23 Comments

Indeed, there's not much to disagree with in this editorial. Their usual response to any event, especially those not instigated by them, is "unilateral, one-way, or simplistic". Moreover, this display of war tonnage is almost preposterous if the state of decay of the US Navy described in the post below is true (which would be entirely plausible). And their counterparts' navies would no doubt be in the same state.

https://t.me/Slavyangrad/80064

It's obvious that the show is aimed at the world's willfully blind , since the Houthis are hardly impressed by it.

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Also see Simplicius's latest which gores the USN.

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In other words US and pet poodles on patrol.

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Adding additional us navy patrols to the Red Sea is akin to a drive-by shooting in which the people at house being shot at, ask those inside to step out onto the porch. I don't doubt ansarallah would would prefer to target warships rather than cargo, despite their shipping blockade being so successful. Their sea weapons' coming success will be primitive carved wooden tools showcased in a museum display of the future which visitors can glimpse at to see what shaped the past.

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The US wants to continue to be the big bully on the block. Everyone, please, kiss its butt.

The 'International Coalition' is a great PR label. MSM, please, lap it up.

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Thanks, Karl. I wondered what this gobbletygook article on the CBC news site was about, and had a suspicion that it had something to do with the Israel-Gaza situation. https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/red-sea-ships-strikes-1.7062343

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I see Canada's being rather reserved, "Canada won't deploy any ships but will send 'a handful of personnel to the international task force,' a government source told CBC News."

Ansarallah are the governing force in Yemen and as such are not "rebels" as the article falsely announces.

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Yes, personnel only, no ships. Thanks for that clarification about Asarallah.

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Ansrullah are cerainly the de facto government but the "West" and Saudi/UAE argue that their puppet is still de jure ruler. It is acurious claim because, while making it, the UAE is busily hiving off the choicer bits, Aden port for example and the island of Socotra.

The truth is that the Arab states makes hyenas look like picky eaters. Yemen being the exception. It will outlive them all.

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the cbc article is a perfect example of propaganda.. no mention of the israel-palestine conflict at the root of it.. no.. instead - reference iran and etc.... the cbc is a really good indicator of propaganda in action.. sad to say - i am a canuck!

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I'm also a canuck.

And I can't listen to the CBC anymore, although I understand they have some good programming and support Canadian culture.

I breeze through the online CBC headlines to see what kind of news the world is being fed.

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A really interesting summary of a different problem is in Larry Johnson’s latest piece - problem with the USA navy. It reminded me of Alastair Crooke’s quip that it is 1950s miracle.

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Simplicius also details the USN's demise. I've written on it for the past 3-4 years. The obvious thing about the Outlaw US Empire's military is its old age for most everything--very little of note is new, and even what's new is junk--F-35 as prime example.

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Biden admin in a bind here. Hard to act, because oil price spike in an election year would be death blow even the blindest pols can't miss. Even harder to ignore, for fear of looking weak, fear of pressure from Israel, and would go against general permahawk/neocon tendencies in US policy.

Ground action in Yemen out of the question. There's no plausible proxy exists that can be used either. Even the ISIS type nutters, who saved Washington's bacon so many times in the past 40 years, have been alienated now.

A cruise missile campaign, most likely, also will be ineffectual, but perhaps "least-bad". Yemen already survived degradations not unlike Gaza itself (albeit less concentrated in space and time), and are still in fighting spirit.

The solution to expect, perhaps, is for US to find a more vulnerable party and attack them instead. Putting some Tomahawks into some East Jerusalem kindergardens might be viewed as the last chance for Blinken/Sullivan to restore what they see as their ... um... "credibility".

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And actually, the Empire's already too late as the damage is already done.

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It's all about manufacturing a casus belli. Not that they need one- the media can always take care of that.

But maybe the fact that they are going to such lengths to provide themselves with an excuse to elbow the Israelis aside and get stuck in to Syria, Iraq and Iran-again, is an indication that they are beginning to notice the flack coming their way from The Global Times and ROW media.

I guess the Czech Navy wasn't up to the challenge but it is still a mystery where the Marshall Islands and Papua New Guinea are. Could they be heading for neutrality?

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I read the Seychelles were one of the "partners."

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The world's resources "belong" to the "Collective West". Other people just happened to live there.

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Another article on the Houthis missile capabilities:

What Are the Missiles the Houthis Have Fired at Israel?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/erictegler/2023/11/10/what-are-the-missiles-the-houthis-have-fired-at-israel/?sh=6183f62e3c07

I just dropped a question over at Andrei's site about this.

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I can't wait to see a US or other colonialist war ship sent to the bottom.

Hopefully Iran will send them a few "Sunburn" missiles which Iran allegedly possesses, or Hezbollah send them a couple better antiship missiles. The one Hezbollah used in 20026 was effective but the Israelis claimed it was because that vessel's weapons systems weren't turned on.

I don't know what the Houthis have that is sufficiently effective. The problem with US warships is the Phalanx CWIS fast-firing 20mm automatic gun which is very good for shooting down drones and incoming missiles. I believe the Sunburn missiles are effective against them. It's also never been tested against "waves" of missiles. The US ships also have air defenses coordinated with the Aegis defense system.

Here's an article on what the Houthis have. They need supersonic missiles and according to Wikipedia both of the missiles cited are. The Fatah-313 variant (Asif) hits 4-5 Mach and the RAAD 500 variant (Tankil) hits 8 mach. If they have enough of them, they could overwhelm at least one ship. Then the problem becomes can they penetrate the overall flotilla defenses. Depends on whether the ships are deployed so they can cover each other. Martyanov should weigh in on this - he's the expert. Maybe I'll post the question on his blog.

Houthis Threaten Red Sea Shipping With Groundbreaking Iranian Missile

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2023-12-12/ty-article-magazine/houthis-threaten-red-sea-shipping-with-groundbreaking-iranian-missile/0000018c-5aa4-df2f-adac-feadd7220000

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I doubt the missile was Iranian. Ansarallah has its own facilities and abilities, some of which is certainly due to Iranian help, but that help ended at least 18 months ago to facilitate the resumption of Iran-Saudi relations. And the Saudis were on the brink of ending their part in the war on Ansarallh.

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Yes, my understanding based on those articles is that the Houthis captured and hoarded a number of Yemeni government missiles. As the articles noted, the Houthis' missiles appear to be based on Iranian missiles, not necessarily received directly from Iran.

These smaller countries don't tend to invent their own missiles, but rather develop them from existing designs they've acquired. They can be quite inventive doing the mods, though.

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Yes, they showed extensive engineering and machining skills.

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