Houthis successfully sink a ship in the Red Sea

[The Economy is Getting Worse]

https://apnews.com/article/yemen-houthi-rebels-rubymar-sinks-red-sea-fb64a490ce935756337ee3606e15d093

[dead0man]

that'll show them Jews to stop fighting Hamas!  Sinking a Lebanese ran, Belize owned ship, shipping fertilizer from UAE to Belarus will really teach the world a lesson about supporting the apartheid state.

[Birdish]

that'll show them Jews to stop fighting Hamas!  Sinking a Lebanese ran, Belize owned ship, shipping fertilizer from UAE to Belarus will really teach the world a lesson about supporting the apartheid state.

Not to mention all the oil thats going to be drenching Yemen's beaches and killing the fish keeping the already starving Yemeni people fed.

[longtimelurker]

that'll show them Jews to stop fighting Hamas!  Sinking a Lebanese ran, Belize owned ship, shipping fertilizer from UAE to Belarus will really teach the world a lesson about supporting the apartheid state.

Not to mention all the oil thats going to be drenching Yemen's beaches and killing the fish keeping the already starving Yemeni people fed.

It's already  been noted as a major environmental disaster.  I wonder if "environmentalists" such as Greta Thunberg, Extinction Rebellion, and others who support the armed opposition to Israel will acknowledge this. 

https://apnews.com/article/red-sea-environment-cargo-ship-sinking-houthis-1e130e15ca0863ab40966ea9676cf42b

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

May whoever sunk this ship reap what he had sowed.

[dead0man]

since Iran paid for the missile and have encouraged this kind of thing, Iran should pay for the cleanup

[CumbrianLefty]

that'll show them Jews to stop fighting Hamas!  Sinking a Lebanese ran, Belize owned ship, shipping fertilizer from UAE to Belarus will really teach the world a lesson about supporting the apartheid state.

It is quite funny that Belarus is the biggest loser in this, ngl.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

that'll show them Jews to stop fighting Hamas!  Sinking a Lebanese ran, Belize owned ship, shipping fertilizer from UAE to Belarus will really teach the world a lesson about supporting the apartheid state.

It is quite funny that Belarus is the biggest loser in this, ngl.

I'd say that Yemen is the biggest loser given the environmental consequences, but Belarus is a clear second.

[Ⓐnarchy in the ☭☭☭P!]

https://twitter.com/philippilk/status/1757830251625820283

https://twitter.com/Seamus_Malek/status/1765025273571942526

[CumbrianLefty]

that'll show them Jews to stop fighting Hamas!  Sinking a Lebanese ran, Belize owned ship, shipping fertilizer from UAE to Belarus will really teach the world a lesson about supporting the apartheid state.

It is quite funny that Belarus is the biggest loser in this, ngl.

I'd say that Yemen is the biggest loser given the environmental consequences, but Belarus is a clear second.

Yemen always loses, though.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

that'll show them Jews to stop fighting Hamas!  Sinking a Lebanese ran, Belize owned ship, shipping fertilizer from UAE to Belarus will really teach the world a lesson about supporting the apartheid state.

It is quite funny that Belarus is the biggest loser in this, ngl.

I'd say that Yemen is the biggest loser given the environmental consequences, but Belarus is a clear second.

Yemen always loses, though.

Fair point.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

https://twitter.com/philippilk/status/1757830251625820283

https://twitter.com/Seamus_Malek/status/1765025273571942526

I get an unpleasant vibe here that you're fine with this?

[LostFellow]

snip

I get an unpleasant vibe here that you're fine with this?

It's been quite obvious that while ModernBourbonDemocrat isn't a spammy troll and provides the occasional informative and detailed pro-palestine opinion that this forum at times lacks, it's hard to characterize their espoused values as "pro-social" in any way.

[Ⓐnarchy in the ☭☭☭P!]

I get an unpleasant vibe here that you're fine with this?

Do I need to explicitly say that the Houthis are not good guys and that firing missiles at passing shipping is wrong? Actually, Hasan Piker exists so I guess I do. No, I'm not fine with this.

The point is that Biden's one dimensional response has clearly failed. We've gone from dire threats and "don't touch our boats" (just look at the thread covering the crisis two months ago) to Atlantic writers calling them "unstoppable"^*. The Houthis aren't deterred and the sophistication of their attacks has only grown since Anglo-American airstrikes began. Bombs and bribes aren't achieving anything aside from giving the Houthis Arab street cred. The greatest naval power in human history (plus some European countries, minus the French who actually have a coherent strategy) is getting mogged by a militia from the Middle East's poorest country that doesn't even have a real navy.  The whole world is watching the perception of American hegemony crumble like sand thanks to shortsighted, politically driven decisions and yet the level of discourse and media coverage can't get beyond "Pirates bad! Sinking ships bad! Bomb Yemen now!" vs "Pirates good! Houthis = Luffy from One Piece!"

But while the strategy may be aimless, at least the US Navy has generally succeeded at the narrow task of intercepting Houthi missiles coming their way and not getting hit. The same can't be said for the German Navy: they sent a frigate to help with interceptions, misidentified an MQ-9 as a Houthi drone (in their defense, the USN initially said it wasn't theirs) and fired two missiles at it, both of which malfunctioned. 

* They changed the title but it still features a passage that reads like it came from a 1920s Orientalist:

The houthi spokesman was right on time for our meeting. I was a little surprised by his appearance; I had half expected to see a swaggering tribesman of the kind I used to meet in Yemen—mouth bulging with khat leaves, a shawl over his shoulders and a curved dagger in his belt. Instead, Abdelmalek al-Ejri was a neat-looking fellow in a blue-tartan blazer and a button-down shirt. He kept a physical distance as he greeted me, his manner polite but guarded, as if to register that we stood on opposite sides of a chasm.

[GeneralMacArthur]

I dunno about "American hegemony crumbling", America could invade Yemen and do to the Houthis what Israel is doing to Hamas right now if we wanted to, and no American ships have been hit afaik.  While it would be nice if we could secure the whole area and protect Lebanese ships carrying fertilizer to Belarus, that's hardly America's promise to the world and I feel like Biden would rather handle this by just waiting it out until Hamas is defeated than escalate into an invasion of Yemen or devote enough resources to protect every single cargo ship.

Egypt should really be taking more of a lead on this since they're losing business through the Suez Canal over this.  It's really obnoxious how everyone always expects America to solve the Middle East's problems and then whines and complains about us having any sort of military presence in the Middle East.

The Houthis are just a proxy for Iran and even if defeated another similar group will rise up to replace them in five years, especially if Iran is able to keep Yemen in a state of civil war.  This all will continue until the Iranian regime is toppled.  The main place where some permanent headway can be made right now is in Israel where the Iranian puppet army Hamas can be killed and Gaza occupied and rebuilt as a police state fortified against Iranian influence.

[CumbrianLefty]

Again, silly simplistic clickbait media headlines maybe shouldn't be indulged so much by some.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I get an unpleasant vibe here that you're fine with this?

Do I need to explicitly say that the Houthis are not good guys and that firing missiles at passing shipping is wrong? Actually, Hasan Piker exists so I guess I do. No, I'm not fine with this.

The point is that Biden's one dimensional response has clearly failed. We've gone from dire threats and "don't touch our boats" (just look at the thread covering the crisis two months ago) to Atlantic writers calling them "unstoppable"^*. The Houthis aren't deterred and the sophistication of their attacks has only grown since Anglo-American airstrikes began. Bombs and bribes aren't achieving anything aside from giving the Houthis Arab street cred. The greatest naval power in human history (plus some European countries, minus the French who actually have a coherent strategy) is getting mogged by a militia from the Middle East's poorest country that doesn't even have a real navy.  The whole world is watching the perception of American hegemony crumble like sand thanks to shortsighted, politically driven decisions and yet the level of discourse and media coverage can't get beyond "Pirates bad! Sinking ships bad! Bomb Yemen now!" vs "Pirates good! Houthis = Luffy from One Piece!"

But while the strategy may be aimless, at least the US Navy has generally succeeded at the narrow task of intercepting Houthi missiles coming their way and not getting hit. The same can't be said for the German Navy: they sent a frigate to help with interceptions, misidentified an MQ-9 as a Houthi drone (in their defense, the USN initially said it wasn't theirs) and fired two missiles at it, both of which malfunctioned. 

* They changed the title but it still features a passage that reads like it came from a 1920s Orientalist:

The houthi spokesman was right on time for our meeting. I was a little surprised by his appearance; I had half expected to see a swaggering tribesman of the kind I used to meet in Yemen—mouth bulging with khat leaves, a shawl over his shoulders and a curved dagger in his belt. Instead, Abdelmalek al-Ejri was a neat-looking fellow in a blue-tartan blazer and a button-down shirt. He kept a physical distance as he greeted me, his manner polite but guarded, as if to register that we stood on opposite sides of a chasm.

Yeah, that (the bit I bolded) is the thing. It was a genuine question, unfortunately; thanks for clarifying.