THE SET-UP: March 15th.
That was the day Pete Hegseth entered a poorly organized chatroom and shared details of the Trump regime’s bombing campaign against the Houthis in Yemen. That, in turn, produced a tedious, two-week long episode of badly-staged political theater called “Signalgate.” No heads rolled. Accountability was never really afoot. If anything, Signalgate reinforced Trump’s aura of invincibility. It showed yet again there is no transgression or demonstration of incompetence he cannot turn into a display of strength.
But that’s not the whole story.
It’s now April 15th … one month after that foolish group chat … and the United States is still bombing Yemen. Just two days ago the United States is likely to have killed seven and wounded twenty-nine in Sanaa. I say “likely” because the AP said “suspected” and because Hegseth’s Pentagon is being conveniently opaque about America’s latest in a series of nearly nonstop kinetic actions since the end of WWII. Per AP:
The U.S. military’s Central Command, which oversees American military operations, did not acknowledge the strikes. That follows a pattern for the command, which now has authorization from the White House to conduct strikes at will in the campaign that began March 15.
What we do know—the US campaign has thus far “killed over 120 people”—comes from the Houthis’ Health Ministry. Although the Pentagon is not “providing any information on targets hit,” the White House has taken credit for over 200 strikes. Just last night the Houthis said “intense airstrikes … struck areas of Hodeida, al-Jawaf and Marib governorates.”
Who the US killed or, for that matter, who the US targeted is unknown. We have no idea how many civilians or women or children have been wounded, maimed or killed by “taxpayers dollars at work” … because, let’s face it, we don’t seem to care.
Maybe that’s why Trump’s regime is operating without even the pretense of transparency. Why would it go out if its way to be transparent? The United States is killing people a country many Americans couldn’t find on a map.
What else is new?
Really, it’d be news if the United States wasn’t dropping bombs on nameless/faceless people in some far-off land.
And maybe that’s the saddest news of all … the United States is so comfortable with killing people, it doesn’t even get covered as Breaking News. The news media talked for two weeks about Signalgate. It barely mentioned the bombs or the people being bombed for reasons that remain largely unknown to the overwhelming majority of Americans. Really it’s not that different from the Iraq war. Most still haven’t heard a good answer to the question of “Why destroy Iraq?”
Ironically, many of them voted for Trump in part because he roundly criticized ”stupid wars” in the Middle East. But that was then and this is now … and now the self-styled “Peacemaker” who fallaciously claims his first stint was free from war (it absolutely was not free from war) is dropping bombs on the Middle East. The overwhelming majority of Americans have no idea the bombs are dropping, let alone whether or not those bombs are dropping on a hornet’s nest.
Should it come back to sting them … they’ll be soothed by the self-serving notion that “they hate us because of our freedom.” Not because today’s bomb made tomorrow’s angry orphan. - jp
TITLE: U.S. Strikes Spur Plans for Yemeni Ground War Against Houthis
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/yemen-houthis-operation-us-support-975febe6
EXCERPTS: Yemeni militias are planning a ground offensive against the Houthis in an attempt to take advantage of a U.S. bombing campaign that has degraded the militant group’s capabilities, Yemeni and U.S. officials say.
The Yemeni factions are sensing an opportunity to oust the Houthis from at least parts of the Red Sea coast they have controlled in the decade since they took power over much of the country’s northwest, the officials said.
Private American security contractors provided advice to the Yemeni factions on a potential ground operation, people involved in the planning said. The United Arab Emirates, which supports these factions, raised the plan with American officials in recent weeks, the U.S. and Yemeni officials said.
The U.S. is open to supporting a ground operation by local forces, the U.S. officials said, while noting that a decision on whether to back the effort hasn’t been made yet. The U.S. isn’t leading the talks for a ground operation, the officials added. The discussion involves empowering the local factions allied with the internationally recognized government in Yemen to take charge of the country’s security, they said.
The discussions over a ground operation come as American officials say the U.S. is considering options on how to wind down its air offensive in Yemen, with the Trump administration eager to demonstrate its commitment to limited campaigns and avoid endless wars. A major ground offensive risks reigniting a Yemeni civil war that has been dormant for years and that spurred a humanitarian crisis when a Saudi-Emirati coalition supported local ground forces with a bombing campaign.
TITLE: Is the B-2 Presence in Diego Garcia a Failure?
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/is-the-b-2-presence-in-diego-garcia-a-failure
EXCERPTS: The deployment of six Northrop B-2 Spirit bombers to the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean was meant to be seen as a serious show of force. The six bombers, each with a $1.1 billion price tag, accounted for nearly one-third of the United States Air Force’s entire fleet of flying wing aircraft.
In addition to the B-2s, the United States is deploying a second Nimitz-class nuclear-powered supercarrier to the region. Yet, what message it intends to send seems less clear. A single-carrier strike group is already powerful, and two would be overkill in a confrontation with Iran and the Houthis, right?
The same has been said of the Spirits.
“B-2 bombers have been employed to strike Houthi targets in Yemen in the past, [but] most experts say use of the stealthy bomber is overkill there,” Reuters reported, adding,
“However, the B-2 is equipped to carry America’s the 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, designed to destroy targets deep underground. That is the weapon that experts say could be used to strike Iran’s nuclear program.”
All of that is true, but the Tehran Times took a different view in its reporting on Wednesday. It noted that the United States has carried out multiple strikes on the Ansarallah missile complexes, “burrowed deep into Yemen’s unforgiving mountains.”
Still, it added, “The Pentagon hailed the strikes as a triumph: sixty-five dead, key sites hit, a general command HQ in Sanaa leveled. Yet, Ansarallah persists, downing a third U.S. MQ-9 Reaper by April 6, and continues to defy the superpower that vowed to crush them.”
“Satellite images from late March show collapsed tunnel entrances, yes, but Ansarallah didn’t flinch; they carved new ones,” the state media outlet noted.
“The takeaway is stark: the U.S. military threat, for all its high-tech swagger, isn’t the unstoppable force it claims to be. If Ansarallah, outmatched in resources but not in spirit, can endure the B-2 onslaught, what’s to stop Iran from brushing off America’s warnings?”
Now, much of this can be dismissed as hyperbole and propaganda, but the fact remains that, after more than a year and a half of engaging the U.S. Navy in the region, the Houthis are still going strong. The Iranian-backed militant group hasn’t been weakened, at least not to the same degree as Hezbollah and Hamas, Tehran’s other clients in the Middle East.
Those groups faced an onslaught from Israel that included boots on the literal ground.
The United States isn’t about to deploy troops to Yemen but instead has conducted missile strikes from sea and bombing missions from the air. Perhaps it is finally time to employ the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator on the Houthi positions because six bombers sitting on the flight line may look impressive; still, it is just an expensive photo opportunity.
TITLE: Will Yemen turn its missiles on the UAE and Saudi Arabia?
https://thecradle.co/articles-id/30101
EXCERPTS: The US war on Yemen, now in its second round, has passed the one-month mark with no clear gains and no timeline for success. What’s emerging instead is the growing risk of escalation—one that could force regional players, particularly Saudi Arabia and the UAE, into direct confrontation.
Still, several factors may delay or even prevent such a scenario, much like what played out last year. Understanding where this war may be headed requires a clear grasp of the terrain: how Yemen views the conflict, how its Persian Gulf neighbors are reacting, and what could trigger a wider eruption or a negotiated backtrack.
Yemen’s strategy has been clear from the outset: its military activity is calibrated with the resistance in Gaza. Palestinian factions determine the pace of escalation or calm, while Yemen remains prepared to absorb the fallout.
Sanaa has paid a steep price for this stance. Washington has moved to freeze economic negotiations between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, effectively punishing the former for refusing to abandon its military support for Gaza. The US has dangled economic incentives in exchange for neutrality—offers readily accepted by Arab states across the region—but Sanaa has refused to fold.
Faced with a binary choice—either maintain its support for Palestine and accept a freeze on domestic arrangements, or open a second front with Riyadh and Abu Dhabi—Yemen chose to stay the course.
That decision was rooted in three core beliefs: that Palestine must be supported unconditionally, even if it means sacrificing urgent national interests; that Ansarallah’s political identity is grounded in opposition to Israeli hegemony and thus incompatible with any alignment with Persian Gulf normalization; and that Yemen must deny Washington and Tel Aviv the opportunity to distract it with side wars designed to weaken its strategic focus.
Arab coalition partners Saudi Arabia and the UAE have not taken kindly to Yemen’s decision. Both countries have used the moment to begin backpedaling on the April 2022 truce, and to impose punitive costs on Sanaa for throwing its weight behind Gaza.
The optics haven’t favored either of the Gulf monarchies. Abu Dhabi is fully normalized with Israel, while Riyadh is edging ever closer. Yemen, meanwhile—still scarred from years of Saudi-Emirati aggression—has moved swiftly to back the Palestinian cause. The contrast couldn’t be more stark: the Arab state most brutalized by Riyadh and Abu Dhabi is now standing up for Palestine while the aggressors look away.
Yemen’s stance also clashes with the broader geopolitical alignment of both Persian Gulf states, who remain deeply embedded in Washington’s orbit. But their frustration has remained mostly rhetorical.
Despite their roles in the so-called “Prosperity Guardian” alliance, neither Saudi Arabia nor the UAE have made major military moves against Yemen since the new round of US airstrikes began. Initially, Riyadh attempted to tie Yemen’s maritime operations in the Red Sea to the Gaza war, but that framing soon gave way to vague talk of threats to commercial shipping—code for backpedaling.
Saudi political messaging shifted sharply in January when it refused to take part in joint US-UK bombing raids. Its defense ministry moved quickly to deny reports that Saudi airspace had been opened for US strikes, and later distanced itself from any Israeli involvement. The message from Riyadh was clear: it doesn’t want to be dragged into another full-scale war with Yemen, not now.
Today, Yemen’s capabilities have expanded. It now possesses hypersonic missiles and increasingly sophisticated drone technologies. And it’s precisely because of these advances that Washington has failed to strong arm the Gulf into renewed warfare. There are no meaningful US security guarantees on the table—nothing that would shield Saudi oil fields, critical infrastructure, or commercial shipping lanes from blowback.
The failures are already evident. The “Prosperity Guardian” coalition has done little to stop Yemeni strikes on Israeli-linked vessels, and US-UK airstrikes have failed to stem Yemen’s ability to hit deep inside Israel. These battlefield realities have changed the calculus in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. Escalation, for now, is off the table.