The U.S. launched a new project called “Operation Prosperity Garden” to crack down on recent Houthi attacks on civilian naval vessels. The U.S. says it will not take these attacks lightly and plans to deal with the Iranian-backed Houthis so that economic prosperity can continue to flow through the Red Sea. The U.S. has also taken this opportunity to expand its military power within the region, despite the situations present within other parts of the Middle East. This increase in military presence doesn’t just connect with the U.S., reports say that along with the U.S., many of its allies have also “buffed” their bases along this economic and militaristic chokepoint. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think this increase in military presence is a good thing for the U.S. Despite being already spread thin the Red Sea and Bab el Mandeb strait are externally important in today’s economic flow of resources. If the strait was taken hostage and halted many companies in the world would take large hits, including the countries they are linked to. Even with the strait protected many companies will have to increase prices to prepare for a worst-case scenario in case another Houthi attack does strike a ship owned by such a company. Although not in immediate danger the strait is of utmost importance for every country in the world. If shut down, it could cause widespread economic downfalls, resulting in rebellions or military takeovers like the ones we’ve seen before in history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The geographic power Yemen holds is what makes it such an important country for both the U.S. and its enemies. The reason that Iran backed the overthrow of the country was because they knew if they could control the government, they could then influence the decisions on the strait, closing or opening it whenever they wanted. The U.S. as well as its allies need the strait open and safe because it fears the power Yemen and Iran have on the area. If it could close the strait whenever it wanted then the U.S. would be forced to submit to its demands or have to potentially attack Yemen to re-open the strait and allow economic flow to continue. Iran understands this and has picked now to cause issues in the area, they believe that if they force the U.S. to have to act then they could weaken them and spread the already thin U.S. even thinner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Article: https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2023\/12\/18\/us-to-expand-red-sea-defense-as-houthis-disrupt-trade.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The U.S. launched a new project called “Operation Prosperity Garden” to crack down on recent Houthi attacks on civilian naval vessels. The U.S. says it will not take these attacks lightly and plans to deal with the Iranian-backed Houthis so that economic prosperity can continue to flow through the Red Sea. The U.S. has also taken this opportunity to expand… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/248"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5929,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5928\/revisions\/5929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}