Internationalist 360°

Nearly half of the countries announced as part of the anti-Yemen alliance have refused to come forward to acknowledge their contributions, while most others have only confirmed the deployment of staff officers.

Ten days after US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the formation of an international task force to patrol the Red Sea, about half of the nations named as participants have yet to acknowledge their role, while others have pushed back against Austin’s declaration.

Under the name Operation Prosperity Guardian (OPG), Washington’s “coalition of the willing” was intended to confront attacks by the Yemeni armed forces against Israeli-linked ships attempting to cross the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

However, only two US allies have deployed warships to the Yemeni coast to support the coalition: the UK, which sent the navy destroyer HMS Diamond, and Greece, which announced the deployment of a Hellenic navy frigate.

Canada, Norway, and the Netherlands confirmed their participation in OPG but have so far committed only a handful of staff officers. Similarly, the Seychelles ratified their support for the coalition but clarified: “Our participation will not include putting boats or military personnel to patrol in the Red Sea. Our role is to help in providing and receiving information since many things that happen close by can have an implication for us.”

Authorities in Bahrain – the only Gulf nation named as part of the pro-Israel alliance – have not commented on their role in OPG, despite the fact that the US war chief announced the coalition’s creation from the US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Manama. Last week, Bahraini police detained a prominent opposition figure who criticized the government for joining OPG.

Complicating matters further for the Pentagon, the last three NATO members named as part of the alliance – Spain, Italy, and France – have outright refused to hand over command of their ships to the US.

The French defense ministry said last week it supported efforts to “secure freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.” Still, it highlighted that its navy already operated in the region and its ships would stay under French command. Italy took a similar approach, committing the naval frigate Virginio Fasan to patrol the Red Sea but emphasizing that this was part of “existing operations” and not OPG.

Spain has been the most vocal in its rejection of being named part of the anti-Yemen alliance, vetoing a vote at the EU that called for support of the coalition and making it clear that its forces committed to Operation Atalanta – a counter-piracy operation off the Horn of Africa and in the Western Indian Ocean – would not join OPG.

“Spain is not opposed to creating another operation, in this case in the Red Sea. We have communicated to our allies, both in NATO and in the EU, that we consider Operation Atalanta does not have the characteristics nor the nature that is demanded and needed in the Red Sea,” President Pedro Sanchez said on 27 December.

While the Pentagon last week proclaimed “over 20 nations” had joined OPG, reports have shown that more of Washington’s closest partners are balking at the idea of joining war efforts in the Red Sea.

On 21 December, Australia announced it would be sending personnel to join OPG, but no warships or planes. India has also balked at the plan, with a senior military official revealing to Reuters that New Delhi is “unlikely to join” the US alliance.

Nonetheless, earlier this week, the Indian navy deployed several warships to the Arabian Sea in response to an alleged drone attack on an Israeli-linked vessel.

Saudi Arabia has also shown no interest in the venture, as the Gulf kingdom is reportedly more interested in ending its eight-year war in Yemen than in re-starting hostilities.

Yemen’s Red Sea operations in support of Palestinians in Gaza have significantly hurt the Israeli import sector, as the vital Port of Eilat has seen an 85 percent drop in activity. According to Bloomberg, half of the container ships that regularly transit the Red Sea and Suez Canal are avoiding the route now.

However, marine traffic data shows that the transit of non-western tankers through the Red Sea has surged since the Yemeni armed forces began targeting Israeli-linked vessels.

[…]

Via https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/12/28/hesitation-among-us-allies-leaves-operation-prosperity-guardian-in-dire-straits/

(Photo credit: Egyptian Presidency/AA)

The Cradle

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi held a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Cairo on 27 December, where they once again rejected Israel’s plans for forced displacement of Palestinians in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

In a joint statement, the two leaders announced their “complete rejection of all attempts to liquidate the Palestinian issue and forcibly displace Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.”

The statement also urged the international community to push for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and called for “uninterrupted delivery of sufficient humanitarian aid to Gaza” to alleviate the “tragic situation and the suffering of the people in the Strip.”

“The two leaders note the international community’s immense political and ethical responsibility towards implementing UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions to maintain the integrity of these international entities,” the statement read.

Since the start of the war, aid has trickled into Gaza at a pace nowhere near fast enough to address the dire humanitarian situation. The US has also vetoed two UN resolutions urging for an immediate truce.

A resolution was passed on 22 December, after having been held up for days and watered down significantly at Washington’s insistence. The resolution made no mention of a ceasefire.

King Abdullah’s visit to Egypt comes days after Cairo proposed a ceasefire plan to reform Gaza’s government on a technocratic basis and gradually release Israeli prisoners in exchange for detained Palestinians and a withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

However, Hamas has rejected the proposal, which also failed to gain traction on the Israeli side.

Tel Aviv continues to push for a mass displacement of Palestinians from Gaza. Israel recently ordered more Palestinians to evacuate from Khan Yunis to areas further south, as tens of thousands of displaced are already stranded in the southern border city of Rafah.

The Cradle’s William Van Wagenen details in his recent analysis Israel’s longstanding goals to forcibly displace Gaza’s population into the Sinai Peninsula, occupy the Gaza Strip, and re-establish the Jewish settlement bloc that was evacuated in 2005.

In the occupied West Bank, violent Israeli settlers with Israeli government backing also continue to drive Palestinians from their homes in attempts to expel them to Jordan, a practice which has been ongoing for years.

A decades-old Israeli initiative known as the ‘Transfer Plan’ – originally formulated by the Zionist militias operating in Palestine, and then endorsed by the government of Israel post-1948 – calls for mass expulsion of Palestinians to the Sinai desert.

After Israel’s occupation of the West Bank in 1967, the idea of pushing Palestinians towards Jordan became included in the ‘Transfer Plan.’

Israel forced many Palestinians to migrate to Jordan over the years, particularly after 1967 and with the rapid expansion of illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank.

The ‘Transfer Plan’ was never officially implemented, and is a violation of UN Resolution 194, which was issued in 1948 and which legitimizes the right of return for Palestinian refugees expelled from their homes.

A joint Egyptian-Jordanian statement issued in late October this year rejected the transfer plan.

[…]

Via https://new.thecradle.co/articles/jordan-egypt-renew-rejection-of-israels-forced-displacement-plans

By Jeff Smith

Griid

About 4 years ago, organizers with Grand Rapids Rapid Response to ICE held a protest at an Amazon Distribution Center in Walker, Michigan. Amazon and one of its subsidiaries Palantir were providing tech support and data to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to track down and deport immigrants. The protest in 2019, involved a blockade and shut down the ability of Amazon drivers to make delivers for about 2 hours.

Activists and organizers have now discovered that Amazon works with the State of Israel. According to a recent action done by organizers in Puget Sound, Washington, which also produced research, as was reported on It’s Going Down:

Amazon supplies the tech infrastructure for Israel’s Project Nimbus via a 1.2 billion dollar contract to both Amazon and Google to provide cloud infrastructure, machine learning and artificial intelligence for both governance and military capabilities to prop up the apartheid state and ultimately more efficiently engage in ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinian people.

This research is supported by the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign (BDS), which states:

In 2021, while apartheid Israel was carrying out yet another massacre in Gaza and pushing Palestinian families from their homes in Jerusalem, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud signed a $1.22 billion contract to provide cloud technology, called Project Nimbus, to the Israeli government and military. Through this contract, the two companies are enabling apartheid and entrenching the oppression of Palestinians. They are supporting more surveillance, more military assaults, more home demolitions, more checkpoints and racist population databases- essentially supporting the ongoing Nakba of Palestinians, 75 years and counting.

Thus, the amazon Distribution Center, of which there are now two in the Greater Grand Rapids Area, could also be targets of a campaign in solidarity with the Palestinians. Check out the international BDS Campaign to see what other organized efforts there are to boycott or divest from corporations that are profiting from the Israeli assault on Gaza and the ongoing Israeli occupation.

[…]

Via https://griid.org/2023/12/27/amazon-is-also-profiting-off-of-the-israeli-occupation-of-palestine-and-the-current-assault-on-gaza/

AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

Wendell Husebø
Breitbart

Three Republican state lawmakers are drafting legislation to remove President Joe Biden from ballots in Georgia, Arizona, and Pennsylvania, Breitbart News exclusively learned Friday.

If Biden is removed from the ballots, the president will have difficulty winning the Democrat primary and presidential election. Georgia, Arizona, and Pennsylvania are vital swing states.

The three state representatives who are drafting the three bills are:

• Pennsylvania Rep. Aaron Bernstine (R)
• Georgia Rep. Charlice Byrd (R)
• Arizona Rep. Cory Mcgarr (R)

The state representatives’ aim is to fight back against the Democrats’ so-called “lawfare” used to attack former President Donald Trump. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in a 4-3 opinion that the United States Constitution’s “Insurrection Clause” blocks Trump from appearing on the state’s presidential ballot.

“We are joining forces to introduce legislation to REMOVE Joe Biden from the ballot in Georgia, Arizona, and Pennsylvania,” the lawmakers told Breitbart News. “The absurdity of radical Democrat judges removing Donald Trump from the ballot in Colorado will be a stain on the American political system for decades. By their very own interpretation of the law, Joe Biden is 100% not eligible to run for political office.”

“Democrats’ insane justification to remove Trump can just as easily be applied to Joe Biden for his ‘insurrection’ at the southern border and his alleged corrupt family business dealings with China,” they continued.

“Colorado radicals just changed the game and we are not going to sit quietly while they destroy our Republic. To be clear, our objective is to showcase the absurdity of Colorado’s decision and allow ALL candidates to be on the ballot in all states,” they wrote. “To do that, we must fight back as Republicans against the communists currently running our great country.”

Republicans were immediately incensed by the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision. Many floated ideas to block Biden from various state ballots. Texas Republicans threatened to take action predicated on the Biden administration’s open border policies, but no action was taken.

“While GOP elites are asleep at the wheel, the Democrats are very serious about destroying the American Republic,” political strategist Cliff Maloney told Breitbart News. “Thank God for patriots like Aaron Bernstine, Charlice Byrd, and Cory McGarr for stepping up to FIGHT back.”

Via https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/12/22/exclusive-republicans-drafting-bills-to-remove-joe-biden-from-ballots-in-georgia-arizona-pennsylvania/

Episode 23 Etruscan Legacy in the Roman World

The Mysterious Etruscans

Dr Steven L Tuck (2016)

Film Review

During his regime, the emperor Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD) rebuilt much of Rome as a classical Greek city, replacing brick facades of its public buildings with marble. At the same time, most of the innovations the modern world credit to Romans are really Etruscan. The Romans bequeathed most of them to modern Western culture.

• road and bridge building
• bronze sculpture
• the chariot
• togas
• the lituus (the crooked rod carried by augers which became the bishop’s crosier in the Catholic Church)

lituus

crozier

• bullae, amulets male children war to protect them from harm
• the acceptance of women and children in public life.
• the helmet, breastplate, grieves (shinguards), sword and javelin, as well as the metallurgical technology used to produce them
• the battle trumpet (used to communicate with military legions)
• the rostrum (battering ram warships used to ram other vessels)
• the arch
• the atrium (front public room of private homes)
• the construction of cities on hills fortified with walls.
• the triumphal procession following military victories
• divination and augury
• the magistrates chair (photo)

• horse racing
• science education (Etruscan Platonic solids* predated the Greek scientists Plato and Pythagoras)
• temples and theaters (Roman theater originated from the dramas enacted in Etruscan temples as part of religious rituals).
• human sacrifice of enemies captured in battle.
• gladiators
• altars
• post and lintel door construction

Romans owe their excellent military unit organization, their love of marble in architecture and their pantheon of gods to the Greeks.

According to Tuck, uniquely Roman innovations are limited to concrete, public bath complexes and basilicas.

*In geometry, a Platonic solid is a convex regular polyedron in three-dimensional Euclidean space. A polyhedon is regular if all the faces are congruent (identical in size and shape) and the same number of faces meet at each vertex. There are only five such polyhedra:

Tetrahedron	Cube	Octahedron	Dodecahedron	Icosahedron
Four faces	Six faces	Eight faces	Twelve faces	Twenty faces
(Animation, 3D model)	(Animation, 3D model)	(Animation, 3D model)	(Animation, 3D model)	(Animation, 3D model)

**istrones, the Latin word for actor is derived from the Etruscan word hister.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/239710/239653

Image captured for criticism/review and reporting current events under Fair Dealing – The Copyright Act 1994

NZDSOS

Is the government using a “measles outbreak” to divert from the crumbling covid narrative and create fear for compliance again?

This week Dr Shane Reti announced that $50 million tax payer dollars would be given to Whānau Ora and unnamed partners to boost vaccination rates. Dr Reti said that the focus would be on “high risk groups” such as Maori, stating that vaccination rates were a key part of health targets.

As if on cue, a purported email from Reach Aotearoa to its former staff members started circulating on social media. The email offered temporary employment positions in relation to an outbreak response, “most likely measles”. The offer did not mention the possibility of an outbreak, but inferred that the company would be needed for a defined period to respond to this outbreak. Hmmmm….!

The job offer came with very defined dates of 23 December 2023 to 7 January 2024 to undertake tasks described as: confirming exposure events, creation of disease contact records and receiving inbound calls. While it is quite possible that permanent staff will be on leave during the period advertised, it is obvious that Reach Aotearoa want staff to be at capacity. This is the same company that provided the then Ministry of Health with contact tracing services as part of the covid response. Hmmm….do they have prior knowledge of something?

Have we been here before?

Trying to set aside the terrible 3 year covid jabicide, monkey pox was the last most visible attempt by WHO boss Tedros to force unilaterally another ‘panic-demic’ on us. Remember – and to especially those that think he is all sweetness, light and collaborative democracy – he over-ruled his entire advisory committee to push “MPox” as a high concern infection for all nations,  justifying yet another ill-tested vaccination. Never mind that the infection was quite hard to get, very rarely fatal and affected a known demographic practising specific behaviours.

Swirling in the background, to scare us all further, are persistent jostles from Marburg disease, bird flu and even the – as yet – unmanifested “disease X”. Perhaps this latter is the one that Mr Gates assured us “will really get our attention next time”.  God forbid if any of these are actually real and dangerous. The boy crying wolf comes to mind.

A bit about measles

Measles is a viral illness that usually occurs in childhood, most often resulting in a mildly miserable child with a characteristic rash, accompanied by fever and flu-like symptoms. It used to be called a ‘childhood disease’ until there was a vaccine to sell and then it became a serious, highly contagious, life-threatening disease.  In the vast majority of healthy children, this a self-limiting infection, a rite of passage even. While measles can rarely result in death, the mortality rate for measles was declining rapidly in the United States by the 2nd half of the 20th century, due to better living conditions, sanitation and nutrition amongst the global population, and antibiotic treatment of any secondary bacterial infections.

Not only were deaths from measles decreasing but so were deaths from all infectious diseases. For those wanting to see graphics of the decline in mortality, these can be found in the link above. You will need a free membership to download the pdf. The American Medical Association will not allow the graphs in a medical journal to be distributed without their approval. Hmmmmm…..

However, we have been given permission to use the following image from Dissolving Illusions. Note the decline of deaths from measles prior to the vaccine.  Researchers suggest that the decline was due to the factors mentioned above.

Lest we digress from the measles story, almost all Gen Xers (born 1965-1984) who were fortunate enough to grow up relatively well fed, and who missed out on the childhood measles vaccines, can confirm that measles was a benign disease that provides life-long immunity.

How to prevent severe measles

Yes, the vaccine will decrease your chances of contracting measles, mostly.  Some adults are now being advised to get top-ups if they have only had one jab.

Most women born after 1969 have been vaccinated against measles. However mothers who have recovered from measles infection appear to provide greater immunity to their infants than those who have never contracted measles but have had the vaccine. (This is exactly the situation with covid-19 virus of course, and the jab given for it: natural immunity is far safer and more effective).

Measles vaccination cannot be given to infants. This situation leaves infants now vulnerable to suffering severe disease as the immunity they receive from breastmilk from vaccinated, but not infected and recovered mothers, is incomplete. This is illustrated by a Chinese study describing that nearly 60% of children hospitalised with measles were under 9 months old. As hard as it might be for modern humans to face, the reality is that the best way to prevent severe measles is for healthy women to contract and recover from it – ideally in childhood when immune function is more robust and wide-ranging. Then, later on, passing that immunity on through breast milk to their infants who are too young to be vaccinated.

Concern in some sectors has been raised regarding the waning immunity to measles in those who are vaccinated compared to those who contract measles naturally. The solution proffered is to vaccinate child-bearing age women again.This is not currently advised in New Zealand.

Furthermore there is concern about the association of vaccination with outbreaks for virulent strains and questions still remain about short and long-term side-effects that range from mild to life-changing.

Once again viral illnesses are mitigated by a healthy terrain which is built by healthy, unprocessed food, exercise, sensible sun exposure and community engagement. Nutrients known to fight off viral infections include zinc and vitamins C, D and A.

RT

The West is rapidly degrading, while the economies of Russia and the Global South are growing, Maksim Oreshkin says.

 Major Bunel

By Pierre-Henry Bunel

World Affairs Quarterly

[…]

In the early 1980s the Islamic Bank for Development, which is located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, like the Permanent Secretariat of the Islamic Conference Organization, bought a new computerized system to cope with its accounting and communication requirements. At the time the system was more sophisticated than necessary for their actual needs.

It was decided to use a part of the system’s memory to host the Islamic Conference’s database. It was possible for the countries attending to access the database by telephone: an Intranet, in modern language. The governments of the member-countries as well as some of their embassies in the world were connected to that network.

[According to a Pakistani major] the database was divided into two parts, the information file where the participants in the meetings could pick up and send information they needed, and the decision file where the decisions made during the previous sessions were recorded and stored.

In Arabic, the files were called, ‘Q eidat il-Maaloomaat’ and ‘Q eidat i-Taaleemaat.’ Those two files were kept in one file called in Arabic ‘Q eidat ilmu’ti’aat’ which is the exact translation of the English word database.

But the Arabs commonly used the short word Al Qaida which is the Arabic word for “base.” The military air base of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is called ‘q eidat ‘riyadh al ‘askariya.’ Q eida means “a base” and “Al Qaida” means “the base.”

In the mid-1980s, Al Qaida was a database located in computer and dedicated to the communications of the Islamic Conference’s secretariat.

In the early 1990s, I was a military intelligence officer in the Headquarters of the French Rapid Action Force. Because of my skills in Arabic my job was also to translate a lot of faxes and letters seized or intercepted by our intelligence services . . .

We often got intercepted material sent by Islamic networks operating from the UK or from Belgium.

These documents contained directions sent to Islamic armed groups in Algeria or in France. The messages quoted the sources of statements to be exploited in the redaction of the tracts or leaflets, or to be introduced in video or tapes to be sent to the media.

The most commonly quoted sources were the United Nations, the non-aligned countries, the UNHCR and . . . Al Qaida.

Al Qaida remained the data base of the Islamic Conference. Not all member countries of the Islamic Conference are ‘rogue states’ and many Islamic groups could pick up information from the databases. It was but natural for Osama Bin Laden to be connected to this network. He is a member of an important family in the banking and business world.

Because of the presence of ‘rogue states,’ it became easy for terrorist groups to use the email of the database.

Hence, the email of Al Qaida was used, with some interface system, providing secrecy, for the families of the mujaheddin to keep links with their children undergoing training in Afghanistan, or in Libya or in the Beqaa valley, Lebanon.

Or in action anywhere in the battlefields where the extremists sponsored by all the ‘rogue states’ used to fight. And the ‘rogue states’ included Saudi Arabia. When Osama bin Laden was an American agent in Afghanistan, the Al Qaida Intranet was a good communication system through coded or covert messages.

Meet “Al Qaeda”

Al Qaida was neither a terrorist group nor Osama bin Laden’s personal property

. . . The terrorist actions in Turkey in 2003 were carried out by Turks and the motives were local and not international, unified, or joint. These crimes put the Turkish government in a difficult position vis-a-vis the British and the Israelis. But the attacks certainly intended to ‘punish’ Prime Minister Erdogan for being a ‘toot tepid’ Islamic politician.

. . . In the Third World the general opinion is that the countries using weapons of mass destruction for economic purposes in the service of imperialism are in fact “rogue states”,  specially the US and other NATO countries. Some Islamic economic lobbies are conducting a war against the ‘liberal” economic lobbies. They use local terrorist groups claiming to act on behalf of Al Qaida. On the other hand, national armies invade independent countries under the aegis of the UN Security Council and carry out pre-emptive wars. And the real sponsors of these wars are not governments but the lobbies concealed behind them.

The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this.

But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the ‘devil’ only in order to drive the ‘TV watcher’ to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US and the lobbyists for the US war on terrorism are only interested in making money.

[…]

Via https://www.globalresearch.ca/al-qaeda-the-database-2/24738

Renee Parsons

Internationalist 360°

While it is astounding that one small, feisty Arab tribe in the nation of Yemen has shown the mega-world how to creatively stand up to the Hegemon without threatening nuclear weapons, without initiating direct military conflict and yet achieve their goals – what is even more astounding is that the Houthis are not the least intimidated by the Empire’s pretentious display of empty threats and waning power.

As a 28-year-old country and being the poorest of all nations in the Middle East has not stopped the Houthis from exercise of their principles as equal participants on the global stage.

Even as the Ukraine war grinds to a reluctant halt with Zelensky and the US refusing to call it quits, continued funding going for naught in someone’s pocket, the US preps for military expansion in the Middle East. The Israeli-Gaza war mutates into another military adventure for an additional wasteful expenditure of resources and lives.

It is fair to say that the Houthis have the Hegemon neo-con militarists over a barrel with nowhere to go unless WW III is a valid objective. If the US with its feeble-minded Congress and equally anemic foreign policy apparatus believe they are still to be feared, the Houthis have called their bluff.

From mid-November when the Ansarullah launched their first drone, the world has followed their heroic deeds to protect the Moustazafeen (oppressed ones) of planet Earth. It may be that the Houthis own experience at the hands of the Empire has sensitized and empowered them to the Hegemon-initiated suffering they have endured.
Yemenis demonstrate in the capital Sana’a on December 22, 2023 to express solidarity with Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, who are enduring relentless Israeli attacks.

The Houthis are unique individuals as it appears they get their dander up when they experience raw genocide conducted against a defenseless civilian population which has now suffered 20,000 fatalities, gratis US bombs and missiles.

Drone attacks were conducted through the Bab al-Mandeb strait, a 20-mile wide narrow passageway leading from the Indian Ocean into the Red Sea and up to the Suez Canal which has now, in effect, closed down. It is that Strait which controls 30% of the world’s shipping.

Houthi boardings on cargo ships have been unexpectedly effective as five of the largest international shipping lines chose to ‘pause’ their operations as the Houthis forced shipping to find an alternative route around Africa.

The Israel goal has shifted from destroying Hamas since it is now recognized that strategy was never realistic. Israel has instead focused on the extermination of Palestinians from their indigenous home, incurring a full range of war crimes.

Disrupting the supply chain of shipments headed for the psychotic Israel is nothing short of genius strategy as it goes to the heart of what the Zionists value most; it took the Houthis to recognize the vulnerability of international trade on its way to Israel to brazenly intercept tankers and oilers exhibiting more chutzpah than seen among many other more well-heeled Islamic nations.

As if Israel and its patron, had not enough to worry about, Malaysia, another small chink in the chain, has joined the fray as it has closed all its ports to Israel traffic.

Literally landing on-board a specific liner in question via a helicopter drop, the Houthis displayed acourage rarely seen in maritime encounters against the Empire as Jordan, the UAE and the Saudis may be quivering in their sandals at the thought.

Even US Secretary of Defense Austin’s haughty promise to “jointly address security challenges in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, with the goal of ensuring freedom of navigation for all countries and bolstering regional security and prosperity” has fallen on deaf ears. “The recent escalation in reckless Houthi attacks originating from Yemen threatens the free flow of commerce, endangers innocent mariners, and violates international law.”

Spokesman for the Houthi rebels replied,

“Even if America succeeds in mobilizing the entire world, our operations in the Red Sea will not stop unless the massacre in Gaza stops. We will not give up the responsibility of defending the Moustazafeen (oppressed ones) of the Earth.”

Meanwhile the USS Eisenhower remains floating idly in the tropical waters of the Red Sea without any sign of retaliation against the Houthis who could be expected to respond with an armed, under water drone to take out one US bazillion dollar floating bathtub.

As the Israel-Gaza conflict becomes more intense along the Lebanon border with Hezbollah adopting a more aggressive response, it is no coincidence that Yemen has been bombed since 2014, sanctioned by the US since 2012 and at war with its Saudi neighbors (with US weapons) in 2015, all of which failed as the Houthi’s refused to succumb to the Hegemon.

With a sitting duck flotilla of US Navy’s Operation Prosperity Guardian, the US has pushed the panic button with creation of an unimpressive ten member maritime coalition (including Bahrain — home to the US Fifth Fleet and member of the limp-noodle Abraham Accords), Canada sent three staff officers and the UK sent one rusted-out tin can to patrol the Red Sea in a futile effort to stop underwater armed drones.

To date, the US/UK have shot down a dozen drones as if to challenge Houthi’s authority in international waters as the US remains in a self delusional world. The Houthis shot down a $30 million American MQ-9 Ripper unmanned aerial vehicle since it“engaged in hostile surveillance and espionage activities in the airspace of Yemeni territorial waters.”

Suddenly, creation of a Palestinian state is now on the table even as the US will remain the largest block of resistance despite the election of Trump who, as a Zionist, will dance to Israel’s tune.

Never one to miss an opportunity to blame Iran for any military aggressive behavior, the US accused Iran of being “deeply involved’ with the Houthis as if US motives are pure as the driven snow.

As if the US’ highest priority is to continue confrontational relations with every country in the world which denies its status as Empire, there is no serious strategy on dealing with a principled opponent except more violence and hatred.  The Houthis continue to make fools of the multi-billion dollar US Navy.

[…]

Via https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/12/26/the-houthis-take-on-the-empire/