Kinzinger spells it out

 

I missed that we're no longer bombing Yemen.  Did we lose too many planes?

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he’s ordering a halt to nearly two months of U.S. airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthis, saying the Iran-backed rebels have indicated that “they don’t want to fight anymore” and have pledged to stop attacking ships along a vital global trade route.

[...]

Trump said the Houthis had indicated to U.S. officials that “they don’t want to fight anymore. They just don’t want to fight. And we will honor that, and we will stop the bombings.”

  AP News

Oh yeah, I'm sure that's what happened. LOL.

“We’re going to stop the bombing of the Houthis, effective immediately,” Trump said at the start of his Oval Office meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

They were kicking our butt.

That likely means an abrupt end to a campaign of airstrikes that began in March, when Trump promised to use “overwhelming lethal force” after the Houthis said they would resume attacks on Israeli vessels sailing off Yemen in response to Israel’s mounting another blockade on the Gaza Strip.

[...]

A U.S. official said the administration had not notified Israel of the agreement with the Houthis before Trump talked about it publicly.

Israel, according to this official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic talks, was irked by the unexpected news — particularly because the Houthis have continued to launch attacks on Israel proper and other Israeli targets.

[...]

Trump was asked about the possibility that the Houthis would continue to attack Israel and responded, “I don’t know about that, frankly.”

“But I know one thing, they want nothing to do with us,” Trump said. “And they’ve let that be known through all of their surrogates and very strongly.”

[...]

In his comments during the earlier meeting with Carney, Trump said the Houthis had “capitulated but, more importantly, we will take their word that they say they will not be blowing up ships anymore. And that’s what the purpose of what we were doing.”

“I think that’s very positive,” Trump added. “They were knocking out a lot of ships.”

Their attacks caused us to lose three planes into the drink. He couldn't take the publicity.

Asked how the Houthis had communicated that they were looking to stop being targeted by U.S. bombs, Trump offered few details, saying only with a chuckle that the information came from a “very good source.”

LOLOLOLOL. Could it have been John Barron?

The costs of the U.S. munitions used against Houthi rebel targets in Yemen in daily attacks since March 15 have totaled more than $750 million, another U.S. official said. The Trump administration has dropped more than 2,000 munitions on more than 1,000 targets, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide additional details on the strikes.

The total is only a fraction of the total costs of the operation. It doesn’t account for the costs of operating two aircraft carriers, their accompanying warships or the flight hours of the aircraft.

[...]

It also doesn’t include the Houthis destroying seven U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones, at a cost of more than $30 million apiece, or the loss of an F/A-18 fighter jet and tug from the carrier USS Harry S. Truman when it maneuvered to avoid a Houthi missile and the jet fell off the carrier.

Or the two subsequent F/A-18s.

And, good grief, what DOES it include?

Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, confirmed that the U.S. bombing campaign was ending, posting on X that discussions involving the U.S. and Oman, as well as negotiators in Yemen, “have resulted in a ceasefire agreement between the two sides.”

“In the future, neither side will target the other, including American vessels, in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait, ensuring freedom of navigation and the smooth flow of international commercial shipping,” he wrote, calling the agreement a “welcome outcome.”

Whatever dude. Israel is still attacking them.

“As to the Houthis continuing to attack Israel - they do so at Iran’s own peril,” Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on social media.

Sit down, Lindsey. You fool.

The Houthis had been waging persistent missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group’s leadership has described as an effort to end Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

From November 2023 until January 2025, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors. That has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually.

The Houthis paused attacks in a self-imposed ceasefire until the U.S. launched a broad assault against the rebels in mid-March.

Nice job, Pete.

UPDATE 05/13/2025:

Another military jet dumped at sea

 

Another F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier has been lost in the Red Sea, the second jet lost from the carrier in just over a week.

[...]

It is not entirely clear what happened yet, as the investigation is ongoing, but two of the people said there was some kind of arrestment failure as the jet was trying to land on the carrier and the pilot and weapons systems officer had to eject. They were recovered by a rescue helicopter and are both alive, but they suffered minor injuries.

[...]

The jet crashed into the sea and has not been recovered.

[...]

Separately, the Iran-backed Houthi rebel group “took a shot” at the Truman on Tuesday, four of the people said, despite President Donald Trump announcing an apparent ceasefire with the group hours earlier. It is not clear whether the two incidents are related.

[...]

The loss of the fighter jet comes one week after another F/A-18 jet fell overboard the Truman. That time, initial reports indicated that the Truman made a hard turn to evade Houthi fire, which contributed to the fighter jet falling overboard.

An individual F/A-18 fighter jet costs more than $60 million, according to the Navy.

  CNN

And...

Is everybody getting high?  Are we getting careless?

Or maybe everyone is too stressed by Trump 2.0.

UPDATE 05/07/2025:  I know that plane incident had nothing to do with air traffic control.  Nevertheless, this doesn't look like a great idea...

More innocent Yemeni civilians are about to be slaughtered

 

Second time Harry Truman dropped something.  

Aren't those things tied down while in transit?  Maybe it just landed and they were in the process of anchoring it.

This embarrassment will cost more innocent Yemeni lives.

UPDATE 05/07/2025:  Another jet dumped into the sea from the USS HSTruman.

Waste, fraud and abuse

 Pete Hegseth doing the "warfighter" thing (of course, at Trump's bidding).

Meanwhile in Yemen

Well, I guess we fixed THAT problem.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Ramping up in Yemen

UPDATE 01/26/2024:

All in

The US has carried out fresh strikes on Yemen, a day after a first raid triggered mass protests in the country’s capital and other Middle Eastern countries voiced concern that the attacks could trigger further unrest in the region.

[...]

Earlier on Friday, the director of the US joint staff, Lieut Gen Douglas Sims, told journalists the Houthis had launched an anti-ship ballistic missile in retaliation for Thursday night’s strikes but it had not hit a vessel.

“All American-British interests have become legitimate targets” for the Houthis following the strikes, the rebels’ Supreme Political Council said, while Hussein al-Ezzi, the rebels’ deputy foreign minister, said the US and Britain must “prepare to pay a heavy price”.

  Guardian

American-British interests are sacrosanct.

The UK and US defended [their earlier] attacks, which marked a major escalation of the crisis in the Middle East triggered by the Israel-Gaza war, but leaders in the region condemned them for inflaming tensions in an already volatile climate.

[...]

The bombing was justified because the Houthis were deterring merchant shipping from using the busy international waterway,[tThe UK prime minister, Rishi] Sunak said. “People can’t act like this with impunity and that’s why together with allies we’ve decided to take this action,” he said.

[...]

The US on Friday said that 28 locations had been hit in the initial strikes, using more than 150 munitions, while Britain’s Royal Air Force bombed two, a sweeping bombing campaign intended to halt a spate of Houthi attacks on shipping in the southern Red Sea that has disrupted world trade and threatened to push up inflation.

And in an election year!

In a letter to congress, president Joe Biden said that he ordered the strikes to protect US personnel, and disrupt the Houthis’ ability to carry out future attacks in the Red Sea.

Sure. That's why.

The White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, told MSNBC [...] “We’re not looking for conflict with Iran. We’re not looking to escalate and there’s no reason for it to escalate beyond what happened over the last few days,” he said.

No reason other than Iran is supporting the Houthis who are supporting the Palestinians in Gaza against Israel.

Many of the [Houthi's Red Sea attacks] have been directed at merchant ships without Israeli links, prompting the US and a coalition of allies to dispatch warships to the Red Sea to protect shipping lanes, see off raiding boats and shoot down missiles and drones when necessary.

The White House said Biden had decided to bomb targets in Yemen on Tuesday, shortly after the Houthis attacked a fleet of US and UK warships with 18 drones and three missiles. Once that attack was repelled, the US president directed the country’s military to respond, and Sunak decided to join in soon.

[...]

No other country was prepared to participate in the US-UK bombing, although it received help from Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands. Denmark, Germany, New Zealand and South Korea signed a statement in support of the action, and France said the Houthis were to blame for the escalation.

[...]

The UK defence secretary, Grant Shapps, also said that Iran could de-escalate tensions. Asked his message to Tehran in an interview with the Telegraph, he said: “You must get the Houthi rebels, others who are acting as proxies for you, Lebanese Hezbollah are obvious examples, [and] some in Iraq and Syria, you must get these different organisations to cease and desist because we are, the world is, running out of patience.”

Arrogant much?

Aid agencies said they were alarmed by the prospect of further fighting in a country just emerging from a nine-year civil war and called for de-escalation. An Oxfam spokesperson said: “The humanitarian situation in Yemen remains dire with almost 21 million people in desperate need of food, water and life-saving aid. It is vital that peace is restored and further suffering prevented.”

It's obvious from the US support of Israel's genocide in Gaza that we don't give a rat's ass about suffering.

Multi-national.  US and Great Britain.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Fallout from Israel's war on Gaza reaches Yemen

The US and UK have launched airstrikes on more than a dozen sites used by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen.

[...]

The strikes are the most significant military response to the Houthis’ persistent campaign of drone and missile attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, which began after Israel’s war in Gaza broke out. Here’s how we got here:

  Guardian

Continue reading.

World reactions to the bombings.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Meanwhile in Iran

Pompeo, like the whole of Trumpdom, doesn't recognize irony

Wait till he meets his own boss.

False Intelligence?

ANY intelligence?



Not sure that's the fault of not paying attention. Could just be alternative facts for public consumption.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Oh, Gee, Maybe It Wasn't Actually an Attack

The Navy destroyer USS Mason fired countermeasures in the Red Sea on Saturday after it detected what it believed were incoming missiles.

Officials Saturday night were uncertain about what exactly happened, if there were multiple incoming missiles or if there was a malfunction with the radar detection system on the destroyer.

[...]

Earlier Saturday night, a second US defense official said there were multiple incoming surface-to-surface missiles detected by the Mason.

In reaction, the Mason fired multiple missiles using onboard countermeasures, the two officials said.

  CNN

Yes, this is in addition to the Thursday response to "attacks".

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

I Cannot Keep Up

Ostensibly because missiles have been fired at U.S. warships over the past several days.  My first thought when I heard about the missile attack several days ago was: Can you say "Gulf of Tonkin"?  But let's assume it's real.  Any reason why they should want to get rid of the U.S. presence? At any rate, why are U.S. warships in the Red Sea off Yemen?

The strikes marked the first shots fired by the U.S. in anger against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen’s long-running civil war. Officials haven't provided information on casualties from the U.S. missiles fired early Thursday.

[...]

[T]hese were limited self-defense strikes conducted to protect U.S. personnel, ships and freedom of navigation.

  Fox

Self-defense.

Meanwhile, the state news agency Saba— under Houthis' control— quoted an unnamed military official as saying that US accusations that a US destroyer had come under attack from areas under control of Houthis were false. He said, "all these claims are totally untrue and that the popular committees (Houthi militias) have nothing to do with such action."

[...]

He added, "such claims are part of the general context of creating false justifications to escalate assaults and cover up the continuous crimes committed by the aggression against the Yemeni people, along with the blockade imposed on it."

[...]

Sharaf loqman, spokesman for the Yemeni army, called it an "American farce to find a reason to interfere in Yemen directly after failure of the Saudis."

Saudis whom the US government is funding and providing refueling for air strikes.

Gulf of Tonkin possibilities still there.

Interesting isn't it that none of these purported missile strikes made a good landing? No US damage was incurred.

October 10

Two missiles targeted a US warship off the coast of Yemen on Sunday but missed the vessel and hit the water instead, a Pentagon spokesman said.

  CNN

October 11

While Pentagon officials yesterday conceded that it was “possible” that a pair of missiles fired from Yemen were aimed at the USS Mason, it turns out the US warship actually fired three missiles of its own in response to what officials didn’t even want to confirm was a real attack.

  AntiWar

October 12

The USS Mason was targeted by a missile Wednesday, which fell short of the ship and hit the sea, three days after two missiles were fired at the ship and also missed.

Houthi rebels who control part of Yemen's coastline are believed to have fired the missiles, possibly in retaliation for a Saudi Arabian airstrike on a funeral on Sunday that killed 140 and injured 525.

  UPI

"Are believed to have fired the missiles."

Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has led an air attack against Houthi rebels who took over the Yemeni government. The United States has been providing air refueling support and intelligence to the Saudis in their efforts, as well as sending military officials with the planning of some missions.

[...]

"Those who threaten our forces should know that U.S. commanders retain the right to defend their ships, and we will respond to this threat at the appropriate time and in the appropriate manner," said Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook.

Sounds positively Israeli.

In recent months, the Obama administration has backed off on some support because it is concerned about the rapidly increasing number of dead from Saudi airstrikes. The strike on the funeral was harshly criticized by the administration, as well as a number of other countries and the United Nations, but the rebels and others believe the airstrike was supported by the U.S.

How could they possibly think that?

The U.S. cruise missile launches come as U.S. considers withdrawing its support for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis following Saturday's airstrike on the funeral and other troubling incidents of civilian casualties as a result of the Saudi bombing campaign.

  Fox News

Never mind Gulf of Tonkin false reporting, I don't suppose the Saudis would have any reason to fire on the US ship making sure the missiles fell short?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway

Further Crisis in Yemen

Didn't Yemen offer a "model" government transition in US propaganda just this past summer?

Get out your scorecards.

[Yemen's Hadi administration] resignations give unprecedented power to the Houthis, a Shiite minority from the country’s isolated northern highlands.

[...]

The political crisis also opens the door to an all-out war over control of the Yemeni capital, involving Sunni political factions and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. The conflict could also draw in Saudi Arabia, the United States and Iran.

[...]

Armed with AK-47s, the Houthis are primarily looking for members of AQAP.

[...]

While the U.S. government had continued to back Hadi as a close partner in the war on terror, it’s the Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, who have been battling AQAP on the streets of Sanaa.

[...]

While they are bitter enemies of AQAP, the Houthis manning the checkpoints often adorn their AK-47s with stickers bearing the group’s motto: “Death to America, death to Israel, curse on the Jews, victory to Islam.”

[...]

Houthis oppose American involvement in Yemen—even to fight al Qaeda—and this helps explain why the Obama administration is unlikely to embrace the new power structure anytime soon. Another reason is that they are seen as aligned with Iran.

  The Intercept: Casey Cooms and Jeremy Scahill

I'll just have to take his word for it.  I ran out of scorecards.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.