Rafi Schwartz
Washington continues to reel this week after The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg published a stunning report detailing his experience being accidentally added to a group chat of Trump administration officials. Using the messaging app Signal, they were coordinating a military strike on Houthi targets in Yemen. Goldberg's story, the second half of which was released after the White House insisted there had been no breach of top secret protocols, has become a major scandal for President Donald Trump and members of his Cabinet.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday demanded in a letter to the White House that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth be "fired immediately" for the breach, while Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) raised the possibility of a congressional investigation into the episode. While the political ramifications of this "Signalgate" scandal remain to be fully seen, the incident has brought public attention to a broader and perhaps more materially pressing question: Why is the United States bombing Yemen at all?
Clearing global shipping lanes
The White House has said that strikes against the Houthi group, which have played a key role in Yemen's ongoing civil war, are "due to attacks on Navy ships and shipping" in the Red Sea by the Iran-backed Islamist group, said Military.com. The bombardment will end the "minute the Houthis say 'we'll stop shooting at your ships, we'll stop shooting at your drones,'" said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week to Fox News host Maria Bartiromo before The Atlantic's story was published. The campaign is about "freedom of navigation" and "restoring deterrence," Hegseth said.
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