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Blue Water Relevance: Houthies

The United Kingdom's sea power has been a thing for more than two centuries.  In terms of tonnage, it ranks 9th in the world behind France and Japan.  Right now the UK, a very close collaborator to the US has once again supported its ally in the Gulf of Aden, with logistic support in the bombing of Houtie's position following the firing of a rocket towards a US navy vessel.

As I mentioned before, the US attacked the Houthie once before in 2016 (didn't go well for them).  Today the bluster from the Houtie stated that they will exact their revenge against the Brits and the Americans.  Big talk for a place that invented sticks and stones...

Seriously, Yemen is one of the long-forgotten backwaters of the world, with virtually no resources (no oil and no water).  Its religious fanaticism has killed the country's relatively successful agriculture forcing young men to go to the city to get jobs.  Yemen has been at war for 20 years and no one noticed (including those bitching now).  No one in the world wants anything from Yemen, the world just wants to go by and not pay attention.

Now the Houtie are declaring war on the US and the UK.  Well, good luck with that.

Note:  Yes this is a very callous comment about the Houthie.  But let's not forget that it is them and their paymaster and coreligionists (Iran) that have started shooting rockets at ships sailing by.  A surveillance aircraft, three bombers/observers and four cruise missiles and that was that.  Total US and British spending on this little (and devastating) endeavour was a few million dollars in missiles and at worst a training sortie for the crews...

BTW war is ugly any way you look at it.  The Houthie probably didn't know they hit a US Navy vessel -- they just lobbed their rockets indiscriminately.  Well, sometimes your target shoots back.  That's the consequence and there's no reason to be upset by the outcome you sought.

Note2:  It seems that the Houthie decided to step up their game and re-engage the Americans with precision-guided missiles.  Something more serious than what they used in the past.  Still, it seems a stupid thing to do.  They damaged an American flag bulk carrier, no casualties, The Vessel is apparently largely undamaged.  Bulk carriers are tough!

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