LOS ANGELES.–Sinking the Belize-flagged Rubymar fertilizer-carrying-freighter in the Red Sea, Iran’s Yemen-backed Houthi rebels completed the unthinkable, actually sinking commercial ship in Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Houthi rebels hide behind the current Israeli-Hamas War but they’ve been attacking commercial shipping for years, forcing some freighters and tankers to take the more lengthy, costly routed around the Cape of Good Hope, adding massively to insurance and shipping costs. Supply chain interruptions in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Persian Gulf and Gulf of Omaan have forced the temporary closing of Tesla Motors in Berlin, spiking the prices landed goods in Europe and around the world. President Joe Biden and U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have tried to bomb Houthi military targets in Yemen, apparently having little effect on terror operations in the Red Sea.
Biden watches the world set ablaze with his Ukraine War approaching $200 billion as he demands an additional $60 billion to keep his proxy war going against the Kremlin. Meanwhile, U.S. foreign policy and national security are severely compromised with Pentagon resources spread thin in Ukraine, no longer having the foreign policy linkage with adversaries like Russia and China to manage conflicts around the globe. Biden finds his foreign policy out on a limb creating mortal enemies of Russia and China, both joining an economic, military and strategic alliance against the United States. So, when it comes to secure safe passage in international waters, Biden no longer has the help of the Kremlin to exert clout on terror group wreaking havoc on global shipping. Biden’s proxy war against the Kremlin has come back to bite the U.S. in unstable parts of the world.
Biden’s been told by foreign policy experts that Iran has been directing and supplying lethal weapons, including anti-ship missiles to Yemen’s Houthi rebels, now disrupting international shipping in the Mideast and Horn of Africa. Yemen likes to blame the attacks on the ongoing Israeli-Hamas war started Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists stormed Israel’s southern border killing 1,200 and taking some 250 hostages. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on Hamas, working for months on clearing Hamas out from its embedded civilian and underground tunnel networks. But Biden has been told that the only way to deal with Houthi’s terror attacks is to make Iran’s 84-year-old Supreme Leader the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pay a heavy price. Biden has been reluctant to take the battle to Tehran, the world’s most deadly state sponsor of terror.
Biden’s fatal mistake for U.S. foreign policy was joining Ukraine’s war against the Kremlin for its Feb. 24, 2022 invasion. Instead of putting the conflict in the hands of U.N. peacemakers, Biden joined the battle against the Kremlin, supplying Ukraine with the cash-and-weapons needed to battle the Russian Federation. Biden’s decision to fund proxy war against the Kremlin has turned generations of U.S. foreign policy on its head, now mortal enemies with Russia, upending the post-WW II world order requiring the U.S. to work cooperatively with Russia to reduce dangerous nuclear arms and to solve problems around the globe. If Biden had any foreign policy savvy, he would have worked with the U.N. to negotiate a satisfactory peace between Kiev and Moscow. Joining Ukraine’s war against the Kremlin, Biden has paralyzed U.S. foreign policy and national security.
Ayatollah Khamenei knows Biden’s ambivalence to open up a new front hitting Iran where it counts to stop the steady flow of weapons to Houthi terrorists to wreak havoc on commercial shipping in the Mideast and Horn of Africa. Biden has run out of options when it comes to avoiding direct confrontation with Iran. U.S. global clout is on the line watching Iran’s Houthi terrorists call the shots in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Watching the Lebanese managed Rubymar sunk in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait opens up an inescapable confrontation between the U.S. and Iran. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the U.S. and Iran have been in Cold War of sorts, where Iran figured out it could retaliate against the U.S. by establishing terror groups to attack U.S. interests. Biden has run out of options to stop Houthi terrorists without making a strong point with the Ayatollah.
Biden’s has tied U.S. foreign policy into knots with his proxy war against the Kremlin in Ukraine. To reassert control over terror attacks in international shipping lanes in the Mideast and Horn of Africa, Biden has only one option to go after the Ayatollah directly. Before that can happen, Biden needs to end the proxy war against the Kremlin and reestablish cooperative diplomatic relations with 71-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin. As long as Biden goes to war against the Kremlin, containing Iran is next to impossible with Iran’s economic, military and strategic alliance with Moscow. If the U.S. attacks Iran, it could spur Putin to rescue the Ayatollah, causing a more deadly conflict in the Mideast. Biden’s let U.S. foreign policy and national security get out of hand with his proxy war in Ukraine against the Kremlin. Ending the Ukraine War is Biden’s only option.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
