Jonathan Hoffman & Benjamin Giltner
For more than nine months, the United States has been engaged in an open-ended — and congressionally unauthorized — military campaign against Yemen’s Houthi movement. Citing Israel’s war in Gaza as their primary motive, Yemen’s Houthis began attacking shipping vessels transiting the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb Strait in November 2023. In response, Washington launched a retaliatory campaign in the hopes of stopping such attacks, constituting what U.S. Navy officials describe as the most intense running sea battle the United States has faced since World War II.
The problem, however, is that it’s not working.
Washington’s approach to the Houthis is the epitome of strategic malpractice. It won’t work, costs too much, jeopardizes the lives of American servicemembers stationed in the region to protect primarily foreign vessels, and risks further destabilizing Yemen as well as the broader region. Moreover, though the Houthis maintain their own unique incentives, Washington’s refusal to acknowledge Israel’s war in Gaza as the original catalyst of the Houthis’ attacks prevents any hopes of stopping these attacks in the Red Sea. Washington should immediately end its military activity against the Houthis, press European and Asian states to take a more proactive role in protecting their own shipping vessels, and stop subsidizing Israel’s war in Gaza in the hopes of deescalating rising tensions across the Middle East.
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