You know, I don’t question what you have said; however, this group chat has put many asterisks on this whole situation. I believe one person in that chat has said something to the effect of: “remember the narrative, Biden’s fault and Iran backed.” Makes me less sure about the whole story and motivations.
I mean I’m sure the Trump admin has alternate motives, since they lie about everything, but the US has definitely been bombing the Houthis in Yeman since at least 2016.
It’s always going to be Bidens fault, and Obama’s fault, and Clinton’s fault. Whether it’s terrorism or egg prices or the economy or <insert whatever issue here>
Exactly, also Houthi attacks on ships flared up when Israel started the Palestinian-genocide.
Of course no party is innocent, but people always blaming Iran is rather bizarre.
The question is, is it the fault of “evil Iran”. Or is it multiple parties fighting eachother, and they all share blame. Obviously Iran sides with the Shia minority in Yemen. What do you suggest they do, leave the entire Middle East to the US/Israel/Saudis? If the response here is “evil Iran”, then we’re missing the bigger picture. The Saudis, the US, Israel, Iran, everyone backs all sorts of groups wether it’s in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan or Yemen. The frame of Iran as an evil agrssor country and for instance Israel as an innocent victim is in fact, rather bizarre. And why do we NEVER talk about the Saudis? Perhaps because it happens to be our ally and we like their oil? Oh no but Iran is evil, so they are and always have to remain our enemy. They all share blame for the mess that’s been created in the Middle East. As long as the frame is “the enemy is evil” we’ll never find common ground, move beyond all these proxy wars. Of course Iran is also to blame, but Iran is also protecting legitimate Shia interests.
The “funny” thing is always when Saudi and Irani diplomats at some point go “hey at the moment this whole proxy war thing really isnt working for us, could we please work together for a while?” and then most of the pointless killing and attacking in the middle east stops for a while.
And you realize once again that they are not actually enemies to death or anything like that. For them, it’s just a “power struggle” for influence in the region.
Iran did something similar in the late 80’s. Iran began to mine the Persian Gulf, international waters, as part of the Iran-Iraq war threatening oil shipments passing through.
An Iranian mine struck an American warship escorting an oil tanker. Prompting the Americans to bomb the fuck out of the Iranian navy. Don’t want to be bombed? Don’t attack American warships in international shipping lanes.
Especially with this racist and blood thirsty regime that doesn’t give a fuck about silly things like “civilian casualties”.
Yep and it’s much easier and cheaper just to send in a bunch of drones that end up killing a few hundred innocents than to send in special forces that find the target with precision. And that in turn would be a lot easier than to stop actively funding regional genocide and try to calm the situation down diplomatically.
The Federal Records Act was violated several times due to the disappearing messages feature of Signal they were utilizing for their plans. Jeff Goldberg took screenshots of the messages before they were automatically deleted when all Federal Records are legally required to be preserved for archiving and may not be destroyed except under specific parameters that they obviously did not follow.
Also, by using Signal, which is a secure end to end encrypted messenger, the vulnerability that is built into the desktop sync feature where messages aren’t locally encrypted can result in enemy and adversarial nation states collecting these messages due to them being stored on an infected device which can compromise the mission and risk lives.
They could also have their accounts and subsequently their messages hacked with their information widely publicly available to hackers.
Firendly reminder that this was the real issue with buttery males/but her emails: that Hillary Clinton was using a private email server to circumvent these laws.
And every other US government employee that knowingly emailed to or from that server is also complicit.
Yet another legitimate problem tossed out with the bathwater because it got associated with the maga crowd. Very handy, that.
Point of order. These laws were written because of Mrs. Clinton’s server. She wasn’t circumventing shit, because the law hadn’t caught up to technology, technically it still hasn’t, but that’s a whole other kettle of fish.
The reason it got “forgotten” is that after they wasted years and tons of money trying to find something to charge her with, they came up empty handed, since it really was just a mistake.
This is bullshit. I’m old enough to remember when the Bush administration setting up their own email servers to avoid these very same exact laws was a big issue for the Democratic Party.
They updated the laws since then. The Clinton administration was the one that passed the laws that W Bush was flirting with breaking. As far as I remember, they also didn’t actually break the established law, they just got close enough that the Dems started screaming about their precious rules and norms.
HWBush didn’t actually have much in the way of laws binding him, but his administration didn’t bother with the Internet. Whitehouse.com was a porn site until '97-'98
The Houthi’s are enforcing their ban on ships headed to or from Israel to enter Yemen’s water territory. They did this as a sanction on Israel because Israel is committing genocide on the Palestinian people. When the US and European countries started bombing Yemen for enforcing their law, they also banned US and some European ships from entering their waters. During the ceasefire they lifted the blockade, and since Israel ended the ceasefire they started banning ships again.
This is like calling the US now a rebel faction in the civil war in the British Empire.
We won.
America is its own country.
Ansarallah won. The conquered basically all of the territory except for a few towns held by another faction with whom Ansarrallah made peace with.
All of this while under continuous air attacks from Saudi Arabia w/ US intelligence, refueling and weapons. Meanwhile the US supported a complete blockade, including food, into a country that at that time imported 90% of its food.
No, they are the world legislative body.
Of course no country can be forced to follow the UN’s laws, but they are what we call “international law”.
If the UN don’t recognize you, you may be the only government in your country, and you may even be the legitimate one, nationally speaking.
But you won’t be internationally recognized as legally in charge of things like shipping lanes.
So that means that for a country to be legitimate, it has to be accepted by every member of the security council? You’re not a legitimate country unless Russia, China, and the US all like you enough? That’s BS.
That is how professors of International law usually define a legitime country, yes: by vote in the general assembly (not the security council). Like for example Palestine, which has been recognized for decades by the General Assembly.
The Houthis are a tribe. The majority (though not all) represented tribe within the government of Ansarrallah, a government that formed during and won the civil war when Saudi Arabia tried to steal Yemen.
Calling them Houthis is racist and makes as much sense as calling Americans ‘Kennedys’
They have not been attacking shipping. They have been enforcing a naval blockade of a country committing genocide, something that is a legal requirement under international law. When Israel was “abiding” (or abiding as much as Israel ever abides) during the peace treaty, Ansarrallah dropped their blockade. If this is about shipping, the easiest way to stop this would be to stop applying arms to a state engaged in ethnic cleansing.
America has never been at war with Yemen. We got sucked into supplying Intel and support and weapons to Saudi Arabia under Obama because of all three weapons purchases from Saudi Arabia.
Finally, Iran has done very little in support of Ansarallah, in comparison to other countries that are majority Shia.
Calling Ansarrallah Iranian controlled is about as accurate as calling Israel American-Controlled. It’s just another racist way to try to justify the murder of civilians. You know, the unjustifiable except to fascists like the person I’m responding to.
Are you actually asking?
The Houthi’s are an Iranian controlled terrorist organization that have been attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea since November 2023.
The Houthis have sunk two vessels and killed four crew members, forcing a lot of shipping to Europe to be diverted around the South of Africa.
The US and allies have been fighting the Iranian-backed Houthis for over a decade, this is just a recent resurgence following the war in Israel.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67614911.amp
You know, I don’t question what you have said; however, this group chat has put many asterisks on this whole situation. I believe one person in that chat has said something to the effect of: “remember the narrative, Biden’s fault and Iran backed.” Makes me less sure about the whole story and motivations.
I mean I’m sure the Trump admin has alternate motives, since they lie about everything, but the US has definitely been bombing the Houthis in Yeman since at least 2016.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/13/us-enters-yemen-war-bombing-houthis-who-launched-missiles-at-navy-ship
Here’s an article from the Guardian dated in late 2016 announcing the US first strike on the rebel group.
If you’re not sure about the story and motiviations, did you spend any time on looking up what actually happens in Yemen?
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/22/every-shot-fired-are-yemens-houthis-a-proxy-force-for-iran
It’s always going to be Bidens fault, and Obama’s fault, and Clinton’s fault. Whether it’s terrorism or egg prices or the economy or <insert whatever issue here>
But that doesn’t excuse Iran’s behavior either.
The country that is constantly bombed by Isntreal or harrassed by the US?
Exactly, also Houthi attacks on ships flared up when Israel started the Palestinian-genocide. Of course no party is innocent, but people always blaming Iran is rather bizarre.
even the Arab press concludes that Iran is illegally backing the Houthi
I have no doubt in my mind that they do.
The question is, is it the fault of “evil Iran”. Or is it multiple parties fighting eachother, and they all share blame. Obviously Iran sides with the Shia minority in Yemen. What do you suggest they do, leave the entire Middle East to the US/Israel/Saudis? If the response here is “evil Iran”, then we’re missing the bigger picture. The Saudis, the US, Israel, Iran, everyone backs all sorts of groups wether it’s in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan or Yemen. The frame of Iran as an evil agrssor country and for instance Israel as an innocent victim is in fact, rather bizarre. And why do we NEVER talk about the Saudis? Perhaps because it happens to be our ally and we like their oil? Oh no but Iran is evil, so they are and always have to remain our enemy. They all share blame for the mess that’s been created in the Middle East. As long as the frame is “the enemy is evil” we’ll never find common ground, move beyond all these proxy wars. Of course Iran is also to blame, but Iran is also protecting legitimate Shia interests.
the Saudis are the problem
their oil, IS the problem
their strangle hold on their religion is why they are fighting with Iran. It’s the Troubles on a much higher scale.
stupid rich assholes fighting over the religion while ganging up to throw shots at the mutual ancient enemy religion of the region
The “funny” thing is always when Saudi and Irani diplomats at some point go “hey at the moment this whole proxy war thing really isnt working for us, could we please work together for a while?” and then most of the pointless killing and attacking in the middle east stops for a while.
And you realize once again that they are not actually enemies to death or anything like that. For them, it’s just a “power struggle” for influence in the region.
And Vance said something to the effect of, he didn’t want to do it because it would benefit Europe more than it would benefit America.
Sure bro.
That justified blowing up the apartment building the target’s girlfriend lived in.
Because it doesn’t just make more Houthis every time.
I never said the attack itself was justified. I only answered the question.
A more targeted strike was possible, and it’s reprehensible that one was not chosen.
The target himself was a legal target even by the most strict interpretation of armed conflict international law.
That may be true, but there is one consistent lesson we can learn from US history.
Don’t. Touch. The. Boats.
Unless you’re Israel. Then you can touch whatever boat you feel like.
That is an amazing event.
Why are you responding to tragedy with a fucking meme
Because it’s a great way to summarise this ridiculous situation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Praying_Mantis
Iran did something similar in the late 80’s. Iran began to mine the Persian Gulf, international waters, as part of the Iran-Iraq war threatening oil shipments passing through.
An Iranian mine struck an American warship escorting an oil tanker. Prompting the Americans to bomb the fuck out of the Iranian navy. Don’t want to be bombed? Don’t attack American warships in international shipping lanes.
Especially with this racist and blood thirsty regime that doesn’t give a fuck about silly things like “civilian casualties”.
Claiming that the Houtis are Iranian controlled is sheer missinformation.
Yep and it’s much easier and cheaper just to send in a bunch of drones that end up killing a few hundred innocents than to send in special forces that find the target with precision. And that in turn would be a lot easier than to stop actively funding regional genocide and try to calm the situation down diplomatically.
A targeted strike was absolutely possible. So many innocents did not need to die.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cedle6je601o.amp
It’s to make us forget about the “group chat” (see how familiar and nice it sounds too, group chat). Damage control.
Someone else can probably explain better than me why the “group chat” is not just a group chat but a massive abuse and illegal thing to do.
The Federal Records Act was violated several times due to the disappearing messages feature of Signal they were utilizing for their plans. Jeff Goldberg took screenshots of the messages before they were automatically deleted when all Federal Records are legally required to be preserved for archiving and may not be destroyed except under specific parameters that they obviously did not follow.
https://www.ed.gov/about/ed-overview/required-notices/federal-records-act
Also, by using Signal, which is a secure end to end encrypted messenger, the vulnerability that is built into the desktop sync feature where messages aren’t locally encrypted can result in enemy and adversarial nation states collecting these messages due to them being stored on an infected device which can compromise the mission and risk lives.
They could also have their accounts and subsequently their messages hacked with their information widely publicly available to hackers.
https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/hegseth-waltz-gabbard-private-data-and-passwords-of-senior-u-s-security-officials-found-online-a-14221f90-e5c2-48e5-bc63-10b705521fb7
Firendly reminder that this was the real issue with buttery males/but her emails: that Hillary Clinton was using a private email server to circumvent these laws.
And every other US government employee that knowingly emailed to or from that server is also complicit.
Yet another legitimate problem tossed out with the bathwater because it got associated with the maga crowd. Very handy, that.
Point of order. These laws were written because of Mrs. Clinton’s server. She wasn’t circumventing shit, because the law hadn’t caught up to technology, technically it still hasn’t, but that’s a whole other kettle of fish.
The reason it got “forgotten” is that after they wasted years and tons of money trying to find something to charge her with, they came up empty handed, since it really was just a mistake.
This is bullshit. I’m old enough to remember when the Bush administration setting up their own email servers to avoid these very same exact laws was a big issue for the Democratic Party.
They updated the laws since then. The Clinton administration was the one that passed the laws that W Bush was flirting with breaking. As far as I remember, they also didn’t actually break the established law, they just got close enough that the Dems started screaming about their precious rules and norms.
HWBush didn’t actually have much in the way of laws binding him, but his administration didn’t bother with the Internet. Whitehouse.com was a porn site until '97-'98
The Houthi’s are enforcing their ban on ships headed to or from Israel to enter Yemen’s water territory. They did this as a sanction on Israel because Israel is committing genocide on the Palestinian people. When the US and European countries started bombing Yemen for enforcing their law, they also banned US and some European ships from entering their waters. During the ceasefire they lifted the blockade, and since Israel ended the ceasefire they started banning ships again.
This is simply false.
The Houthis are not a state. There are a rebel faction in a civil war in Yemen.
Even if it were the Yemen government banning ships from it’s waters it’s can’t do that by international law. They don’t own the whole strait.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bab-el-Mandeb
Lastly, a UN resolution passed that outlaws this behavior.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_2722
This is like calling the US now a rebel faction in the civil war in the British Empire.
We won.
America is its own country.
Ansarallah won. The conquered basically all of the territory except for a few towns held by another faction with whom Ansarrallah made peace with.
All of this while under continuous air attacks from Saudi Arabia w/ US intelligence, refueling and weapons. Meanwhile the US supported a complete blockade, including food, into a country that at that time imported 90% of its food.
Once they are recognized by the UN, they can legally act as the legitimate government of Yemen.
The UN isn’t the world police, in case you didn’t know
No, they are the world legislative body.
Of course no country can be forced to follow the UN’s laws, but they are what we call “international law”.
If the UN don’t recognize you, you may be the only government in your country, and you may even be the legitimate one, nationally speaking.
But you won’t be internationally recognized as legally in charge of things like shipping lanes.
So that means that for a country to be legitimate, it has to be accepted by every member of the security council? You’re not a legitimate country unless Russia, China, and the US all like you enough? That’s BS.
That is how professors of International law usually define a legitime country, yes: by vote in the general assembly (not the security council). Like for example Palestine, which has been recognized for decades by the General Assembly.
Yes, that is BS.I wasn’t talking about the security council at all.
If the Houthi’s are going to enact a shipping ban then I assume they’re willing to accept the consequences of enforcing the ban.
If the US and UK are going to support genocide, then I assume they are willing to accept the consequences
The Houthis are a tribe. The majority (though not all) represented tribe within the government of Ansarrallah, a government that formed during and won the civil war when Saudi Arabia tried to steal Yemen.
Calling them Houthis is racist and makes as much sense as calling Americans ‘Kennedys’
They have not been attacking shipping. They have been enforcing a naval blockade of a country committing genocide, something that is a legal requirement under international law. When Israel was “abiding” (or abiding as much as Israel ever abides) during the peace treaty, Ansarrallah dropped their blockade. If this is about shipping, the easiest way to stop this would be to stop applying arms to a state engaged in ethnic cleansing.
America has never been at war with Yemen. We got sucked into supplying Intel and support and weapons to Saudi Arabia under Obama because of all three weapons purchases from Saudi Arabia.
Finally, Iran has done very little in support of Ansarallah, in comparison to other countries that are majority Shia.
Calling Ansarrallah Iranian controlled is about as accurate as calling Israel American-Controlled. It’s just another racist way to try to justify the murder of civilians. You know, the unjustifiable except to fascists like the person I’m responding to.
How do we feel about the Houthis killing civilians on trade vessels not bound for Israel?
I wouldn’t know, since a single tribe (a good amount whom aren’t members of the government) hasn’t done that.
Oh cool. OK, how do we feel about the armed combatants from Yemen repeatedly attacking civilian trade ships not connected to Israel?
I’m genuinely surprised it took this long for the US to retaliate.
The US and international allies have been frequently attacking Houthi rebels since January 2024.
There were even memes about it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Sea_crisis
The memes may have started in 2024. We started attacking the Houthis in 2016-2017
Definitely, but I was more referring to this recent bout.
It didn’t. It just took this long for people like you to realize it’s been happening.
They have been bombing them since they started. It just didn’t stop the blockade, just like how this one won’t.