Just four days after Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced the initiation of "Operation Prosperity Guardian," the plan concocted by Biden's national security brain trust seems on the cusp of collapse.

According to reports, the French representatives at the initial "Prosperity Guardian" meeting stormed out in a dispute over the mission focus of the operation. French ships are now escorting French-flagged ships. It is unclear if the French have temporarily decided to go their own way while the international coalition decides who is doing what to whom or if they are out for good. There are unconfirmed reports that the French are trying to organize an EU effort to escort EU-flagged vessels through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea. In the meanwhile, US-flagged ships, which the US Navy has a legal obligation to protect, are dead in the water waiting for an escort; some have been waiting over a week.

While the Defense Department announced the creation of "Prosperity Guardian," the operation seems to be run by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and the clowns and misfits he employs. Even though Secretary of Transportation Pete "Hey, y'all, dig it, I'm on paternity leave" Buttigieg has responsibility for safeguarding US-flagged ships, he's not shown any hint that he cares. His administrator of the Maritime Administration (MARAD) is a long-retired admiral whose focus is infrastructure and...you guessed it...climate change.

As I pointed out last week in The New Red Sea Naval Coalition Is Pure Biden: Weak, Ineffectual, and Designed to Encourage our Enemies, there was nothing about this goat-rope that should encourage our allies or frighten out enemies. The response of our allies shows that. France has pulled out, Canada hasn't sent any ships, but they did send three...count them, three...staff officers to plant the Canadian flag outside the "Prosperity Guardian" headquarters, and Germany is sending strongly worded tweets.

Freedom of navigation is protected under international law. The Houthis are threatening this freedom as well as world trade with their violent attacks in the Red Sea. These attacks must stop immediately.

— GermanForeignOffice (@GermanyDiplo) December 22, 2023

The Australians, Koreans, and Japanese, who have all taken part in previous security operations in the area, have said they aren't playing.

Making matters worse, the US Navy doesn't have enough ships available to perform escort duty. 

US Navy says they don’t have enough warships to start Operation Prosperity Garden

🇺🇸 built 24 littoral combat ships but - for good reason - isn’t using them.

Question: If the LCS cannot defend a merchant ship against Hoothi drones, how is it going to defend itself in combat? pic.twitter.com/B9UYwaWqep

— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) December 21, 2023

This is the kind of mission that was tailor-made for the Littoral Combat Ship, which has been recognized as a raging failure after consuming $31 billion and stopping the Navy from pursuing other options, but only six are outfitted for escort duty. The remainder is equipped for minehunting.

So, to review the bidding, our allies are giving half-hearted support, the Navy is not performing its duty of ensuring US-flagged ships can transit the Red Sea, we are discovering the Navy doesn't have the ships available in theater to carry out this mission, no one is quite sure if the White House or Defense Department is running the show, and the civilian agency tasked for this mission is worried about global warming.