The Trump administration is continuing and escalating the illegal war in Yemen:
The United States began to carry out large-scale military strikes on Saturday against dozens of targets in Yemen controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia, according to local news reports and two senior U.S. officials. It was the opening salvo in what American officials said was a new offensive against the militants.
Trump’s escalation in Yemen was predictable, but it is a terrible mistake. The president said in his announcement that he was ordering “decisive and powerful” military action against the Houthis, but it will be anything but decisive. The Houthis faced intense bombardment during the Saudi coalition intervention and emerged stronger than they were before. The Biden administration’s bombing campaign likewise failed to coerce them. The Trump administration’s campaign will be no more successful in forcing the Houthis to do what the U.S. wants.
The initial airstrikes appear to have targeted many urban areas across Yemen. The first reports said that there were at least nine civilian casualties with more civilians injured. A more intense bombing campaign aimed at Yemen’s cities is sure to kill many more innocent people. Given the administration desire to loosen rules of engagement and their lack of concern about civilian casualties, we have to assume that a bombing campaign in Yemen will be reckless and indiscriminate.
The decision to escalate against the Houthis is also more proof that the president prefers pointless hawkish policies most of the time. Intensifying the war in Yemen makes no sense for U.S. interests or regional stability. It will also guarantee that the Houthis resume attacks on commercial shipping after they had already stopped. The Houthis said that they would resume the Red Sea blockade in response to Israel’s ongoing starvation of Gaza, but they had not actually launched any attacks on commercial ships since the tenuous ceasefire took effect in January. The U.S. attacked them anyway, and now we can expect the attacks on shipping and U.S. vessels to begin again very soon.
Trump has provided the Houthis with the perfect excuse to do the very thing that he demands that they must not do. The Houthi leadership will likely delight in continuing to defy Washington, and they can present their next attacks as a response to continued American aggression. The more Yemeni civilians that U.S. bombs kill, the more that the ire of the population will be directed against our government. By providing the Houthis with an external enemy, Trump is helping them to retain and strengthen their grip on power.
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Daniel Larison is a contributing editor for Antiwar.com and maintains his own site at Eunomia. He is former senior editor at The American Conservative. He has been published in the New York Times Book Review, Dallas Morning News, World Politics Review, Politico Magazine, Orthodox Life, Front Porch Republic, The American Scene, and Culture11, and was a columnist for The Week. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Chicago, and resides in Lancaster, PA. Follow him on Twitter.
