Current Affairs Iran

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tsubaki said:
The point I was making pete is that the Houthis are not attacking every ship attempting to transit the straits. It is a lot less than one per day, with zero sunk, one or two seized and (I think) zero casualties to the ships crews or passengers. Yes, they sent drones to attack a US carrier battle group - which would be like attacking with paper planes, something the person who launched the attack would know.

Yet for some reason we are about to risk a regional conflagration because of.... what, exactly? We are not allied (at least in terms of a defensive alliance) with Israel, no British-flagged vessel has been hit, we aren't at risk of attack as a country from these people and all of our regional allies publicly want nothing to do with this.

It reeks of the same sort of thing that has led to so many recent disasters in our foreign policy - we must do something. Never mind the risks, the damage to our reputation, the likelihood of civilian casualties, the low probability it would achieve even short term aims, the small contribution we would make to the strikes - we must do something.
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The thing that keeps a great power from having to use its military all the time  is its reputation for doing something. What keeps the US and UK from stomping on fires all over the globe all day, every day is the expectation that when they say they'll do something, they'll do it. That limits the conflicts to just the ones where the small fry says, "We don't care what you do to us." That happens, but not all that often in the grand scheme of things.

If the US and UK turn a blind eye to piracy, you can expect it to be used as a political tool whenever feasible going forward, and you can expect non-state actors in failed states to add it to their organized crime toolkit. Neither the US nor the UK wants that, because in our infinite wisdom we created an economy where we import raw materials from elsewhere and produce finished goods from the imports, and we exported entirely the pollution from lighter industry like clothing and electronics.

So we tell prospective pirates that we will hunt them down like we're Liam Neeson in Taken, then do it, because otherwise it's the supply chain disruptions from COVID all over again. It doesn't matter whether the problem is longshoremen unable and unwilling to work, or empty berths in port because shipping companies can't find people willing to take on the safety risks at wages low enough for the companies to operate. The political masters take the heat from failed policy either way.
 

UK acted in self-defence, Sunak says​

We've now had some comment from UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
"The Royal Air Force has carried out targeted strikes against military facilities used by Houthi rebels in Yemen.
"In recent months, the Houthi militia have carried out a series of dangerous and destabilising attacks against commercial shipping in the Red Sea, threatening UK and other international ships, causing major disruption to a vital trade route and driving up commodity prices.
"Their reckless actions are risking lives at sea and exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
"Despite the repeated warnings from the international community, the Houthis have continued to carry out attacks in the Red Sea, including against UK and US warships just this week.
"This cannot stand.
"The United Kingdom will always stand up for freedom of navigation and the free flow of trade.
"We have therefore taken limited, necessary and proportionate action in self-defence, alongside the United States with non-operational support from the Netherlands, Canada and Bahrain against targets tied to these attacks, to degrade Houthi military capabilities and protect global shipping.
"The Royal Navy continues to patrol the Red Sea as part of the multinational Operation Prosperity Guardian to deter further Houthi aggression, and we urge them to cease their attacks and take steps to de-escalate."
 
Goat said:

UK acted in self-defence, Sunak says​

We've now had some comment from UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
"The Royal Air Force has carried out targeted strikes against military facilities used by Houthi rebels in Yemen.
"In recent months, the Houthi militia have carried out a series of dangerous and destabilising attacks against commercial shipping in the Red Sea, threatening UK and other international ships, causing major disruption to a vital trade route and driving up commodity prices.
"Their reckless actions are risking lives at sea and exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
"Despite the repeated warnings from the international community, the Houthis have continued to carry out attacks in the Red Sea, including against UK and US warships just this week.
"This cannot stand.
"The United Kingdom will always stand up for freedom of navigation and the free flow of trade.
"We have therefore taken limited, necessary and proportionate action in self-defence, alongside the United States with non-operational support from the Netherlands, Canada and Bahrain against targets tied to these attacks, to degrade Houthi military capabilities and protect global shipping.
"The Royal Navy continues to patrol the Red Sea as part of the multinational Operation Prosperity Guardian to deter further Houthi aggression, and we urge them to cease their attacks and take steps to de-escalate."
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It's royal navies planes sold to the saudi's and royal navy pilots that trained saudi pilots that've been attacking Yemeni's for the best part of a decade? So british involvement there is nothing new, more a case of 'this is how it's done, step aside and watch how the pro's do it' type attitude.
'Degrade houthi military capabilities' is a pretty wide descriptor, knocking out helicopters? bombing take off zones? destroying reconnaissance and radar monitoring stations? or some good old training camp/base removal?
 
Noisy noise annoys said:
Self defence? We’re in their back yard
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We’re in international waters, protecting commercial ships from attacks.

The Iranians have been playing the geopolitics game just as much as the US & UK. Proxy war in Yemen, meddling in Oman, assisting in deaths of civilians in Ukraine etc etc

They couldn’t give a [Poor language removed] about the Palestinians & couldn’t give a [Poor language removed] about Yemen. Attacking commercial ships from Panama & Bahamas isn’t “helping stop genocide” in Gaza, it’s escalating the likes of the US & UK into making decisions.

The Russians will be made up Iran made us act as it now splits the attention on two massive stages (well, until we announced that £1billion package this morning).

All we’ll hear now is the victimhood of the nasty West bombing indiscriminately Yemen when in reality they’ve hit several Houthi positions which given their record in Yemen seems like a result to me.

UK, US, Israel, Iran, China, Russia are all as bad as each other. There is no “good vs evil” narrative
 
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