Endless War Critic Trump Deploys US on New Front: Iran/Yemen

And we know this from Hegseth bragging about it on his discord account…

 

Someone should ask JD Vance if he approves "bailing out the Euros" again

 

Protecting American forces…unlike what the previous administration did

 

The Peace President

 

Trump didn't write that. No misspellings and it's not in all caps.

 

The U.S. has been bombing the Houthi’s since Obama, a lot of liberals didn’t approve those strikes but some conservatives tried to take it next level and frame it as something impeachable (that is the hypocrisy here, that those seeing it as impeachable in 2012 are gung-ho about it now).

Obama really favored drone strikes in the “war on terror”, and Trump continued that in his first term. For whatever reason late in Trumps first term the U.S. shifted away from drones and this continued under Biden. In 2024 Biden launched a massive air strike campaign against the Houthi’s to stop their attacks on shipping. I seem to recall several conservatives being against those airstrikes, stating language like “the U.S. is not the world’s police”. But in reality, this Trump admin letter seems like natural extension of U.S. policy, for better or worse. Just not sure how it lines up with the isolationist views many MAGA seem to have. It’s not a wild flip-flop on U.S. policy, but it is yet another wild MAGA flip flop from one extreme to the other.

 

I think I actually learned it from his wife's Facebook post.

 

I'm as big a supporter of the War Powers Resolution (1973) as you'll find, and these executive actions are wholly pursuant to it. The Congressional approval we are discussing is already stated in the legislation; no additional statutory authorization is necessary:

The consistent Houthi attacks on U.S. warships lawfully operating in vicinity of the Gulf of Aden clearly meet the conditions of third circumstance, and the President is authorized to introduce armed forces into hostilities. The WPR also has a number of reporting and consulting requirements, and the President seems to be meeting those as well according to this article. The rub you get to in not going to Congress for additional legislation eventually, even if authorization is not necessary, is if the operation in question cannot be achieved within the existing budget. I think the President is probably going to have to ask for more money eventually, but not permission to protect the warships that protect the commercial shipping lanes.

 

Google

 

I don't recall any such controversy over retaliatory bombing on the Houthis in 2009 and 2010 under authorization already granted to the President in 2001. I do recall such controversy a few years later over his dumbass decision to involve us in Libya without Congress or any threat whatsoever to us or our allies.

 

I recall some controversy when they extrajudicially killed an American citizen in Yemen, which culminated in the courts getting involved after journalists requested documents:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/21/court-rules-obama-administration-must-justify-targ/

There has been a long standing critique of the continuing use of the AUMF from 2001. I'm sure some of that has been partisan in nature. Like I dont see Rand Paul trying to repeal it at the moment.

 

One of the biggest controversies was the Al-Awhaki killing, because he was a U.S. citizen. This occurred in Yemen in 2011. Ron Paul even floated the idea of impeaching Obama as a result and I seem to remember several on the far right jumping on board with that (not unlike how some on the far right champion that American citizen “journalist” who was doing Russias work on the ground in Ukraine).

This guy was al-queda however, not a Houthi. I’m not an expert on the various Islamic sects, the Houthi’s and al-Queda are separate groups. I just recalled that this strike occurred in Yemen. Perhaps back then most of the strikes in Yemen were on al-queda and not so much the Houthi’s, for whatever that distinction is worth with the Houthi’s launching attacks on commercial cargo ships.

 

You characterize it as “new.” I say it goes back at least to October 2023. I supported President Biden’s actions to maintain freedom of the seas from what is essentially a form of piracy, and I support the same here. Perhaps I’m not clear on the level of escalation involved. If we are talking about actually invading and occupying Yemen, then I would say there are far less risky and costly ways to protect the shipping lanes.

 

Apologies. I meant only controversy on the issue of war powers, whether the President had intrinsic authority to order strikes on terrorist camps in Yemen without first going to Congress.

 

For a long time, the Saudis were sort of doing the proxy work (against forces supported by Iran) in Yemen. That too became controversial when they started killing too many civilians - labeled genocidal by some. The government even stopped weapon sales to the Saudis, but then resumed them after they met whatever conditions were laid out by the Biden administration. (Notice how we didnt do that with the Israelis in Gaza) Of course all this seems to prove is that drone strikes and bombing are pretty ineffective against insurgencies, but it looks like you are doing something. Which is sort of what the US military is good for ... looking like its doing things, and killing a bunch of civilians in the process, for little return.

 

We'd rather send troops to Yemen than enforce a cease fire in Gaza and reign in Israel, that's sort of what this boils down to