This time we seem to be trying to de-escalate and not trying to pull them into a larger war.
Not that Israel and Saudi Arabia would hate to see the military capability of Tehran neutralized…
It’s truly weird how much I see this mindless comment exactly duplicated with zero context.
Context: the Iranian Navy consisted of very few ships.
Because according to wikipedia- 5 Iranian ships were sunk during Operating Praying Mantis
Only one of the five vessels (the frigate) lost would typically be called a "ship".
They are also protecting commercial civilian ships being targeted. China has warships there too and they didn't bother.
Houthi are going after Israeli stuff anyway and only targeting the US because they completely neuter their capabilities. If the US isn't there missiles will still be flying over the Red Sea and civilian ships being hijacked.
Because of USSR
> inserting ourselves into these volatile conflict zones?
Because America was protecting those nations/regimes who allied with America against USSR
> We keep doing that and then acting surprised when we get caught in the crossfire
Because American former allies started to fight against each other, and not USSR
Wouldn't the presence of US naval vessels in the area indicate that it's not a surprise?
Another comment said that shipping lane is used by other nations' vessels too, but the Houthi are specifically targeting Israeli ships (and by extension their American defenders, but only because we choose to be involved).
Ships from all sorts of countries sail the world, but it's not an innocent coincidence that ours are routinely targeted by Israel's enemies...
It's silly for us to play the victim when we put ourselves in harm's way specifically to defend Israel against these threats. It's like sailing through the Taiwan Strait with a carrier group and acting surprised when it annoys China.
We use our force projection to play global police, but then turn around and pretend like we're innocent... we're far from it. These are self-inflicted casualties because we're picking sides.
Sure, I agree with you there—although Israel isn't at war with the Houthi rebels. Again, the Houthi are fighting the Yemeni government and the Saudis. Although "Death to Israel" is part of their charter, so there is that.
> It's silly for us to play the victim when we put ourselves in harm's way specifically to defend Israel against these threats.
I don't know that we're playing the victim here; our ships are clearly there to do exactly what it is that they're doing. Overall it's probably a net win for us—we get practice in anti-drone warfare.
De-escalation seems like the right move here.
By all accounts Iran has many reasons to view the U.S.A as a violent oppressor. Personally I disagree with many parts of the ideology the Iranian regime is pushing. But comparing that situation to Nazi Germany and ww2 is very misguided and uninformed. I'd argue the closest to wide scale genocide that I'm aware of was recently in Ethiopia in the Tigray. Right after the President had received a nobel peace price. And we didn't see the U.S.A lift a finger. Viewing the military campaigns as bringing freedom and "western" values to savages is the kind of provably false propaganda the US military wants you to believe.