If the bombing campaign at the time of the Paris so-called peace accords had been continued instead of stopped, North Vietnam was INDEED ON THE VERGE of a real peace treaty for South Vietnam. As for the Houti’s —Follow the money - Iran props up the Houthis, Hamas and Hezbollah, you are aware I am certtain. During Trumps presidency a boot was on Iran’s neck, no nuclear peace accord, embargo of all oil with real international pressure, Did you notice there were no massive terrorist attacks in the mid east; wonder why?
The weapons are Iranian, operated by Iranians.
Biden does not want to “escalate” the war, by killing the Iranians shooting the rockets, launching drones, operating drones, or the Iranians in the surveillance ships providing targeting and intel to the shoreside crews.
It is fully escalated.
As one who was there in Viet Nam, I feel obligated to correct your assessment. The ROE’s promulgated by DOD & the president precluded the most efficient way to wage war. For instance, prior to 1972, mining the waters of Viet Nam was not allowed. Aircraft were directed to attack from “non-tactical” directions. When Nixon mined the waters and commenced increased bombing, COMMERCE STOPPED. War materials from sea ceased. The lesson here is: When waging war, WAGE WAR. The US did not apply that lesson in Afghanistan.
More directly to your comment about carpet bombing though, is this: The heavy Christmas bombing of Hanoi in 1972 WAS THE SOLE CAUSE OF THE PEACE TALKS CONTINUING. And for the original commencement of the peace talks in 1968, NVN demanded the removal of the battleship New Jersey - because we were blowing the fuck out of them. We had them by the short-hairs. Had we done that massive bombing in 1964, the “wall” in DC would have 10’s of thousands fewer names.
Screw the H crisis! They are not launching missiles at ships and killing merchant mariners. The Houthis are. War is messy business. Civilians get killed. It happens. All the Germans; all the Japanese civilians were killed because their leaders started war. It’s the same in Yemen.
Target the camps. Target the infrastructure. Target the Command & Control. Target Iran IRGC. Target the Iranian spy vessel in the Red Sea. Give war a chance.
If the US strikes Iran under this pretext it creates an international precedent that will allow Russia to attack NATO countries that are doing the same thing in Ukraine. Besides that, one shot in the Hormuz will send oil skyrocketing and it’s hard to get re-elected when gas is $8 a gallon.
The Red Sea crises affects Europe far more than it does the US (in fact it is quite beneficial for the US). Maybe Europe should shoulder the burden for once if they can (they can’t).
There’s a diplomatic solution (difficult) or the world can wait it out (easier). Looks like it’s the latter.
We lost the Vietnam war in the newspapers. The media managed to convince the US to "deescalate and gave the VCs a chance to regroup and rebuild.
Many thx for that precious observation and qualification. I thought originaly the name for such tactics was deflection. Threadjacking-loove it!!!. Noted it is quite popular on this forum.
Anyone have a solid update on the crew of the Galaxy Leader? Those poor guys have been “guests” since before Thanksgiving 2023?
Interesting read from here;
Stavridis: Red Sea Response Is Anemic And Indecisive
Yes, the Admiral’s article about the “anemic” response to the Houthi attacks is very good.
Over 1000 Muslim pilgrims to the Hajj just died of heatstroke. Life is a hazardous adventure, especially in the Mideast.
We should have no qualms about killing a few thousand human shields or “innocent” bystanders if that is what it takes to stop the Houthi attacks. Every incoming flight that might have weapons from Iran should be shot down. Every airport should be bombed as often as necessary to keep them inoperable. Anything that emits a radar signal in Yemen should receive incoming fire. GPS should be jammed or spoofed. An EMP should be used on that Iranian spy ship to shut down the targeting info it sends to the Houthis, or just sink it. Satellites providing intel to the Houthis should be fried.
In other words, stop fooling around with ineffective half measures.
We cannot afford to let the Houthis make fools of the Western effort to keep the Red Sea open for World trade.
So far, the Houthis have taught the Chinese a huge lesson: the US Navy cannot provide any meaningful support to Taiwan.
May be You should keep the Houthies alive a little bit longer so Americans can learn more as it seems at least some manifest huge amount of ignorance. Your fervent patriotic and war like speeches remind me of Adolf Hitler ranting at his best. You really are a shining example of america’s best in diplomacy and peace making and emphaty. WOW.
All other tactical advice aside, this is the least true of them all. At the end of the day, while Ukrane is building suspiciously complicated kamakazi drone boats in their garages, I dont think anyone believes that they are comming up with these designs on their own. More likely in 20-40 years it will come out that the US had been developing these platforms since 2001 and has passed the plans along to Ukraine for field testing. I have no doubt the sea babies among the other unmanned contraptions will play a vital role in the “hellscape” the US supposedly has planned. Shit it wouldn’t surprise me if the US has unmanned vessels sitting on the bottom waiting for orders as we speak.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/06/10/taiwan-china-hellscape-military-plan/
The response to a standing military invading the global supplier for semiconductors is going to look a lot different than a band of rebels spraying and praying into the red sea to drive up insurance prices.
An adage of modern war: it doesn’t matter how long or hard you bomb the enemy. If you want to defeat them, you have to send in ground troops. AKA The Somme. AKA The Battle of Okinawa. So, you guys who want to carpet bomb the Houthis, are you voting to send in American ground troops afterwards? Man-up and say yes or no.
Really not good examples. They fought for the land/island to further more offensive maneuvers.
We have already failed at “in country” several times since Korea.
Who wants Yemen, the land or the people? Nobody.
Saudi Arabia does not want them either.
I just want these issues to go away. All the politicians in the world cant make this happen.
Napalm is our friend.
I see no need for US ground troops. Just stop the flow of missiles and drones from Iran, destroy whatever weapons and infrastructure the Houthis depend upon, and kill enough of them that they lose their appetite for attacking merchant ships.
Hopefully, after Houthis are weakened and struggling to survive camped out in the rubble, the official government of Yemen can come back and defeat what’s left of the Houthis on the ground.
I might also favor moving 4 million Palestinians to Yemen. Tell them if they want a Palestinian State, they can fight the Houthis for it.
You comparison to Okinawa is flawed. The reason to invade was to have a harbor & airfield to support attacks against Japan. There is no reason to invade Yemen.
Admiral Stavridis is absolutely correct. Time to f’k up Houthis & Iran
An apt historical example is another US Navy-versus-pirates confrontation: the Barbary Wars of the early 19th century.
We didn’t want real estate in North Africa. We just wanted to destroy a pirate fleet. Easy-peazee. Just blockade them and bomb from the sea. No ground troops needed.
Except: The USA lost a frigate (maybe 10% of the entire USN’s firepower at that point?) in attacking one pirate base when the ship ran aground and had to be destroyed by its crew, to prevent the ship being captured. The crew was then marched into slavery. The Marines had to be sent in. Troops on the ground. Oops…
The last time I heard “Bomb them and be done with it” was the run up to the Iraq War, so forgive me if I’m not going to fall for that kind of lackadaisical thinking again. “Bomb them” led to over twenty years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, where everything was going to be simple, and it would all be over in days.
All we had to do was knock off Saddam. And somehow that turned into, among other things, the block-by-block clearing out of Fallujah by the Marine and Army? How did that happen? Because of piss poor planning and people saying, “Just bomb them”.
How do we, “fuck up Iran”? Carpet bomb Tehran? Napalm Ispahan? Which city first? What’s the plan? No one has given a plan so far. Just slogans.
We just got out of the Middle East and now we want to go back in?
Your answer is here:
Stavridis: Red Sea Response Is Anemic And Indecisive