“Weakness,” Winston Churchill once wrote, “is not treason, though it may be equally disastrous.”
That observation, from The Gathering Storm, the first volume of his epic six-part history of World War II, could just as easily describe current American policy in the Middle East, which is characterized by an inexplicable lack of courage that Churchill would have found inconceivable.
Indeed, to get a sense of just how badly US President Joe Biden has mucked up the region, one need look no further than off the coast of Yemen, where the Houthis, a ragged band of hoodlums, have been wreaking unprecedented havoc on international shipping with virtual impunity.
Yemen may be the poorest country in the Middle East but it is certainly causing the greatest amount of damage to the world economy.
For more than six months, the Houthis, an Iranian-backed Shi’ite terrorist organization that seized control over large parts of Yemen a decade ago, have been attacking commercial ships and even US Navy vessels in the Red Sea.
They have launched more than 70 assaults, seizing one ship, sinking two others, damaging another 30, and killing four sailors, including one as recently as June 12. The Houthis have used drones and cruise missiles, and even fired an anti-ship ballistic missile, the first time that has ever occurred.
The Houthis claim that their maritime misconduct is a show of solidarity with the Palestinians, but this is belied by the simple fact that the overwhelming majority of the ships they have targeted have no connection with Israel whatsoever.
At least 15% of global trade passes through the Red Sea, so the ramifications of these attacks have been monumental.
Last month, Osama Rabie, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, said that since the start of the Houthi attacks late last year, some 3,400 ships have been forced to change their routes. Instead of passing through the Red Sea, they have had to circumnavigate the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa, adding thousands of kilometers to their voyages, extending travel time by up to two weeks, and thereby increasing fuel costs by about 40%.
The situation has gotten so bad that earlier this month, 14 leading organizations representing shipowners, managers, ports, and seamen issued a global appeal condemning the Houthi attacks.
“This is an unacceptable situation, and these attacks must stop now,” the statement said. “We call for states with influence in the region to safeguard our innocent seafarers and for the swift de-escalation of the situation in the Red Sea.”
A report on the American television news program 60 Minutes noted that the Houthi attacks have caused supply chain disruptions that have forced major firms such as Tesla and Volvo to suspend some of their production in Europe.
As a result of the Houthis’ behavior, Washington dispatched the US Fifth Fleet with some 7,000 sailors to the region.
Speaking to 60 Minutes, Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, the US military’s deputy commander in the Middle East, said that shipping traffic through the Red Sea has been “reduced on any given day sometimes by 40%.”
The Houthis have not shied away from firing missiles at US Navy vessels, either.
Asked when the last time that the US Navy had to operate so intensively in a combat-type situation, Cooper replied, “I think you’d have to go back to World War II.”
IN JANUARY, a US-led campaign of airstrikes was launched against Yemen. On January 10, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2722, which strongly condemned the Houthi attacks and demanded that they cease.
The following day, Biden issued a statement declaring that the Houthi attacks “have endangered US personnel, civilian mariners, and our partners, jeopardized trade, and threatened freedom of navigation.”
He went on to warn the Houthis: “The United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most critical commercial routes.
“I will not hesitate,” he insisted, “to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary.”
Yet hesitate is exactly what Biden has done.
The perils of indecisiveness
Other than periodic airstrikes, Biden has refrained from taking more decisive and serious action against the Houthis. He has demonstratively refrained from hitting Iranian assets to punish them and incentivize the ayatollahs to call off the Houthi hooligans.
This is underscored by the Houthis’ behavior. Earlier this week, they expanded the reach of their attacks beyond the Red Sea, hitting a vessel at the edge of the Indian Ocean. Clearly, Biden’s strategy, if it can be called that, is not working.
Rather than flexing America’s muscle, he is effectively allowing an Iranian proxy to sow chaos in one of the world’s most important commercial shipping lanes.
The message this sends to Tehran is as pathetic as it is perilous, particularly now when the Middle East is on the cusp of a wider conflict, and Iran is accelerating its nuclear enrichment program.
If such a war does occur, then much of the blame will lie with the man in the White House, whose vacillation has emboldened Iran and its surrogates throughout the region.
To borrow a term once employed by the late Charles Krauthammer, these are the wages of weakness. And they may prove costly indeed.
The writer served as deputy communications director under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.