Meanwhile on the International front....

The NYT's "Looming Starvation" story this morning had this peach of a quote many, many paragraphs in ...

The magnanimity!

 

Beau on the South Africa case in the ICJ, as well as the ICC's current status on Israel and the Palestinians. In brief, the ICJ has no enforcement power. The ICC does, but while the ICJ is about countries accusing countries, the ICC prosecutes individuals. Nothing either of them do will come together in less than a year or three.

 

Iran Wins With US Air Strikes on Houthis in Yemen
The response to attacks in the Red Sea was inevitable, but it’s still unlikely to achieve US goals.


Iran Wins With US Air Strikes on Houthis in Yemen

 

Will be in Cape Town for all of February and as the government struggles to keep the power on for even 18 hours a day, not to mention the crushing corruption, poverty and crime that haunts much of the country, it is good to know SA’s leaders are focusing on areas where they can really make a difference…

 

So, the Israel should just negotiate and take it when terrorists slaughter their citizens and the U.S. should just allow Houthis to launch rockets at American assets and personnel and attack ships in the Red Sea with impunity.

 

That's not what it said. It said that the U.S. was in a bind diplomatically, that it was a "heads we win, tails you lose" situation. If the Houthis are allowed to screw up shipping through the Red Sea, that's going to raise oil prices and screw with the supply chain, both of which mean that there must be push back on the Houthis. It affects everyone but the U.S. and our closest allies are going to be the enforcers.

Now add this in to the reasons that there is pressure to keep the Suez merchant ship traffic flowing. The drought in Panama is so bad that the canal can't support ship traffic. Shippers are unloading at ports on one side of the isthmus and trucking goods to a port on the other side and reloading to finish the shipping. Again, supply chain screwed with and rising costs.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/11/pan...rsk-to-start-using-land-bridge-for-cargo.html

It is entirely possible that a broader coalition of countries starts to put pressure on Iran to stop disrupting trade and their economies. Also entirely possible that they stay quiet and let us be the bad guys.

 

I read the Iran story and was left wondering, "Iran won WHAT exactly?"

Probably another instance where the author didn't make the headline.

 

Iran, Houthis DESTROY United States of America!

 

We sure as hell didn't win anything. We swatted some flies, but the guys that got shot up were replaceable. Most of what the Houthis have is portable, the Saudis have been using air attacks on them for years. Unless we get a crack at their command structure we can't do more than damage them a little with such attacks. Those Tomahawk cruise missiles are a million bucks a pop.

The big difference maker would be if some Green Berets or SAS were boots on the ground doing recon and spotting with a laser designator. No sign that we are at this point, but it could happen.

 

If "winning" is maintaining economic stability and by extension world peace, I'll take those "wins" all week long and then some.

The message was the important thing. And that was sent. The ball is now in Iran's court.

 

Is it a win if they're back to doing it next week, though? Saudi Arabia has been sending those 1,000 pound messages for years but here we are.