Originally Posted by
Lonewolf_50
The short attention span answer is:
"To degrade the ability of the Houthi to interdict Red Sea merchant traffic"
and
"To limit Houthi capacity to act"
Who does this benefit? Any of our allies who use those shipping lanes, and in particular Egypt who stands to lose substantial revenue from further Suez diversions. Helping an ally in the region helps the overall posture.
At a more fundamental level, the unrestricted flow of international commerce is in America's national security interest. (Has been for well over a century)
There is your staff college style answer, for what it's worth.
Whether or not that translates into more merchant carriers returning to their normal maritime trade route remains to be seen.
The risk analysists at Lloyds and elsewhere, and the shipping companies, are certainly playing their own games on their own terms.
The core problem with your question is that it looks at that op through a paper towel roll tube.
Seems to me a bit of a category error to assess that in isolation, as though it exists in its own context.
Are you familiar with the DIME model? This op, as I assess it, is supporting the "I" in DIME.
Your answer is the standard default response of the State Department and US Military. Maybe it is time to think differently. The Houthi's publicly stated enemy is the US and Israel. As long as Op Prosperity Guardian is an American op, and lets be clear the other countries assets, including Canada's are window dressing, the US is giving the Houthi's what they want, an enemy to shoot at. Every attack makes them stronger, every failure to degrade their combat capability ( hence my whack a mole comment) makes the US weaker. So the question is, is this op enhancing or degrading the national security interests of the US ?
Your overtly dismissive attitude towards even contemplating doing anything else, is I would suggest mirrored, throughout the US Government and Military. Supporting Israel is not an option, deterring Iran is not an option, providing a foil for a despotic terrorist group running a section of one of the poorest counties in the world, to ostensibly protect a trade route which has viable alternatives; is a choice.
At the end of the day despite everything I said Op Prosperity Guardian may still be worth doing, but I really question whether any alternatives were seriously considered before the haze grey cans of kick ass rolled in.
By the way nobody serous talks about DIME anymore. Everyone uses the MIDFIELD model now.