The targeting of another U.S.-owned commercial ship Wednesday shows the militant group remains intent on continuing its attacks in the face of multiple rounds of U.S. military airstrikes.

The Houthis launched anti-ship ballistic missiles at the U.S.-owned, flagged and operated commercial ship Maersk Detroit as it was transiting the Gulf of Aden, according to a statement from the U.S. Central Command. The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Gravely shot down two missiles and a third fell into the water. There were no indications of damage or injuries in the attack.

The U.S. military has been conducting airstrikes against the Houthis to degrade their capabilities since Jan.11, after several weeks of attacks on commercial ships by the militant group.

  • @doublejay1999@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I do think this is a strategic miss step from the Hooti Bros. Attacking global trade is the fast track to be on the wrong end of universally approved military actions .

    …and I have a horrible feeling Iran might just be about to order in some Freedom & Democracy . US and UK are in election cycles, and tough looking leaders win votes .

    • I'm back on my BS 🤪
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      65 months ago

      Now that you mentioned the freedom and democracy order, I wonder if there’s a connection with Biden sending the CIA director to Israel supposedly for peace negotiations.

    • @naturalgasbad@lemmy.ca
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      15 months ago

      Maersk said both vessels carried cargo belonging to the U.S. Defense and State Departments, as well as other government agencies, meaning they were “afforded the protection of the U.S. Navy for passage through the strait.”

    • @Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Darn Hoothi’s standing up to Genocide.

      America isn’t starting more wars because they can’t afford it, not because they’re so nice. The Hoothies can blow up Saudi’s oil infrastructure which is going to make this global shipping blockade look like a complete joke in comparison.

      Ukraine and israel are draining the budget. If America starts escalating the middle east they won’t be able to keep their aircraft carriers next to Taiwan. Fighting one war at a time is easy but it’s starting to stack up.

      Middle Eastern issues never seem to get solved with more violence. The freedom and democracy barrage is just going to backfire as it always has.

      • @Dead_or_Alive@lemmy.world
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        145 months ago

        lol Ukraine is a bargain. I think the US has spent maybe 2% of the entire military budget supplying Ukraine with weapons. In exchange we get to see the last large generation of Russians turned into fertilizer along with all of their frontline hardware.

        Israel is perfectly capable of turning the Gaza Strip into a moonscape without much support from the US.

        The US hasn’t even touched the hardware needed to take on China (long range missiles and aircraft). On top of that we now have a west that is more united than ever behind the American Hegemony.

        I think the US can afford to let a few off the chain and rain some good old fashioned freedom on a few Houthis.

        • @Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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          -95 months ago

          You’re talking like Goku is stronger than One Punch Man because he can go SSJ9001. War isn’t some attack power meter where the party with more attack power just magically wins. Tell me how more about how America just won against the Taliban.

          Israel’s iron meme system got wrecked by a bunch of Hamas fireworks. Their wall penetrated like it’s nothing. Just like how israel can flatten Gaza, Hezbollah can flatten israel. Everyone can flatten each other these days. Rockets and Drones are insanely cheap and stopping them is expensive.

          The question is if you think that’s a good solution to the problem. From behind your keyboard it must look really funny.

            • @Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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              -55 months ago

              War is never a good solution

              Yes.

              I prefer to be on the side making the craters than getting cratered.

              Everyone is getting cratered.

      • @doublejay1999@lemmy.world
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        65 months ago

        Good points each of them, and it’s why I wonder if the US might move to conclude some of them, rather than have them nagging on .

        • @Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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          -15 months ago

          America is probably going to drop and screw over Ukraine if the budget gets tight. But the Hoothi problem looks unsolvable with military force. Saudi tried that for quite a while with American weapons. And America just lost to the Taliban trying to do the same thing.

          By for the easiest solution is to reign in Netanyahu and stop the Genocide in Gaza. Hoothi demands are what I would call “normal to anyone that isn’t a genocidal maniac”.

          • @doublejay1999@lemmy.world
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            85 months ago

            Was about to say the same thing.

            Unless they want to keep grinding Putin by proxy, Big Z might be not be getting his calls returned.

      • @jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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        55 months ago

        Comment is being reported, but I don’t really see anything actionable here. My only request would be to please not minimalize the Houthi movement by calling them “Hoothies”, I mean it’s spelled correctly right there in the subject.

        Going down the low hanging fruit road starts butting uncomfortably close to racism and I know you didn’t mean it that way.

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houthi_movement

      • @uSpetzWon@lemmy.world
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        05 months ago

        The problem so far has been that “more violence” has not been “enough violence”. Apply enough and there will be a peace.

  • cooljacob204
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    5 months ago

    Man tankies just really infest the fediverse. I wish reality was as simple as they like to pretend it is.

    • @Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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      -335 months ago

      Saying that you support the Houthis in their efforts to stop genocide does not mean you agree with everything they stand for.

      You don’t have to unequivocally support a group to encorse one specific action.

      • Heresy_generator
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        515 months ago

        Attacking civilian ships with civilian crews does nothing to stop genocide; it’s just terrorism.

          • splicerslicer
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            135 months ago

            By that definition my company toyota Corolla is a valid military target. My brother in Christ Google the definition of “civilian”. Literally anyone or anything not government related qualifies. These ships have “relations” with almost every country, that’s how international commerce works you dumbass.

            • @Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              That’s absolutely false all the targets were directly linked with israel. And now it’s expanded to include all countries that fired missles on Yemen.

              Try smuggling goods into Iran or Russia with your Toyota Corolla and if you get caught tell them you are driving a civilian vehicle. I hear that makes everything legal.

              If you’re delivering supplies to a Nazi group committing genocide you’re not called a “civilian”.

              The Yemeni have designed it terrorist ships. Contrary to everything you believe America isn’t the only nation in the world able to design targets as terror.

            • @Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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              -55 months ago

              Genocide stops == Houthis blockade lifts.

              That easy. Instead of trying to be a genocide enabler consider criticizing the israelis that just shot a tank at 20 Palestinians waiting in line for food aid.

        • @naturalgasbad@lemmy.ca
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          -185 months ago

          Maersk said both vessels carried cargo belonging to the U.S. Defense and State Departments, as well as other government agencies, meaning they were “afforded the protection of the U.S. Navy for passage through the strait.”

          Don’t fall for propaganda like a dumbass. These two ships were carrying DOD cargo.

          • @Jimmyeatsausage@lemmy.world
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            75 months ago

            Good point. The civilian sailors clearly deserve it. After all, they get to pick and choose which cargo they carry… just like the Palestinians got to pick their own government and chose terrorists.

            If they were good little wage-slaves, they’d have quit and starved until they found a morally pure capitalist to work for.

        • @Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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          -45 months ago

          I don’t recall the Houthis ever blockading the red sea before.

          Somalia had some pirates but that was just literal theft and extortion. And that’s not the Houthis.

          Mind linking what you are talking about?

          • @Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.world
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            15 months ago

            Somalian Pirates were actually often protecting their territorial waters from foreign opportunists plundering in the collapse of the Somalian government. The framing as pirates only works in the sense that these weren’t state-driven fleets, but rather civilian driven in order to protect their livelihoods against corporate raiders.

          • @supercriticalcheese@lemmy.world
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            05 months ago

            It’s a militia islamic militia, do you think they haven’t done the same thing as Israel does to their population, or a subset of their population?

            It’s just a way to grab the attention span of everyone which helps their recruitment.

            • @Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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              You’re really trying to defend israel’s genocide in any possible way. “No they allowed to stop genocide, they are the bad guys!”

              I’m not here to simp for whatever war crimes they did internally. Just this specific action isn’t one you should denounce.

              There was a Houthi spokesperson on BBC. They told him the same thing. His response was very simple.

              If other groups want to enhance their popularity by stopping genocide they’re very welcome to do so.

              How about you go stop israel’s genocide if you don’t want the Houthi’s to do it?

              https://youtu.be/z4HguzMRW1M

  • @Red_October@lemmy.world
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    265 months ago

    So instead of fucking off, they’re still fucking around. Well, there’s plenty of Find Out to go around.

    • @chuckleslord@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Oh wait, I thought your comment was about American cargo ships. I’m like “fuck yeah! That’s punk rock, they should respect the protest (mostly cause the protest comes with missiles) and go around. Never cross a pocket line, bruv” but I think I misread the situation.

    • @Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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      -145 months ago

      Yeah because more military action is going to stop terrorism! Have people learned NOTHING from the Bush administration and the wars they started??

        • @Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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          -15 months ago

          I don’t know. I don’t have to in order to recognize the fact that military action only exacerbates the problem by making it easier to radicalize the people whose loved ones are killed, though.

          • @assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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            25 months ago

            Normally I’d agree, but the Houthis can stop all hostilities by stopping attacking international trade vessels. That isn’t a difficult ask. They can even try to use this as leverage to get other things they want.

            • @Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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              -25 months ago

              the Houthis can stop all hostilities by stopping attacking international trade vessels.

              Yeah, that’s bullshit. A Saudi-led coalition has been bombing the shit out of them with American weapons for several years now.

              I don’t in any way condone terrorism under any circumstances, but to pretend that there’s not been any previous acts of oppressive violence to radicalize them is as unhelpful as it is (wilfully?) ignorant.

              • @assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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                15 months ago

                I don’t disagree there, but this is what I meant by leverage. “We’ll stop attacking if you stop helping the Saudis”. It wasn’t too long ago that the Houthis actually considered the US as a friendly state.

                • @Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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                  -25 months ago

                  Wilfully ignorant it is.

                  There’s no way the US government is ever going to make any such deal, much less honor it.

          • trevor
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            5 months ago

            And even if you’re a ghoul and think that complying with that very reasonable demand wouldn’t stop the Houthis, why not call their bluff? It costs us nothing to simply stop allowing the genocide to happen, and if the Houthis continue attacking ships, then you have a much more legitimate reason to go after them.

            Or are the people that are in favor of bombing Yemen just really eager to bomb?

            • @SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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              135 months ago

              The Saudis have been bombing it for Allah knows how long, so it’s business as usual for everyone involved.

              • trevor
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                75 months ago

                That’s neither here, nor there. The answer isn’t to make the bombing in Yemen worse.

                If the only demand is to stop genociding Palestinians, then the US government should simply stop supporting Israel in their genocide.

                If the Houthis continue attacking ships after that, then by all means, do what you need to do to handle the Houthis. But the US government can’t even be bothered to call for a ceasefire, so they leave it up to militant groups to act.

                • @assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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                  35 months ago

                  They are actually in the process of calling for a ceasefire. Biden pissed off Netanyahu as well. There’s diplomacy in the background to get a ceasefire and more hostages freed.

              • @chuckleslord@lemmy.world
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                55 months ago

                “Violence is being done to this group at such an alarming rate that it’s being treated as normal. So violence is fine, they’re used to it”

                That’s what that sounded like to me.

              • @Aceticon@lemmy.world
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                25 months ago

                And were doing it with bombs sold to them by the US and UK.

                I wouldn’t be surprised if the serial numbers on some of the stuff the US and UK is now dropping directly on the Houtis shows them to be from the same batches as some of the stuff that was dropped on them via the Saudis.

                The idea that the US and UK cutting off the middleman to keep on doing to the Houtis what has been done to them for a decade, is going to make the Houtis change their minds, is hilarious.

            • @Fades@lemmy.world
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              45 months ago

              It CoStS us nOtHiNg

              You really don’t know what you’re talking about when it comes to policy. It’s not just a simple “okay let’s cut ties with Israel”.

              • trevor
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                25 months ago

                Calling for a cease fire isn’t “cutting ties with Israel”, and if you think that funding a genocidal ethnostate is a necessary part of foreign policy, your foreign policy would have been very helpful for the Axis Powers, you absolute monster.

                • @SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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                  25 months ago

                  They actually might throw a hissy fit if we withhold aid and expel US diplomats or something. We’d lose a major base in the middle east, but (if you’ll allow for a little American exceptionalism) they don’t call the fucking shots here.

          • @SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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            25 months ago

            Sure, agreed, probably. I don’t believe one atrocity justifies another though (like the holocaust doesn’t justify… Literally anything they’ve used it as justification for), and the problem is the houthis aren’t just fucking with US and Israeli related ships, they’re impacting global trade.

            Backing down in the face of violence (even if it is the correct thing to do in this particular situation) only empowers them to cause more violence because it works. That’s why the US doesn’t (typically) negotiate with terrorists.

            • NoneOfUrBusiness
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              -15 months ago

              Yeah I’m not saying the Houthis are right here (they’re being too indiscriminate), but giving into their demands is objectively the morally correct action. They’re using a wrong method to make a correct point.

            • @SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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              125 months ago

              So they never declared safe zones, then dropped bombs on those safe zones? Or walked the streets shooting people literally standing there? Or shot a guy holding a white flag minutes after he gave an interview? Or shot Israeli hostages holding a white flag by mistake because they thought they were Palestinians?

              • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】
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                5 months ago

                Blah blah blah. Research even one of the claims you’re repeating. There have been warnings on warnings. Yes. Even after telling people to evacuate south and then certain buildings on the route being blown up, additional texts and calls were sent to warn people in the area of the bombings.

                There’s been about seven people shot holding white flags, and pretending to be hostages with white flags is one of Hamas’s martyrdom tactics, designed to cause people like you to have sympathy for actual terrorists.

                • @SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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                  The idf literally reported killing 3 hostages themselves. And there’s video evidence of people standing in the road doing nothing when they were shot.

            • NoIWontPickaName
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              85 months ago

              So killing people holding white flags with their hands up are a threat?

              How about all the innocent children and babies?

              Also Hamas?

              • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】
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                No, they’re innocent children and babies. And it’s very sad that Hamas uses them as human shields. That is part of their terrorism.

                The sooner the world gets rid of Hamas, the sooner the people of Palestine might have a chance at a normal life.

                It’s a shame that Hamas has such high support in Palestine and they took that support and used it to dig a bunch of collapsing tunnels underneath their cities, buy bombs and rockets, and then murder 1,200 innocent civilians and first responders to provoke a significantly more powerful force, betraying their people and their land.

                Like yeah it’s very sad that all these kids are dying. It is atrocious. However it is the fault of Hamas. They are the ones stopping people from leaving everytime they are warned to do so.

                You can look up the warnings yourself, images and recordings. Look up one of these civilian catastrophes that you’re so concerned about and instead of just repeating the 140 character talking point you read on Qatari state media or something, see what actually happened.

                I’m not making excuses for the couple dozen or so actual war crimes that have occurred. And I will even admit that the IDF has a culture of disregard. But the idea that all of these bombings are simply indiscriminate targeting of civilians is absolutely bullshit nonsense, divorced from reality and unsupported by facts available to anyone within thirty seconds of research.

                • NoIWontPickaName
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                  No one said all, I’m sure a few of the bombings were legitimate, but if you want me to trust a word out of the IDF’s mouth, you better show me forty decapitated babies and people that are named after the days of the week.

                  Israel lost all moral backing when they decided to use dumb bombs to kill 10’s of thousands

                  Israel says they have killed 9000 Hamas soldiers, destroyed fucking only God knows how many buildings and they are attacking un facilities.
                  you will have to forgive me I’m sure all of this is just antisemitism

            • @jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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              25 months ago

              Removed, rule 6 misinformation:

              “virtually every single civilian killed was warned to evacuate and warned again before they got blown up.”

              Also rule 5, keep it civil, calling another user a “useful idiot”.

              Just in this thread alone, you have multiple counts against you warranting a ban.

      • @Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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        -65 months ago

        You do realize that Americans get boners from this, right? Americans LOVE getting attacked so they can use their billions of dollars worth of weapons that they’ve been hoarding. Then resell it.

  • AutoTL;DRB
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    35 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    The targeting of another U.S.-owned commercial ship Wednesday shows the militant group remains intent on continuing its attacks in the face of multiple rounds of U.S. military airstrikes.

    The Houthis launched anti-ship ballistic missiles at the U.S.-owned, flagged and operated commercial ship Maersk Detroit as it was transiting the Gulf of Aden, according to a statement from the U.S. Central Command.

    The  U.S. has launched multiple rounds of two different types of airstrikes — those hitting a wider range of targets, like storage sites and radar capabilities, and also preemptive strikes aiming at Houthi missiles as they’re loaded onto launchers to prepare for an attack.

    But again, our hope is that we can restore security and stability to the Red Sea, and we’ll continue to work toward that end," Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said this week.

    The Houthis began launching these attacks in November to protest the war in Gaza, but many of the commercial ships they’ve targeted have no connection to Israel, U.S. officials say.

    These attacks, combined with the others that Iran-backed groups are launching at U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria add to the widening tensions in the Middle East since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas.


    The original article contains 420 words, the summary contains 205 words. Saved 51%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • @Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
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    15 months ago

    The US needs to put out some “Bait Ships” where they just sail around the seas in the hope that pirates try and take it, but instead of a crew of civilians there’s a military crew just waiting to strike.

    • @AA5B@lemmy.world
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      15 months ago

      Or let’s just station a flock of Reapers over where they tend to launch so the response is fast enough to catch the perpetrators

  • @bmsok@lemmy.world
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    -25 months ago

    The entire city of Detroit is about to ask “The fuck you doing fuckin’ with our big ass ship?”

    • kick_out_the_jams
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      5 months ago

      It doesn’t prevent terrorism, but where the hits land it does usually stop whatever is going on.

      • @Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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        15 months ago

        In the very short term yeah, but in the longer term it INCREASES terrorism by making it easier for terrorists to radicalize people who lost loved ones.

          • @Aceticon@lemmy.world
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            05 months ago

            It’s funny because the Houtis are a mountain tribe, just like the Taliban in Afghanistan.

            Not even an International cohalition and over a hundred thousand “boots on the ground” managed to stop the Taliban for good and you think that “this time is different” and bombing alone a similar tribe will do it???!

            • @evranch@lemmy.ca
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              45 months ago

              Unlike the Taliban, nobody cares about “defeating” the Houthis, though. Taking away their ability to harass shipping is all that matters, and that can be done by monitoring and bombing launch sites.

              If the USA didn’t care about the optics, they could just flatten the Houthi launch infrastructure tomorrow, then smack down anything that they tried to rebuild. Ballistic and cruise missiles are large and hard to hide, and they have to be imported from Iran.

              It’s not like Hamas with their homemade unguided rocket barrages into a populated area, ships are small and the ocean is huge. You need a decent missile to actually hit anything.

          • @Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Not without killing a shitload of innocent civilians, which is THE most effective way to create MORE terrorism.

            • @Fades@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              Innocent civilians? You’re just talking out of your ass now. These strikes are on launch sites not a town square.

              By hitting launch sites innocent ships can pass without being attacked and killed

            • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】
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              -65 months ago

              Create more terrorism where? These people are in increasingly small, llittle spit of sand that nobody gives a fuck about. And if the people there want the Houthis in charge, then they can share the sand with them. The walls will continue closing in and the bombs will continue falling wherever rockets are coming from.

                • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】
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                  35 months ago

                  Actually a villian will subjugate women and minorites, force them to wear black robes and burkas in the fucking desert sun, and then launch rockets at civilians left and right. That’s your people! You should go fucking live with them.