by Monica Showalter
Had Biden just left President Trump's designation alone, the U.S. Navy might not have been called in to clean up the Gulf of Aden for international shipping. Thanksalot, Joe.
One wonders what former Defense Secretary Robert Gates must be thinking as he wakes up these winter mornings.
Gates, recall, famously said that Joe Biden has been "wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades."
So now the U.S. has gotten itself into another war-like action around Yemen, with the U.S. Navy strafing 28 Houthi rebels positions with rockets and drones in response to their brazen attacks on global commercial shipping. The Houthis claim their attacks are all about avenging Israel's war on Gaza terrorists. They like terrorists, because, well, they, too, are terrorists. The Navy has urged ships to move around the Horn of Africa rather than through the Red Sea which adds several thousand miles to their voyages -- and which raises the price of imported goods.
But the U.S. had to do it because of the strategic threat they posed.
And now the Navy has been forced to respond after what the Iran-backed rebels did, raising the risk to U.S. troops along with the potential of a wider war.
How did it come to this? Look no further than Joe Biden.
According to the Times of Israel:
During his first year in office, Biden removed the Houthis’ terror listing, undoing a move by his predecessor Donald Trump amid pressure from progressives who argued that it was harming efforts to deliver humanitarian aid in Yemen. The administration said it decided to review that decision in November against the backdrop of repeated attacks by Houthis on international vessels in the Red Sea.
No update has been offered since then, but Biden’s response indicated the administration may be leaning toward slapping the terror label back on the Houthis. His comments came hours after the US-led airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen for the first time in years.
So President Trump had them under his thumb with the terrorist designation, handed out on Jan. 19, 2021 just before he left office, meaning, nobody could do business with these pirates.
One month into Biden's administration, Joe dropped that designation, likely out of spite for President Trump as well as to sidle up to Iran, which is the Houthis' sponsor, ending the terrorism label on this entire band of thugs. The Houthis then did what terrorists do when given a respite -- they armed up, and it didn't take long for international ships to find themselves under attack.
If this is the way it went, it was pretty much identical to the way Biden has operated during his entire presidency: React, react, react, and if Trump did it, Biden got rid of it -- no matter how effective the Trump-side policy.
It's pathetic beyond description to read the State Department missive on why they dropped the terrorism designation in February 2021:
Effective February 16, I am revoking the designations of Ansarallah, sometimes referred to as the Houthis, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under the Immigration and Nationality Act and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, as amended.
This decision is a recognition of the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen. We have listened to warnings from the United Nations, humanitarian groups, and bipartisan members of Congress, among others, that the designations could have a devastating impact on Yemenis’ access to basic commodities like food and fuel. The revocations are intended to ensure that relevant U.S. policies do not impede assistance to those already suffering what has been called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. By focusing on alleviating the humanitarian situation in Yemen, we hope the Yemeni parties can also focus on engaging in dialogue.
Ansarallah leaders Abdul Malik al-Houthi, Abd al-Khaliq Badr al-Din al-Houthi, and Abdullah Yahya al-Hakim remain sanctioned under E.O. 13611 related to acts that threaten the peace, security, or stability of Yemen. We will continue to closely monitor the activities of Ansarallah and its leaders and are actively identifying additional targets for designation, especially those responsible for explosive boat attacks against commercial shipping in the Red Sea and UAV and missile attacks into Saudi Arabia. The United States will also continue to support the implementation of UN sanctions imposed on members of Ansarallah and will continue to call attention to the group’s destabilizing activity and pressure the group to change its behavior.
The United States remains clear-eyed about Ansarallah’s malign actions, and aggression, including taking control of large areas of Yemen by force, attacking U.S. partners in the Gulf, kidnapping and torturing citizens of the United States and many of our allies, diverting humanitarian aid, brutally repressing Yemenis in areas they control, and the deadly attack on December 30, 2020 in Aden against the cabinet of the legitimate government of Yemen. Ansarallah’s actions and intransigence prolong this conflict and exact serious humanitarian costs.
This chart shows the listings and delistings of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, in the State Department parlance. The Houthis went on for a month -- and then the Houthis went off.
Either a group is a terrorist group or it's not. Was it out kidnapping and torturing Americans? The State Department release says so. Then objectively, it's a terrorist group.
It's not a bargaining chip, or an aid mechanism -- how much aid have Yemenis gotten since the dropping of the terrorism designation? Biden likely dropped the sanctions not only to Get Trump but to butter up Iran and fire up the Iran deal again. If Houthis fall off the terrorist list, well, things happen.
It's obvious from the State Department release that they know this group is a terrorist group. The mush-speak about doing what the United Nations wanted just opened the door for Houthis to get their hands on rockets from which they could threaten international shipping.
Now they're dealing with a crisis -- and a U.S. military response.
Had Biden the strength of character to leave the order as it was, the Houthis would never have gotten to the point to where they could threaten international shipping.
Chalk it up to yet another failure of Team Biden. Bob Gates, call your office.
Image: VectorPortal.com // CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED
Monica Showalter
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