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Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

bbc.com

251–260 of 668 posts

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lol. The orange man is doing more damage to the USA than China could ever do short of actual war. He is destroying the US militarily, economically and politically. They emphatically support his efforts.

IMO it is a good thing that the USA is no longer paying for (among others): - NATO - Maintaining security on the high seas for other than USA shipping, - tariffs imposed by other countries (yes, other countries have been imposing tariffs for decades): https://wjno.iheart.com/content/2025-03-17-qa-how-many-count... The USA can use the money saved for its own citizens (possibly even lowering their taxes!)

> The USA can use the money saved for its own citizens (possibly even lowering their taxes!)

I was feeling miserable reading this thread until I saw this, thanks for cheering me up.

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#252
post #17

Why all the quotation marks in the article? It's not like they interviewed toddlers that said funny things.

When I moved from the US to the UK, the use of quotation marks in news headlines was something that confused me. In the US, these would be "scare quote", with the quotation marks basically standing in for the words "so-called". In the UK, that is NOT their meaning. The quotation marks mean "we are not ourselves in a position to verify this, but it is the words that a source has told us". Very different meaning -- and…

I don't think reputable US news outlets use quotation marks in the way you say they do.

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#253
post #180

Ansar Allah (Houthis) is a terrible Islamist group that commits warcrimws against both Yemenis and people thousands of miles away. Here’s just one example, executing men for gayness: https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/03/27/yemen-houthis-sentence-m... “In addition to death sentences that include crucifixion and stoning, the Houthi court sentenced 23 men to prison for periods of up to 10 years. Three of them were also sent…

Hopefully there will be another epic fury operation to clear the situation

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> Iran can't have a nuclear weapon. It's an intolerable premise Actions have consequences. The continual attack on the sovereignty of countries around the world has made nuclear weapons one of the few ways to avoid being a client state of the US at the expense of your own population. Iran has figured out another method it seems. This is blowback. The simple lesson that we refuse to learn.

> The continual attack on the sovereignty of countries around the world has made nuclear weapons one of the few ways to

Name the other countries pursuing a nuclear weapon. Maybe you are drumming up a fear that nobody else really has.

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#255

The Houthis created a fake audio of a major Yemeni commander telling his troops to retreat which was subsequently amplified on Twitter/X, telegram, etc. Apparently, this helped the Houthis advance quickly as the opposition forces were in disarray. https://x.com/BashaReport/status/2097862335494795579

[flagged]

... even though they aren't?

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#256
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we accept your premise, the current war has made us less safe, because we've had previous, stronger nuclear deals that have now been torn up in a failed attempt to replace their leader with someone more favorable to the US.

Iran probably wasn't following the JCPOA, denied inspectors access to certain sites, and you'd also have to say you 100% trust American intelligence to verify that Iran isn't building a nuclear weapon in secret and if you want to do that I've got a war to sell you in Iraq. Separately that doesn't resolve the other issues, funding militant groups, &c.

Do you think in the current situation they are more or less likely to try for a nuke than before?

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#257
post #218
post #180

Ansar Allah (Houthis) is a terrible Islamist group that commits warcrimws against both Yemenis and people thousands of miles away. Here’s just one example, executing men for gayness: https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/03/27/yemen-houthis-sentence-m... “In addition to death sentences that include crucifixion and stoning, the Houthi court sentenced 23 men to prison for periods of up to 10 years. Three of them were also sent…

The other side is Al Qaeda. So who do you support? Wipe out the Houthis and you'll get another Syria where Al Qaeda controls the country. Edit: Downvote me as much you want doesn't change the facts. the front line fighters for Yemen government is Al Qaeda. It was same thing as Syria which is why we have an Al Qaeda leader as their president. https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2019/02/middleeast/yemen-los...

Yes, but there is growing cooperation between Sunni and Shia Islamists. Support none, all kill gays, infidels and “misbehaving” women.

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#258

Will this bring oil prices down in Europe? Oil tankers could still go to the mediteranian via the suez canal. This will not help asia, but I can imagine if it is too dangerous the go through bab al-mandab strait it is more lucrative to sell the crude oil to europe at a discount?

Why wouldn’t they go up?

Instability is instability. Oil is fungible.

There’s no reason to think someone else won’t escalate this further disrupting supplies even more. That will push prices up.

Even if they don’t, if oil can’t get through this straight it will have to go somewhere else, which will increase shipping traffic and demand for “your oil” right? And wouldn’t that also push up prices?

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#259
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Will this bring oil prices down in Europe ... This will not help Asia This hurts Europe more than Asia. The UK, France, Italy, Netherlands, Denmark, and others are similarly opposed to the Houthis having conducted airstrikes on the Houthis (eg. 2025) as well as helping target them directly or indirectly. And a large portion of global shipping is owned by Greek conglomerates - a country that is a close ally of Israe…

Yeah the EU leadership has been really shortsighted on these past decades (especially since the 10s), especially in their strategic energy and industrial sectors. Be it the Ukranian conflict, the ME crisis, the NA wars and instabilities, etc. The EU is the one that geopolitically speaking lost the most. Unless they're full puppets for foreign interests, I simply do not understand how they could leave foreign actors t…

> Unless they're full puppets for foreign interests,

The European parliament has been bought 10 times over by the lobbies.

See https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/08/lobbyists-euro...

"By some estimates, they influence 75% of legislation"

> But even then, they could not have possibly been all mere puppets. And yet.

Even if the lobbying was not reason for all the bad decisions of the EU, the EU parliament has no way to actually propose any laws on its own. All the laws emanate from the commission which is also bought and paid for by you guessed it, the lobbies.

Re: Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route

#260
post #129

This war started as a regime change operation in Iran, one of the shakiest regimes in the world pre-war, but ironically the war might end up with most of the nations who supported the war (either vocally or quietly) "regime changed" (loosely defined), including Israel, US, some European countries and now possibly some Gulf nations, awhile the Iranian regime seem to have tightened its grip more than ever. Yet MAGA sup…

Do you even realize that one of the only reason anybody still supports this war is precisely because of comments like yours? By dividing people into teams, and antagonizing them, you result in people never willing to stomach giving an inch and doubling down on stupid. Obviously this war has been the US' latest great failure, and at the beckoning of a foreign power which makes it especially catastrophic. If people cou…

Do you realise that the only reason the average US taxpayer keeps getting wrecked into one pointless forever war after the other no matter who is in power is because the elites are never held accountable for their mad self-enriching adventures?

Holding people like Hegseth (who literally insider traded defense equities right before the start of the war) and Trump accountable (who practically made a gazillion insider trading each mad meme he posted while the world burnt) is not "dividing people into teams"

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