In June, the AP headlined its story as “In conflict with Yemen’s Houthi rebels, U.S. Navy faces most intense combat since World War II”.

“I don’t think people really understand just kind of how deadly serious it is what we’re doing and how under threat the ships continue to be,” Cmdr. Eric Blomberg with the USS Laboon told the AP on a visit to his warship on the Red Sea.

“We only have to get it wrong once,” he said. “The Houthis just have to get one through.”

The pace of the fire can be seen on the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, where the paint around the hatches of its missile pods has been burned away from repeated launches. Its sailors sometimes have seconds to confirm a launch by the Houthis, confer with other ships and open fire on an incoming missile barrage that can move near or beyond the speed of sound.

“It is every single day, every single watch, and some of our ships have been out here for seven-plus months doing that,” said Capt. David Wroe, the commodore overseeing the guided missile destroyers.

How in the world is it possible that an Iranian-backed Islamic terrorist group out of Yemen could be subjecting the US Navy to the “most intense combat since World War II”?

The answer is partly there in the story. Instead of hitting the Houthis hard, the US Navy has been stuck playing defense as I had described in an earlier article.

After the initial wave of attacks, the US Navy shifted over to what it euphemistically called “defensive air strikes” against Houthi missiles or rockets that had already been launched or were being prepped for launch. The constant reports about “defensive air strikes” made it sound as if the United States were constantly bombing Yemen, when the US Navy had been allowed to do the bare minimum to prevent and survive more incoming attacks. It wasn’t enough.

A New York Times article on the Biden administration’s intentions stated that the strategy represents “the administration’s attempt to chip away at the Houthis’ ability to menace merchant ships and military vessels but not hit so hard as to kill large numbers of Houthi fighters and commanders, and potentially unleash even more mayhem into a region”. As if ceding the Red Sea hasn’t done that already.

The US Navy is tasked with intercepting incoming Houthi attacks. The few airstrikes that were authorized targeted Houthi rockets and radar rather than trying to do real damage.

After a Houthi drone attack hit Tel Aviv, a block away from the US Consulate building which may have been a possible target, Israel hit back, not by trying to play ‘whack-a-mole’ with the Houthis, but by going after major targets and inflicting major damage.

The IAF attack in the Hodeidah area of Yemen was carried out by 20 fighter jets, some of which were refueled in mid-air, and at a distance of more than 1,700 kilometers (1,000 miles) from Israel – 200 kilometers farther than Tehran, as confirmed by the IDF.

The port of Hodeidah is one of the main routes through which military supplies and weapons from Iran enter Yemen. About 70% of the goods arriving there go to the Houthis, who act as protection racket for the humanitarian aid arriving at the location. The strike damaged infrastructures that would affect its function as a supply route for weapons launched at Israel.

And the US Navy.

This is going to be a crucial point this week. The so-called “aid” groups will scream bloody murder and claim that Israel is causing a ‘famine’ in Yemen. (No, they don’t have any new propaganda ideas.)

Biden didn’t dare put the port out of commission because it’s where the ‘aid’ comes into Yemen. So he allowed Iran to use it to funnel weapons to the Houthis.

By hitting the port, Israel didn’t just protect its own people, but protected the US Navy.