Does anyone remember the NY Times running a piece like this when Biden-Harris was attacking the Houthis?
U.S. Strikes in Yemen Burning Through Munitions With Limited Success
President Trump said this week that Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen have been “decimated by the relentless strikes” that he ordered beginning on March 15.
But that’s not what Pentagon and military officials are privately telling Congress and allied countries.
In closed briefings in recent days, Pentagon officials have acknowledged that there has been only limited success in destroying the Houthis’ vast, largely underground arsenal of missiles, drones and launchers, according to congressional aides and allies.
The officials briefed on confidential damage assessments say the bombing is consistently heavier than strikes conducted by the Biden administration, and much bigger than what the Defense Department has publicly described.
But Houthi fighters, known for their resiliency, have reinforced many of their bunkers and other targeted sites, frustrating the Americans’ ability to disrupt the militia’s missile attacks against commercial ships in the Red Sea, according to three congressional and allied officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.
And are those three officials telling the truth, since they most likely work for Democrats? Why does it seem that the Times is thrilled that there may only be limited success against the Houthis, instead of cheering for the US to hurt them so they stop attacking US, and other nation’s, ships?
In just three weeks, the Pentagon has used $200 million worth of munitions, in addition to the immense operational and personnel costs to deploy two aircraft carriers, additional B-2 bombers and fighter jets, as well as Patriot and THAAD air defenses to the Middle East, the officials said.
The total cost could be well over $1 billion by next week, and the Pentagon might soon need to request supplemental funds from Congress, one U.S. official said.
So many precision munitions are being used, especially advanced long-range ones, that some Pentagon contingency planners are growing concerned about overall Navy stocks and implications for any situation in which the United States would have to ward off an attempted invasion of Taiwan by China.
Suddenly the Times is concerned about stockpiles, after cheering as Biden sent tons of weapons to Ukraine with limited success? Oh, brother.
But, wait, what’s this deeper into the article, where a goodly chunk of people will have already stopped reading because of the 30 second or 3 paragraphs rule?
A senior Pentagon official late Thursday pushed back on the assessments described by the congressional and allied officials.
The senior official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, said the airstrikes had exceeded their goal in the campaign’s initial phase, disrupting senior Houthi leaders’ ability to communicate, limiting the group’s response to a handful of ineffective counter strikes, and setting the conditions for subsequent phases, which he declined to discuss. “We’re on track,” the official said.
So, someone in the actual know says the strikes are working. Huh. And much deeper
Mr. Trump said this week that U.S. strikes would continue until the Houthis “are no longer a threat to Freedom of Navigation.” He warned “the real pain is yet to come” if they did not stop.
On March 15, Mr. Trump also singled out Iran’s rulers.
“To Iran: Support for the Houthi terrorists must end IMMEDIATELY!” he wrote. “Do NOT threaten the American People, their President, who has received one of the largest mandates in Presidential History, or Worldwide shipping lanes. If you do, BEWARE, because America will hold you fully accountable.”
How’s that working out?
Iran abandons Houthis under relentless US bombardment
Iran has ordered military personnel to leave Yemen, abandoning its Houthi allies as the US escalates an air strike campaign against the rebel group.
A senior Iranian official said the move aimed to avoid direct confrontation with the US if an Iranian soldier was killed.
The official said Iran was also scaling back its strategy of supporting a network of regional proxies to focus on the direct threats from the US instead.
Tehran’s primary concern, the source said, was “Trump and how to deal with him”.
Weird the Times forgot to mention this.