UK-US air strikes launched against Houthis in Yemen

Finally, they removed the middleman - Saudi Arabia - and started dropping their bombs on the Houthis directly.
At least it's less hypocrite than what was going on before.
Can't but wonder if the Houthis aren't used to US and UK bombs being dropped on them by now and if thus this will make that much of a difference (weren't the Houthis mountain people, same as the Afghans?).
- Don't fuck with global trade. Your cause can be a shining beacon of righteousness, but take out trading routes you get the big boy stick. Always has been like that.
  
  Whilst I agree with your point on why this is happenning, after what happenned in Afghanistan, I'm not quite sure of the effectiveness of what you named "big boy stick" against people who have little to lose and have spent over a decade being hit by such a "stick" only yielded by a mate if said "big boy".
  A lot of what I'm reading here is the same "America, yeah!" stuff as before the invasion of Afghanistan - nationalistic enthusiasm rather than anything thought through.
  Looking at the hostorical track record, it's a little premature to celebrate the effectiveness of this.
- Can’t but wonder if the Houthis aren’t used to US and UK bombs being dropped on them by now and if thus this will make that much of a difference (weren’t the Houthis mountain people, same as the Afghans?).
  Pretty much what the news analysts are saying, even. I'm unsure why Biden and Sunak felt like this was a good idea. I really can't see any possible upside. Now they look even more crooked in the region than before, because the only thing they acted on are the cargo ships loaded with dumb crap for the West, and the Houthis look cool and relevant directly fighting them. The threat to shipping is even higher than before if anything, and the whole place is even closer to going WWI.
  They could have just parked their warships there and kept eating drones. It would have costed a lot in interceptors, but you'd think even a few more weeks of situation normal would have been worth it.
  
  No. They were firing at anything with a Western financial interest backing out too. So these were ships that never touched a Western shore but just had a part US owner.
- There's a really interesting (but quite long) YouTube deep dive into history about how there has been a struggle between city builders who farm and nomads/'barbarians' who herd for all of our history.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrqkwG7Nqj8
  
  Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  https://www.piped.video/watch?v=IrqkwG7Nqj8
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
  
  That's very interesting, thank you!

And Iran just seized a US oil tanker in the strait of hormuz today.
In fairness, its one the US seized from Iran some time back.
But geez, CENTCOM has too many problems today.
- So not a US oil tanker then?

Americans please remember vote blue no matter who! ❤️
- I guess we've arrived at the part where a bunch of low-information lemmings come to say that Biden is bad for striking Houti terrorists who have been attacking and hijacking international shipping lanes, after being warned multiple times over the last weeks to stop. Boo fucking hoo.
  Pro tip: when the US military gives you a "final warning" to knock off your shit, maybe listen.
  
  Only the US is allowed to enforce sanctions or institute a blockade. Silly Yemen.
  
  The country supplying arms for genocide is bombing the only country that is trying to put an end to it. Yemen is imposing sanctions on Israel because it is committing genocide. Israel should be sanctioned by the entire world. The united states imposes debilitating deadly sanctions on countries for decades simply because they are not under its boot. The United States is evil and no amount of propaganda is going to change that.
  
  Especially considering why the US navy was even created.
  
  Yemen is perfectly within the provisions of international law in blocking Israeli boats from transiting. The only violation of international law is if you claim that Ansar Allah is not the rightful and legitimate government of Yemen.
  
  so US can fund genocide, but no one can protest it, got it.
  are trade routes more important than actual human lives?
- I wouldn't miss this election for the world! ^(because the consequences of fucking this up would echo far, far beyond the US....)
- I'm voting green and red (Greens, socialists and communists)
  
  As shitty as it is, when it comes to the actual presidential election, that’s basically a vote in trump’s pocket if he’s the candidate. Trump’s base is already solidified. They’re voting for him no matter what. He could get on live tv and say he’ll have everyone who voted for him executed after becoming dictator, and they’d cheer louder. For Biden, he’s going to struggle to get votes beyond “always vote blue” so any vote not for him is going to weaken his position against Trump. There’s no scenario where a third party wins.
  It’s not how it should be, but in this election, it’s what’s going to matter.
  
  Unless you live in one of the handful of close states, your vote red or blue makes no difference to the electoral college. Why give either of these your symbolic popular vote.
  No 3rd party will win, but a rising 3rd party is competition that may at least raise an issue’s prominence or worry the main parties enough to pull their finger out and run better candidates.
- And take someone with you!
  
  What's the model of your axolotl?
- As someone in a solid blue state, my vote won’t help decide our future, but we’re going for biggest percentage win.
- Meanwhile in britian vote anything but fucking blue
- Yeah because no republican has ever started a war in the middle east before.
  
  Oh wait, was OP being ironic?
  
  Americans are so close minded they only think in Democrat and Republican, open your eyes. That’s not a democracy.
- You gotta vote for the blue orphan-crushing machine!
  
  Option 1: the racist orphan-crushing machine.
  Option 2: the orphan-crushing machine

Another war omg
- Seems there is always at least one. Daddy Warbucks has to get his piece
- Nothing compared to living in mideval or ancient times. Literally brutal wars everywhere all of the time. I'd actually say we live in relatively peaceful times.
  
  GiddyGap says:
  Nothing compared to living in mideval or ancient times. Literally brutal wars everywhere all of the time. I'd actually say we live in relatively peaceful times.

Fuck around and find out
- but if Palestinians do it, then it is resistance and they are the victims... even if they started it
  
  Started what? Building a concentration camp and starving two million people?
  
  Most Palestinians didn't do anything. Most Yemeni didn't do anything.
  Precision strikes against terrorists vs. effectively turning a country/region into a gravel pit are not quite the same thing. Israel has been leading attacks against Hamas teams for decades without much of an outcry from the international community, only once they've decided to level the entirely of Gaza.

Iran probably wants this, because they can say "look, the West cares more about money from shipping, than it does about the lives of human beings in Gaza".

Horton Hears a Houthi

WTF, the Middle East is a powder keg right now, and they're, like, setting off a pinwheel on top of it.
- The US side ignored dozens of attacks. The history calculus shows at some point the houthis will figure they're untouchable and escalate and whose fault will that be then?
  Sometimes there are no good choices, only more shitty and regular shitty
  
  Escalate to what? They're already doing all kinds of pirate stuff, and I don't think they're strong enough to threaten anything else the West cares about on their own. What seems like the obvious Western play would be to keep intercepting attacks from warships for at least a few weeks. It's more expensive, but would give critical time to deal with all the other, bigger issues in the Middle East.

Amazing how you can't trust either electorally relevant party to not kick off a war.
- War is good for business
  
  Every business? Or do you mean Yemen's business?

The US not content with spending 2.3 trillion dollars and 20 years to replace the Taliban with the Taliban in Afghanistan, seeks to repeat the same in Yemen.
My bets that in 2044 we’ll still have Ansar Allah and maybe even a Yemeni supercar.
- Ansar Allah has survived for this long under constant bombardment by Western weapons. What's another few bombs?

Gangrene got your limb? Just take a painkiller!

JFC. It’s almost like Biden is trying really hard to lose the election.
- It’s actually super based to blow up terrorists attacking container vessels.
  You can either shut the fuck and removed about inflation (which is driven up by Houthi attacks) or you can go on a weird demand for a ceasefire but acknowledge paying higher prices for goods is a necessary side effect of allowing Houthis to terrorize shipping lanes.
  
  It’s actually super based to blow up terrorists attacking container vessels.
  It is if you swallow the US imperialist propaganda happily and greedily.
  Anyone that's not a useful idiot, sees it a bit different.
  
  So your entire argument is founded on the assumption that Ansar Allah is not the legitimate government of Yemen. That, just because they have de jure independence over a territory, they lack de facto independence because the territory is still contested by a government-in-exile.
  
  Turn Palestinian kids into dust…to keep prices down. Got it.
- Because letting shitheads affect a major shipping route and cause another supply shortage and more inflation will surely win him it!
  
  You do realize that there’s another way to make them stop doing it, don’t you?. That other way also has the side effect of murdering significantly fewer innocent Palestinians. It would also act to prevent the conflict from spreading regionally.
  I realize that retraining Israel would deny us Americans our dead brown people high, but come on, think of all the inflation we could prevent by not killing them.
- Because stopping terrorists attacking ships from all over the world is a bad thing he’s done?
  Like I hate the guy, but this is probably one of the few instances of the broken clock being right.
  
  I don't really get it, what's even to "hate" about Biden in the first place?
  People trash on him for ending the war in Afghanistan, because I guess we're all supposed to act surprised that the Taliban just walked right back in and took power even though that's what every expert was saying was going to happen even before the war started. Last time I checked, we all wanted the forever wars in Iraq and Afganistan to end.
  Republicans trash him for giving arms and spending money on Ukraine, even though they're the victim of Russian imperialist aggression.
  People trashed on him for not calling for a ceasefire on Hamas, until he did call for it and it happened, after which people trashed on him because the war just started back up because neither Hamas nor Netenyahu were willing or able to back off. Biden didn't start the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, nor was he the first or only US President to arm Israel (who are one of our only allies in the area), nor did he move the pieces that initiated this round of post-Oct 7th fighting, so it's frankly the world's biggest stretch to blame him for it.
  And so now people want to trash on him for bombing the Houtis, who are terrorists who have been openly pirating ships on key global trade routes, and who have been warned multiple times that they would face retaliation if there were to continue doing it. We basically told these Houti morons "fuck around and find out" and now they're finding out so we all have to pretend to have bleeding hearts for him.
  "Hating" Biden while the very real specter of Trump looms over the 2024 election is just nonsense to me.
  
  Why not, um, just restrain Israel instead? Because we Americans value dead Palestinians more than we fear inflation.