, Wesley Clark junior said,

Soon all of the military will change in this world and people don’t get it yet. And he was absolutely right. And I said, why? And he said, now China can just launch a thousand drones, 10,000 drones. And that wipes out our, air advantage completely.

But it’s not just China. Iran can launch 10,000 drones. Turkish drones destroyed the Russian military in Ukraine. Wow. That’s it? It was. I mean, there were other things that were involved, but it was largely, you know, these drone, tiny little drones made in Turkey that wiped out the

Second biggest military in the world. Wow. So now the idea that we are invincible America or Israel and that we could just boss people around, okay, you do this and you do that, otherwise we’ll attack you. We’ll kill you. We have infinite power and leverage over you. Those days are gone.

Look at the damage that the Houthis have done. This. The most powerless people on earth, almost with 14 drones. They knocked out 14. Apparently a couple got through because they hit a couple of ships. Imagine if it was a thousand drones and Iran can supply them and they can supply

Themselves with that amount of drones. We’re in a new world and people aren’t getting it. And soon what I’m worried about is that we’re going to be even angrier when we can’t control the entire planet like we used to. I am worried about that, too.

And I’m also worried about, look, part of the reason why we have the national security we have is because of the fact that we’ve had this military that we pour so much money into, but in this new world where we have upset quite a few countries

Across the country, across the globe, what if we continue to carry out these acts in other countries? And whether you find them to be injustices or not, does it matter? I am worried about what this means for our national security moving forward as well. Yeah, well.

You know, here’s one thing we should be cognizant of. Maybe we get on the side of justice instead of constantly being on the side of injustice and bombing and attacking, one nation after another, almost all Muslim, almost all in the Middle East, and then going, oh, they hate us because they hate us.

Ha ha ha ha. And that kind of propaganda might have worked in the past when we had infinite power, but it looks like now we’re in a new day where we don’t have infinite power. And so we better check ourselves not to say that, oh, we should be weak or humble.

We should protect ourselves. We should protect our interests, but we should be just in doing that. And we should be strategic in doing that and not just say, oh yeah, kill all the Muslims you want and we’ll just back you because nothing, there’s nothing they could do. Ha ha.

Well, it looks like those days are coming to an end. Thanks for watching. If you become a member, you get to watch all this ad free. Except for, of course, this ad still hit the join button below.