If there was yet another place that would force anyone to the conclusion that there really is a role for sea power and air power it is the unpleasant Yemen that exists today. As you can see from the map below, Yemen is a very isolated little bit of Hell on earth and so the question must be asked, why are we tolerating their nonsense?
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| The Southern End of the Red Sea and most of Yemen |
It is not a place of great industry or technical might and can probably best be described as backwards.
Some people might think that if the problems there were overwhelming and damaging to the countries outside the Red Sea that rely on safe passage for much of their energy supplies and quite a bit of their commerce, they might shut off all international trade and commerce between Yemen and the rest of the world in retaliation.
France is not one of those countries since they had the good sense to go nuclear and stay nuclear decades ago but they are the former colonial power in Djibouti and as nice as the French have been to all of their former colonies in Africa I'm sure that if Macron asked nicely that Djibouti would be happy to allow expanded basing rights for a powerful force out of the EU to stage their naval and air blockades out of.
To the north lies the Empty Quarter and desert. It's also known as Saudi Arabia and the Saud's like Yemen even less than we do. It is possible that some smart diplomacy would weld the Gulf Cooperative Council to the EU effort to open up the Red Sea to the free passage of tankers and this might help control the continued flow of support from Iran to Yemen.
I don't advocate any of this and I don't see any reason for the US to take any active part, or any part at all in the process of restoring Europe's other gas supply. I would hate for us to decide that the thing to do was to create in Yemen something like our arrangement with Shah Massoud in Afghanistan. Let's stop giving high performance SAMs to tribesmen and gold to our sworn enemies.
If the flow of weapons and the materials to make them is cut off then we might paraphrase Tacitus and his quote from Calgacus, "the EU forces can make a desert and call it peace." It's already a desert so that part shouldn't be too hard.
I'll reiterate though that we should really sit on our hands this time and stay out of it. Let the EU put aside the animosity they share with their Houthi brothers for Israel and see if they can make the Red Sea safe for goods bound to and away from the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal. This is one of those countless times where the best thing for US to do is nothing.
5 comments:
While I hear you friend.
Once you are riding a Tiger, it's hard to dismount. Getting other folks to assume the role your abandoning seems pretty hard. Looking at Ukraine as an example.
Walking away like we did in Afghanistan might be the wise move. But the world watches and frankly much of the "Value" of the American Dollar as world reserve currency is the "Safe Haven" of a powerful nation.
Decades of poor management of our debt load due to the “exorbitant privilege” of being world reserve currency (wanna buy oil, need dollars).
SNIP The term “exorbitant privilege” refers to the benefits the United States has due to its own currency (the US dollar) being the international reserve currency
Misuse of the act of WAR known as sanctions and outright Theft of Russian assets has shown the world our economic lawless nature.
That and decades of pure arrogance that "WE ARE THE SUPERPOWER" has not made us many friends beyond what we can currently bribe with our dollars or Protection racket with our "Powerful Military".
Going to be a hard road back to the Republic our forefathers started after seeing the horrors of democracy aka mob rule in the French Revolution.
Without the world's need for oil the Middle East would be virtually identical now to what it was a millennia or two ago. Most of them CANNOT be civilized and don't want to be civil even if offered the opportunity. I'd say ignore the whole region....except for Iran. But Iran's quest to become a nuclear power will eventually succeed. And then nobody in the world can afford to ignore the Middle East.
One could also build a pipeline through Iraq and Syria to the Mediterranean and eliminate the need for tanker passage, but then there's perfidious Albion and their colonial history of creating just such crises as we see now. Also the EU is broke with zero central taxing authority over its member states, the largest of which is busy deindustrializing while enjoying the benefits of diversity.
Give us Nordstream back, that you blew up. Get your filthy TLA's out of our governments. Take your troops out. Live up to the promise and challenge of your Constitution, which is a child of all our mistakes.....or die.
Stefan v.
Arguably, one has armed forces to defend what is important. I would have listed my energy supply and my own borders right at the top. That is what the USA always did until Obama and Biden. Where the hell were the great EU military forces guarding the pipelines and Baltic critical infrastructure these last 30 years? I also don’t remember ever seeing much more than a French frigate in the Persian Gulf in the 25 years that I was there. Why are Poland and Hungary the only EU States enforcing border controls. Yemen has been a pimple on Europes ass since we bagged ibn saud.
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