The Houthi rebels have succeeded in forcing the United States to strike Yemen, Haaretz columnists Adam Clements and David Harden write. In their view, a US air war against the Houthis would be a strategic and costly mistake, and Biden should not have taken the bait.
Bombing Yemen does not benefit America, but only strengthens the position of Iran, Russia and China, former US Army attaché to Yemen Adam Clements and former USAID official David Harden wrote in an article for Haaretz.
In their view, the Houthi rebels have succeeded in forcing the United States to strike more than 80 targets in the impoverished, war-torn country.
Several former senior U.S. Army officers have previously urged the Biden administration to take a more lethal, hawkish approach to defending freedom of navigation against Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.
“President Joe Biden should not have fallen for this bait. A U.S. air war against Yemen would be a strategic and costly mistake that is unlikely to deter the Houthis, but would risk escalation both regionally and globally,” the authors said.
There is no way out of the regional war in the Middle East right now, they said.
“This attack on Yemen could certainly lead to a direct confrontation between the US and Iran. Crucially, however, the widening conflict also gives an advantage to Russia in Ukraine and a peering China in Taiwan,” the article said.