Acts of War Cannot Go Ignored

[Valin]

Commentary:

Max Boot

Oct. 10, 2016

 

On Sunday night, as Americans were transfixed by the spectacle of the second presidential debate, events occurred off the coast of Yemen that remind us of the kind of challenges with which a president must contend. Two ballistic missiles were fired at a U.S. destroyer in international waters from the part of Yemen controlled by the Houthis, an Iranian-back militia. The missiles did not hit the USS Mason, although it’s unclear if they had some internal defect or whether the ship defended itself with its suite of missile-defense systems.

 

U.S. warships do not routinely come under attack. When they do, it’s called an act of war. So someone has committed an act of war against the United States. The proximate culprit appears to be the Houthi movement, which is mad at America for backing an assault on it by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Just last week, an Emirati ship was destroyed off the same part of the Yemen coast. But the Houthis are hardly lone actors. They do not manufacture their own missiles. They get them from Iran. That suggests this could be seen as an act of war by Iran against the United States.

 

It is an incident that is far more serious than the way it is being treated. It is, in fact, almost entirely overshadowed by the furor over the Trump campaign. The Obama administration should not be allowed to ignore it–if that is, in fact, its intent.

 

“A senior Obama administration official” told the Washington Post: “Our first priority is the safety and security of Americans overseas, and we will take all appropriate actions to protect our men and women in uniform in the region.”

 

But what action?...............................................(Snip)

[SrWoodchuck]

:

Max Boot

Oct. 10, 2016

 

On Sunday night, as Americans were transfixed by the spectacle of the second presidential debate, events occurred off the coast of Yemen that remind us of the kind of challenges with which a president must contend. Two ballistic missiles were fired at a U.S. destroyer in international waters from the part of Yemen controlled by the Houthis, an Iranian-back militia. The missiles did not hit the USS Mason, although it’s unclear if they had some internal defect or whether the ship defended itself with its suite of missile-defense systems.

 

U.S. warships do not routinely come under attack. When they do, it’s called an act of war. So someone has committed an act of war against the United States. The proximate culprit appears to be the Houthi movement, which is mad at America for backing an assault on it by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Just last week, an Emirati ship was destroyed off the same part of the Yemen coast. But the Houthis are hardly lone actors. They do not manufacture their own missiles. They get them from Iran. That suggests this could be seen as an act of war by Iran against the United States.

 

It is an incident that is far more serious than the way it is being treated. It is, in fact, almost entirely overshadowed by the furor over the Trump campaign. The Obama administration should not be allowed to ignore it–if that is, in fact, its intent.

 

“A senior Obama administration official” told the Washington Post: “Our first priority is the safety and security of Americans overseas, and we will take all appropriate actions to protect our men and women in uniform in the region.”

 

But what action?...............................................(Snip)

 

 

The reason for these ships even being in the area:

 

Muslim Rebels Sink U.S. Navy Ship

http://thefederalist-gary.blogspot.in/2016/10/muslim-rebels-sink-us-navy-ship.html

 

Shhh . . . It's a Secret

 

The Controlled Media Machine largely kept the lid on this story.

 

The military-industrial complex and a Pentagon still living their glory days of World War II battle fleets have not addressed Islamist rebels sinking a U.S. ship with a missile.

Technology has ended the surface navy. Ships are little more than floating multi-billion dollar targets.

Ship building contracts are big, big money. The last thing Washington wants to get out is surface ships are obsolete.

(Business Insider) - On Saturday (10/08/16), a guided missile struck the United Arab Emirates' HSV Swift, a high-speed ferry formerly operated by the US Navy off the coast of Yemen, prompting the US to respond with two guided-missile destroyers and an amphibious transport dock ship from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier strike group, Fox News reports.

"Rockets targeted an Emirati warship as it approached the coast of Mokha" on Yemen's western coast, Yemen's Iran-supported Houthi fighters said in a statement, reported by Al Jazeera.

"It was completely destroyed," the Houthis said.

The UAE has fought against the Houthi militants since last year as part of a Saudi-led coalition.

A video released online shows the Swift, a catamaran-style transport ship of US design, a rocket launching, and the rocket hitting the ship and causing a sustained fire on the water as those near the camera cheer.

The Emirati military confirmed that an incident occurred at sea while the ship was on a routine trip from Aden, Yemen, but it did not mention any injuries or deaths.

The US ships USS Nitze, USS Mason, and USS Ponce have headed to the Bab el-Mandeb strait that links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.

 

************************************************************************

"...could have been Chinese-built C-802 anti-ship missiles ... or guided anti-tank weapons."

 

Edited to add: Any pResident other than the quivering quisling...and there'd been a swift response. Too many Muslims in Yemen, to think about hurting any of them...after all...that's what our military signed themselves up to do...make sacrifices.

Edited October 11, 2016 by SrWoodchuck

[Valin]

Houthi rebels fire missiles at U.S. destroyer yet again.
Jazz Shaw
October 16, 2016

On Thursday we looked at the U.S. response to missiles being fired at our Navy ships off the coast of Yemen by Houthi rebels. It consisted of the USS Nitze pounding some Tomahawk cruise missiles into their radar tracking stations. Unfortunately, it appears that our message was a bit too subtle for them to take the hint. The destroyer USS Mason was fired on by rebel missiles yet again last night… actually this morning in local time. (NBC News)

 

The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Mason was fired on again in international waters off the coast of Yemen, but the ship deployed countermeasures and the vessel was not struck, two U.S. officials said.

The incident occurred late Saturday or early Sunday local time. At least one missile was fired, the officials said.

“The Mason once again appears to have come under attack in the Red Sea, again from coastal defense cruise missiles fired from the coast of Yemen,” Navy Admiral John Richardson, chief of naval operations, told reporters at an event in Baltimore Saturday.

 

The good news here is that the rebels once again entirely failed to land a shot at the Mason. Our naval electronic warfare systems are good enough to detect when a fire control radar has locked onto them and a launch takes place. Countermeasures are available and were deployed in this case, once again preventing the destroyer from taking fire.

 

That does not, however, change the bad news from this report.................................................(Snip)

[Valin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuYj-a_SwyI