Does the US military even know why it's bombing Yemen?

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told Fox News last weekend that the U.S. military had launched operations against the Houthis in Yemen because "ships haven't been able to go through for over a year without being shot at." He then said that in December-ish (not giving a specific date) that "we sent a ship through, it was shot at 17 times."

Military sources who spoke to Military.com are puzzled because there were two attacks they know of in December against a merchant vessel and U.S. warships but "the munitions used didn't appear to add up to 17." Then nothing after that, until of course, March 16, when Houthis launched missiles and a drone against the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Red Sea in response to the U.S. airstrikes on March 15. They were intercepted.

Reporter Konstanin Toropin said as of Thursday, "the Pentagon and Trump administration had yet to fully explain what prompted the resumption of operations against the Iranian-backed rebel group after months of relative quiet in the Red Sea." When he asked specifically, he was directed to public statements by Trump and other officials, but those have been less than clarifying.

Defense officials did tell Military.com that the air campaign could go on for a month "or so" and that there "there is also less reluctance to hold off striking targets based on the casualties that may result." They also said there was "a very clear end state to this." But as Toropin pointed out, the officials he spoke with would not "go into detail about what specific aims they were trying to achieve."

U.S. airstrikes began targeting Houthi infrastructure in Yemen last weekend but are now going into the sixth day and are hitting the capital of Sana'a and residential areas, according to reports. "Dozens of people" were killed in the initial strikes, and there have been reports of civilian casualties, but the mainstream media appears to have no information on that.

The Houthis had pledged to restart their attacks on Israeli-linked vessels since Israel broke the ceasefire with Hamas last week and renewed its incursions and bombardments of Gaza, insisting that Hamas must turn over its hostages before it stops. Some 500 Palestinians have been killed there just in just the last few days.

Meanwhile, a single Houthi missile was reportedly intercepted yesterday, heading towards Israel.

Trump has vowed to "annihilate" the Houthis and link their every move to Iran. The Pentagon, meanwhile, says "Houthi terrorists have launched missiles and one-way attack drones at U.S. warships over 170 times and at commercial vessels 145 times since 2023." The spokesman doesn't say that the vast majority of the attacks were thwarted before they did any damage and no American has been killed in the attacks (There were four crew on the targeted merchant vessels killed in two incidents and one Israeli in another since October 2023. * Houthis did detain a crew of a seized commercial ship for 14 months but released them in January. No one is diminishing their plight). An estimated 122-136 Houthis have been killed in the retaliatory exchanges and Yemen bombing campaigns during the U.S.-led "Operation Prosperity Guardian."

Moreover, Houthi attacks have caused economic disruption as merchant ships in a minority of cases have been damaged and global shipping, mostly connected to European commerce, has been rerouted away from the region. The Washington Post says the industry largely doesn't plan on returning to the Red Sea routes anytime soon, but "has largely adapted to the disruption, and has even profited from the surge in shipping rates." Defense Priorities military analyst Jennifer Kavanagh says "freedom of navigation" is a core U.S. interest when disruptions are impeding U.S. economic security, but in this case, it is not.

"First, U.S. vital interests and economic security are not at risk in the Red Sea, even if Houthi attacks continue. Second, U.S. military operations have not deterred or degraded the Houthis in a meaningful way and are unlikely to be so going forward, even if Trump expands the target list."

But the U.S. appears committed to fighting this war alone anyway, and is expending not limitless resources (over $1 billion in the anti-Houthi operations since October 2023) with no congressional war authority, or any obvious oversight at all. Washington is just too distracted.

Interestingly, Trump has all but pledged to "rain hell" on another country (Yemen) to destroy a militant group (Houthis) much like the Israeli government has vowed to relentlessly bomb Gaza to destroy Hamas. "Tremendous damage has been inflicted upon the Houthi barbarians, and watch how it will get progressively worse — It’s not even a fair fight, and never will be," Trump said on his Truth Social. "They will be completely annihilated!"

Analysts have long questioned, however, given the capabilities and guerrilla-like tactics of both groups, whether the goals of "destruction" can ever achieved without crippling the civilian populations of each place and diminishing the resources and credibility of the more powerful states.

“The idea that it is possible to destroy Hamas, to make Hamas vanish — that is throwing sand in the eyes of the public,” Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in June 2024 before his words were "clarified" by the government. They turned out, so far, to be very prescient.

For whatever reason the Hegseth-led Pentagon is doing this, it might want to consider the consequences short and longterm — the limits on our already stretched military and the instability/humanitarian crisis it will cause in Yemen after "a month or so" of airstrikes. If that is not compelling enough, how about the constant danger that this is putting our Navy in, and for what? For shipping costs? For Israel? To send a "message" to Iran, which likely no longer has control over the Houthis anyway?

Perhaps this is too much of a price to pay and we keep our powder dry for actual national security threats, and interests, to come.

(*Editor's note: This article has been edited to reflect correct number of deaths in the Houthi attacks since October 2023).