The West Strikes Back: 5 Takeaways from the Yemen Operation

In the morning hours of January 12 local time, the United States and United Kingdom began a series of strikes on Houthi-controlled Yemen. They came in retaliation for ongoing threats to international shipping lanes in the Red Sea. How did the operation play out? And will this be the end of the conflict? Those and others are the topics that we tackle today.

0:00 The United States and United Kingdom Attack Yemen
1:03 Background: The Red Sea Crisis
4:32 Fighting an Asymmetric Conflict
6:01 Are There Diversionary Incentives?
7:18 The United Nations' Role
8:53 Is this the End?
11:03 What's Next?

The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.

By Simon Walker:

By Secretary of Defense:

[Gametheory]

6:56 Secretary of *Defense* Lloyd Austin. The joys of turning something around in six hours or less...

[bradsims]

It had lines. It had maps. It had analysis. Nailed it.

[Belgand]

The rapid turnaround on these is exceptional, especially considering the quality of analysis and production. Don't let the evolving situation get you down. You're putting out in-depth content sooner than the weekly news magazines. Often on par with daily newspapers. The only sources going faster are TV news, where much of that is relying on interviews and panels to provide the analysis rather than being written by staff, or online editions of print media. You're absolutely killing it.

[seanburke]

Why are you better at this than most of the traditional media outlets? Thanks for doing what you do

[MattttG]

As others below me stated, thank you so much for doing proper breakdowns of news that is literally on TV as we speak on here. You covered this before the majority of those who “do it for a job” on here. And they are pushing constant ad reads on 8 min videos that just tell us what we already know and their uninformed opinion overall, at best.


You are top class, thank you bro bro

[motorosso]

Something needs to be done about the Iranian ship in the Red Sea that is spotting for the Houthis.

[modder]

The houthis also attacked a Russian tanker so that may lead to more of consensus

[adamdunsire]

Top notch analysis Bill. Nice work. This is one of the best channels on the platform.

[Funkeneh]

Your video's are so frolicking good!

[jeremygibbs]

I imagine the houthis are done with this gambit. If they push it much further they may just become so crippled the Yemen government comes to finish the job. The houthis wont want that and Iran wont want that either

[FlintForgfire]

6:54 Lloyd Austin is Secretary of Defense not Secretary of State

[aBanger]

Your videos are always so darn good. Well done sir!

[regular-joe]

Thanks for this reporting. Most major and independent channels are ignoring the fact that the houthis have been attacking commercial vessels in international waters for months, and have been reporting and blaming the US and UK for initiating this conflict.

[jorgecaballerocastillo]

I loved the lines on maps of this video!

[tscott]

I like seeing your content more often. Good work.

[TheLPcollector]

11:50 tthe paralels if you replace the words in that sentence: if you replaced America with "Russia", the Houthis with "Ukraine", and Iran with "Nato/The west"

which neatly explains why Ukraine needs western support, putin's too afraid to poke Nato so if we supplied the arms putin wouldnt touch it without getting article 5'd in his face

especially now that the Ukraine war has shifted focus to destroying centers of production

[scottsmith]

Best analysis so far. Thanks William.

[abdc]

Remember seeing an emirati dude on reddit sharing pics of an airborne B-2 seen from the ground on a planespotter sub a few hours before the attacks were on the news lol, good stuff.

[augustlion]

The Houthis have put themselves on the map, when there was a war there, it was largely ignored as a regional matter. That will only be bad for the Houthis as now threat evaluation and proactive measures will be taken to stop them being armed which brings in Iran.

Iran was already on the map but the actions of Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis that are all supported by Iran threaten regional stability and the majority of that region wants stability. Iran is the bad actor here and without them the three H's are left stranded. The Iranian government is not supported by the people of Iran, made up of the multiple ethnic and tribal groups in Iran.

Without Iranian support Hamas would never had the capability to do what they did in Israel. Iran's influence in the region needs to be proactively weakened. I am surprised that Iran would risk its friendship with Russia and China by allowing the Houthis to do what they have done, Russia is forced to ship most of its oil via the red sea and China desperately does not want its economy weakened further by actions in the red sea.

I expect Russia and China to be applying maximum pressure on Iran and so the Houthis. A continuation will ultimately lead to big problems for the Iranians one way or another and with a populace that is against the rulers.

[CivilDefenceCanada]

It feels like we're in a rewind of 1920s-1930s politics, all over again. Hang on to your hats, folks.