Well, they had it coming.
Four small boats full of armed, irascible Houthis decided to open fire on US helicopters while trying to hijack a container ship in the Red Sea on Sunday.
I guess I don’t have to tell you how that ended, but… well, three of the boats were destroyed along with their respective crews. The other one “fled the area,” as US Central Command put it.
The Houthis were after the Maersk Hangzhou, a Singapore-flagged, Denmark-owned vessel. On Saturday, they hit it with a projectile, prompting a US destroyer to shoot down a pair of anti-ship missiles launched from Yemen.
Unsatisfied, the Houthis came after the ship on Sunday. In person this time.
Less than 24 hours after the first distress call, helicopters from a US aircraft carrier and the same destroyer that responded to Maersk Hangzhou’s initial request for help showed up to find a gunfight between the ship’s contract security team and the Houthis, who were trying to come aboard.
It’s not funny, but then again, it kind of is. As pirates, the Houthis are a veritable superpower. Or at least compared to — you know — starving Somalis in motorized dinghies. But notwithstanding what I suppose is an outside chance of bringing down a US helicopter with RPGs (speaking of Somalis) or two-man weapons systems mounted to speed boats, the odds of winning a gun battle at sea with the US Navy aren’t great if you too aren’t a navy.
Upon arriving at what sounded like an absurd scene, US military personnel instructed the Houthis to leave. Instead, the Houthis chose suicide. Specifically, they fired at the helicopters with small arms. They were promptly killed. Or most of them anyway. As noted, the helicopters let one of the four ships get away, presumably so The White House could maintain that the US is acting purely in self defense, and also in defense of international shipping lanes. There was no damage to US personnel or equipment, Central Command said.
The whole ridiculous episode marked the 23rd (on Saturday) and 24th (on Sunday) attacks by the Houthis on international shipping since the middle of last month.
Plainly, the Houthis are courting US airstrikes on their bases and camps in Yemen. They (the Houthis) say they’d welcome a direct military confrontation with America, but the leadership’s fantasies about fighting Marines in the streets of Sanaa are just that — fantasies. There aren’t going to be ground troops. Or not the kind that make a lot of noise or international news, anyway. If the US targets the group with airstrikes, there won’t be anything the Houthis can do about it other than attack more ships or send drones and missiles at targets in Saudi Arabia.
Mohammed Bin Salman is surely lobbying the US on Sunday not to incinerate a bunch of people in Yemen. The Crown Prince wants the ceasefire with the Houthis to hold. If it doesn’t, any renewed attacks on Saudi soil will make for a very awkward juxtaposition with the nascent rapprochement between Riyadh and Tehran.
The resemblance of this (actual) battle to one of the (fictional) battles in “The Oceans and the Stars” by Mark Helprin is uncanny. This is an engaging adventure story about a protagonist who is honorable, intelligent and brave. Highly recommend.
Maybe Oscar Wilde was correct when he asserted that Life imitates Art……
It’s sickening that Maersk chooses to send ships through there. They’ve obviously just made a simple business decision, that the increased cost of insurance is less than the increased cost of fuel and time of going the long way. The only way that equation comes out positive though is if you place a $0 value on the increased risk to the crew.
This exact moral issue is addressed in the book that I mentioned above.
When did you turn into a Sea Turtle Mr/s Emptynester?
A shipper that diverts cargoes around Africa can impose additional charges to cover the cost. They cite “severe operational disruption” and declare a “transit disruption surcharge”. Maersk and others have done this.
Diverting cargoes around Africa is actually favorable for shipping companies as it increases fees and utilization, and indeed shipping stocks have risen on the Houthi disruption.
The increased risk to crew of going through the Red Sea is minimal, based on the crew toll, or lack of same, so far.
Those unilateral and continuing oil production cuts by MBS are looking a little short-sighted now that he needs something from us. Maybe Jared can “help.”
And in what world would we make private profit-maximizing capital pay for public defense and assistance?