There are times when bullshit and bluff don’t work, especially against opponents who see through the bullshit and can call the bluff. From Finian Cunningham at strategic-culture.su:
America knows the Yemenis are a people that are fearless and are not bluffing. While, on the other hand, the Yemenis know the Americans are bluffing.
The United States has this week announced a multinational navy task force to counter Yemen’s blockade of the Red Sea. The U.S. also warned it is prepared to hit the Arab country with military strikes in retaliation.
The stakes are high. The Yemenis have the vital Red Sea global shipping route under their command from controlling the narrow Bab el-Mandeb strait that flows out to the Indian Ocean. The impact of closing this chokepoint on global trade is eye-watering. Hence the Americans and their European allies have sprung into action with threats of retaliation.
In response, the Yemeni armed forces in alliance with the Houthi rebel movement told the Americans to shove it.
The Yemenis warned that they have ballistic missiles to sink any warship or submarine that the U.S. and its allies deploy in the region. The Yemenis added they will continue blocking cargo vessels using the Red Sea route until the genocide in Gaza stops.
Over the past week, Yemen has stepped up its interdiction of cargo ships attempting to transit the Red Sea route. Several major shipping conglomerates have confirmed their vessels are being re-routed around the African continent. The additional transport costs and disruption to supply chains are already hiking price inflation in Western economies, adding to already painful economic woes and political damage for governments held in contempt by hard-pressed populations.
The Yemenis say they are only targeting Israeli-linked ships but it seems that the deterioration in security conditions in the narrow maritime corridor is deterring all shipping companies. The Bab el-Mandeb strait is 32-kilometers wide straddling Yemen and the Horn of Africa. Hundreds of container ships and oil tankers pass through the strait on any given day, ferrying cargo from Asia to Europe through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, the other chokepoint further north in Egypt. If one chokepoint closes, the whole route is closed.
