Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route • Hacker News Board

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

#431

Post by rayiner » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:53 PM UTC

pasquinelli wrote: post #429

ericmay wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just to be clear: the current situation is a huge mess caused by one deranged leader. Sorry that's just dead wrong. This doesn't happen in a vacuum. I mean you could simply add Netanyahu and make your statement incorrect here. Nevermind all the other actors, Iran's deranged death cult, and more.

no, it is just trump. netanyahu's been pushing for this for decades, but prior presidents just didn't let themselves be pushed. as for iran, they've been the picture of restraint since trump's first term.

> as for iran, they've been the picture of restraint since trump's first term.

They tried to assassinate Trump, before he did any of this!

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

#432

Post by BLKNSLVR » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:54 PM UTC

dismalaf wrote: post #138

Attacking Iran and then backing down has just shown all the West's enemies that the US has no resolve.

... and now a low, and continuing to decrease, number of protective missiles.

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

#433

Post by BLKNSLVR » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:55 PM UTC

logicchains wrote: post #365

bicx wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The U.S. leadership has a bad habit of starting conflicts that the bulk of the population doesn't want, which leads to large political costs and resulting half-measures. Our current leadership literally ran on "no more wars." Morons.

You misunderstood; it was actually "no, more wars!"

Works on commission?

No! Money down!

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

#434

Post by kadoban » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:56 PM UTC

LarsKrimi wrote: post #206

kadoban wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At some point they might prefer stability and sanity. I would bet that at this point they don't care much either way. China is playing long, most of the ~unchanging things are in their favor and the US already proved that they're unreliable. People won't forget that soon even if Trump is gone.

Stability and sanity is not happening whether the conflicts stop in Yemen+Hormuz or not. At that point it's just going to go back to tarriff wars and new terror campaigns that the US admin will start somewhere else

The context of this is which party China would prefer to win the midterms. The dems winning would distract Trump from being able to fuck up the rest of the world a bit.

My bet would be that China doesn't care much either way, they win regardless.

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

#435

Post by ericmay » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:56 PM UTC

etchalon wrote: post #417

ericmay wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there's any change. But I think it's less possible.

There's zero evidence its less possible, including counter evidence it remains possible because we keep being told we have to attack Iran to prevent them from attaining a nuclear weapon. So apparently, we've yet to do anything to prevent them from doing it. We've just killed children.

> We've just killed children.

They killed more than 30,000 of their own people including children and support terrorist regimes in multiple countries that also kill children.

> There's zero evidence its less possible

On the other hand we bombed the nuclear facilities so what increase in nuclear weapons capability do they have that you are thinking about here? If there's something that has changed I'd be curious to read about it or your thoughts since that would change my opinion.

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

#436

Post by saxonww » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:58 PM UTC

lenkite wrote: post #391

737min wrote: post #140

More properly called Ansar Allah, supported by Iranian regime, and guilty of war crimes against everyone from fellow Yemenis to people thousands of miles away. Women, gays and infidels are pubished by Houthi police.

> Women, gays and infidels are pubished by Houthi police. The EU & US don't have ANY issues supporting and financing governments that punish gays and infidels. Hint: New Syrian government, Saudi government (which is also famous for publicly beheading gays) So why not accept the Houthis too ? Otherwise, my apologies, your stance just sounds like the usual disgusting Western sanctimonious hypocrisy.

What would you expect instead? I think the US supports the Saudis because they are the primary competitor to Iran in the middle east. But no one (?) in the middle east has great support for women, gays, or infidels.

I think you're right that strategic / economic interests have outweighed cultural issues / human rights.

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

#437

Post by BLKNSLVR » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:58 PM UTC

tomjen3 wrote: post #270

khriss wrote: post #110

I wouldn't be surprised if this got downvoted off the front page in minutes, just like the other story about diesel being at all time highs. There is a well coordinated group here that seems unusually allergic to inconvenient truths.

It is also not really appropriate for HN.

What's appropriate for HN is decided by the attention of HN, no matter what you or I personally think or prefer.

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

#438

Post by xboxnolifes » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:59 PM UTC

WarmWash wrote: post #276

danisth wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe there were pieces of a plan. This global energy shift gambit being one of them. I don’t think there was a unified strategy with contingencies etc though (if there was it certainly wasn’t very good).

People are so politically blinded that it's almost impossible to explain the plan, but to anyone with the strength to keep a level head, it's pretty clear what the plan was, and frankly it probably had a 50% success chance. But Trump rolled a critical failure on it. Iranians were rioting against the regime, Israel intelligence handed the US a report that the collective "Head" of the Iranian regime will be all togethe…

Has the cut off the head strategy ever worked in any US operation for replacing a leader with someone outside of their existing network?

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

#439

Post by apexalpha » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:59 PM UTC

autoexec wrote: post #389

bhouston wrote: post #151

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

If that's true, it's insane that it worked. It should be obvious to not take orders from twitter. There's a chain of command for a reason and random people on social media are no part of it. Sounds like the opposition forces would have to be so stupid that any number of Looney Tunes style tricks would have worked. Maybe next they can send out a rabbit in a dress to make opposition fall in love with it.

The US President routinely announces policy decisions on social media…

You’d lose a lot of money always waiting for news through officials channels.

Who knows how slow Yemini military channels are.

You’d bet your life on it?

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

#440

Post by lenkite » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 5:01 PM UTC

ericd wrote: post #395

lenkite wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ansar Allah (Houthis) is a terrible Islamist group that commits warcrimws ... The Syrian President and current Western/Israeli "good boy" - belongs to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham which has committed warcrimes which make the Houthis look like choir boys. He was former Al-Qaeda too with a multi-million dollar bounty. Done an utterly ridiculous number of beheadings, chaining & rape of women, torture, the whole galore of work…

Geopolitics is way too complicated for such black and white thinking. Do you know who amongst the governments of those countries decided to back this Syrian president? I certainly don't. What percentage of the (huge) populations that you're damning as "deeply disgusting, sanctimonious hypocrites" do you think know who the current Syrian president is, his history, know who amongst their governments backed him, voted f…

> Geopolitics is way too complicated for such black and white thinking. Do you know who amongst the governments of those countries decided to back this Syrian president? I certainly don't.

I am very much against black and white thinking. But the typical US and even EU liberal citizen is mired in such thinking when it comes to talk about "war crimes and "regime change". If you don't know who in the EU govt decided to back this Syrian President, then I can only facepalm since even as a poor, "low-IQ" third-worlder (according to MAGA folks), I am educated on the same. Please look at Ursula von der Leyen and her €620 million support package.

Yes, I will hold you folks responsible. This is not some "abstract idea" - it is basic, common knowledge and you fellows always, always fall to your media propaganda.