Houthi chaos in the Red Sea: Where’s our $1 trillion US military?

The Suez Canal, one of the world’s most crucial shipping lanes, faces a de facto blockade by 8th-century Islamist militants who have attacked over 80 ships, containers, and oil tankers in the past year. The U.S. military has failed to respond while our political system and media cover up the most significant acts of naval piracy since the Barbary pirates.

Unlike other overseas engagements, we cannot afford to ignore this threat. What’s the point of spending $1 trillion on the military if we can’t stop a group of ragged, skirt-wearing savages from blocking shipping lanes? Whatever happened to “from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli”?

Our military deployment strategy is fundamentally flawed. We station troops and assets in the worst locations while failing to deploy them where they are needed most.

On August 21, Houthi terrorists boarded the Sounion, a Greek-flagged oil tanker in the Red Sea, and set it on fire. The tanker has reportedly been burning and possibly leaking oil for two weeks, creating a potential disaster that the U.S. government only recently acknowledged. The Pentagon now admits that if the fire isn’t extinguished, the resulting oil spill could be four times the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska in 1989.

Meanwhile, Houthi drones and ballistic missiles also attacked the Panama-flagged Blue Lagoon I and the Saudi-flagged Amjad last week. Where is the U.S. Navy, which was designed for crises like this?

Nine months ago, the Biden administration announced a 13-nation coalition, “Operation Prosperity Guardian,” to confront the Houthis. Since then, attacks on ships have continued relentlessly, and two Navy SEALs tragically died in the region under questionable circumstances, reportedly drowning in the Red Sea.

This situation reflects another consequence of Republicans being out of session in Congress for seven weeks, failing to hold the administration accountable. Republicans return this week with only a few legislative days left and practically no focus on foreign affairs and commerce.

The Associated Press reported, “There are no American vessels known to be in the Red Sea at the moment” because the EU has been put in charge of the response to the attack, and “the American military has not been asked and has no role in the cleanup or the towing of the Sounion.”

Two weeks later, the U.S. military remains uninvolved in recovering the ship, let alone conducting search-and-destroy missions against the enemy. Nearly 10 months into these attacks, the military has yet to identify the points of origin or central command of the strikes, despite its intelligence and technological capabilities. The military’s lack of response is baffling, especially given its eagerness to fund conflicts around the globe, particularly in Eastern Europe. This indifference to a serious global threat that directly impacts our strategic interests is astonishing.

Even before the recent escalation, shipping traffic in the straits exiting the Red Sea had plummeted to alarming levels. According to Port Watch, the seven-day moving average of shipping at the Bab el-Mandeb Strait has dropped by about two-thirds since the attacks began late last year. The daily trade volume through the strait has fallen from 4-5 million metric tons to fewer than 1 million while shipping costs from China to Europe continue to surge. These conditions have persisted for nine months and counting. Where are our Navy and Air Force?

The Navy is drafting a plan ominously called “the great reset,” which aims to sideline crews from 17 Navy support ships due to a shortage of qualified sailors. The Navy’s lack of focus on mission readiness and declining morale has left it without enough seamen to relieve those on extended missions.

Currently enlisted sailors are forced to serve four-month tours with only one month off in between. “If a vessel requires 100 crew members,” a former Military Sealift Command mariner told USNI News, “only 27 are available on shore to rotate with those at sea.”

Our military deployment strategy is fundamentally flawed. We station troops and assets in the worst locations while failing to deploy them where they are needed most.

The same trillion-dollar military that struggles to defeat a country with a GDP per capita of $650 also finds itself vulnerable in Syria and Iraq. The Biden administration continues to place our soldiers in isolated bases in western Iraq and eastern Syria to protect against ISIS, even as Shiite militias attack us.

Recent attacks in Iraq and Syria have left dozens of U.S. soldiers seriously injured. Despite these assaults, the Biden administration has failed to respond effectively and has not developed a plan to evacuate our troops from these dangerous zones.

Consider the tens of thousands of American heroes who have died, been permanently disabled, or suffered lifelong mental illness from the meat-grinder wars in the Middle East over the past two decades. After all that sacrifice, our military still struggles to handle a primitive terror group that disrupts global commerce.

For years, Republicans have competed to see how much money they can throw at the military. They’ve turned authorization bills into bidding wars over dollars and cents instead of focusing on the policies that drive the need for funding. Another 5% increase in military spending won’t fix a problem that even the savage Houthis can exploit. We need to think bigger.