Joe Biden’s Houthi problem

In a joint offensive assault launched Thursday evening with the United Kingdom, the United States finally struck Iranian-backed Houthi targets in Yemen. The Houthis had been attacking U.S. Navy ships and commercial shipping in the Red Sea for months.  

The straw that broke the camel’s back occurred on Jan. 10 – the 26th attack in the Red Sea since Nov. 19 – when Houthi rebels launched what the Associated Press described as their “largest-ever barrage of drones and missiles targeting shipping in the Red Sea, forcing the United States and British navies to shoot down the projectiles in a major naval engagement.” 

The White House released a statement after the joint attack, saying, “These strikes are in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea.” 

U.S. Central Command reported that F-18 fighter-jets operating from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower alongside a naval task force consisting of one United Kingdom destroyer and three American destroyers were forced to destroy “18 [Houthi] drones, two cruise missiles, and an anti-ship missile.”

Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, the U.S. Air Force Central and Combined Forces Air Component Commander, described the attack as “deliberate strikes on over 60 targets at 16 Iranian-backed Houthi militant locations … with over 100 precision-guided munitions.”

Unfortunately, the White House’s statement about the joint strike, which it called a “defensive action,” completely ignored Iran’s role in the region and downplayed the on-going risks that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) poses to U.S. national security interests across the Middle East.

Iran called the attacks “an effort to extend the full support of the US and UK in approximately the past 100 days for the war crimes of the Zionist regime against the Palestinian people and the besieged citizens of Gaza.” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani added that, “These attacks are a clear violation of Yemen’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a breach of international laws.” 

But why did it take so long? 

The Biden administration had painted itself into a box. The mere presence of U.S. forces in the Red Sea alongside their Operation Prosperity Guardian partners – a coalition of more than 20 nations committed to defending international shipping – had not been deterring Houthi attacks; rather, it was emboldening them.  

Furthermore, in December 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told President Biden that Israel would “act militarily against Yemen’s Houthi movement if the United States” failed to do so. 

The White House could not go at this alone and enlisted UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to authorize the joint military strike. They also secured support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands. 

To avoid regional escalation and separate themselves from the ongoing battle between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, they announced that the strike’s purpose was to help secure the “free flow of international commerce” in the Red Sea. But it runs much deeper than that. 

The Biden administration continues to ignore Iran. Whatever message it hoped to send to the Houthi rebels did not resonate, and Iran will simply continue to leverage its proxies throughout the region to disrupt commercial shipping, threaten U.S. forces and continue its assault on Israel. Iran is the cancer, and it has metastasized throughout the Middle East. 

The absence of any mention of Iran in the president’s post-strike statement essentially greenlights Tehran and the IRGC to use its proxies to continue to wreak havoc across the Middle East.  

Iran needs a punch in the face — a bloody nose. As with Russian President Vladimir Putin, that is the only message Iran’s leaders understand. To date, only Israel has delivered that message when it launched an airstrike on Dec. 25killing General Seyed Razi Mousavi, an IRGC adviser in Damascus, Syria, then again on Dec. 29,when it killed another 11 IRGC officials at the Damascus International Airport. 

A defiant Supreme Political Council, the Houthis’ executive body, vowed to continue targeting ships in the strategic waterways, adding that “all American-British interests have become legitimate targets.” It added that the attacks on vessels were aimed at preventing the “transit of Israeli ships or those carrying goods to the occupied Palestinian ports,” and said it would carry on “whatever the cost.” 

One of those “legitimate targets” mentioned by the Council could be the U.S. base in Djibouti, Camp Lemonnier, home of the Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa. The base is home to more than 4,000 American and allied service members and Department of Defense contractors, and is well within the range of Houthi drones and missiles. 

The president needs to send a stronger message to the Iranians and their Houthi proxies — or the conflict will escalate.  

Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Sweet served 30 years as a military intelligence officer and led the U.S. European Command Intelligence Engagement Division from 2012 to 2014. Mark Toth, an economist and entrepreneur, is a former board member of the World Trade Center, St. Louis.