Things remain precarious in the Red Sea as major shipping lanes have been all but shut down by attacks from Houthi rebels. The Yemen-based terrorists have been lashing out in the months following Hamas' October 7th attack on Israel, boarding ships while firing rockets and cruise missiles. Many shipping companies have already suspended operations in the area, putting a strain on the global supply chain.
What has President Joe Biden done in the face of that? He's made a few empty threats that have been met with mockery by the Houthis while his attempts to formulate a military coalition are already falling apart. Things aren't looking good, and that's leading to warranted criticism. Not all of it is on the mark, though. Take this commentary by David Sacks as an example of how to miss the point.
Biden can’t stop the Houthis from disrupting global trade. America has never looked weaker in the eyes of the world. The contradiction of military power is that if you over-use it, you squander it. We have been bled dry by optional forever wars.
— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) December 23, 2023
To be frank, that explanation for why the Houthis are being allowed to run rampant in the Red Sea is total nonsense. The idea that American military power has been drained to the point of incapability even against third-rate terrorists operating in open water is simply false. Whatever one may think of the arming of Ukraine or the prior conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, they are not the reason that the United States is not responding effectively to Houthi aggression.
Rather, the blame for that falls squarely on one man: Joe Biden.
Weakness is a choice, and while I've certainly got my qualms with the current direction of the United States military, there is no question that it has the firepower and logistical capability to secure the shipping lanes in the Red Sea without much effort. We aren't talking about a high-tech enemy with the ability to put up a real fight. We are talking about clownish cosplaying goat herders using ancient Russian and Iranian hardware to put on a show for the cameras.
Much of what the Houthis are doing is propaganda and fluff, meant to instill fear more than to pose a wide-ranging threat. With one word, Biden could end the charade without putting one American life at risk. There wouldn't need to be a ground war. There wouldn't need to be any extra deployments of U.S. troops. All it would take is some airstrikes and some escort vessels and the problem would be solved. Biden won't pull the trigger, though.
Instead, like the last Democrat president, Biden has decided that leading from behind is a viable strategy. Ask yourself why the United States even needs a coalition to stop a few pirates from harassing ships. Why do they need to wait for Bahrain and France to get involved? The answer is that they don't. Biden simply doesn't want to push any buttons that might anger the useless global fence-sitters he so desperately seeks affirmation from.
All of this could end tomorrow if the United States had a confident, competent leader. It doesn't, though, so a rag-tag band of terrorists is being allowed to cause havoc on an international scale just by boarding a few ships. It's an insane position to be in. None of this gets better until Biden is forced out of the White House.
