Houthis Turn $600m Of US Military Hardware Into SCRAP!

Right, so nothing quite says you’re on a hiding to nowhere like losing billions of dollars fighting a war that functionally failing to achieve every objective you’ve apparently set yourself here and whilst starting a video with a statement like that easily has images of Israel’s atrocities in Gaza and their objective being to eliminate Hamas having failed utterly by their own measure, it is with regards to the US attacks on Yemen, to supposedly stop the Houthis that it actually applies to here and just as Israel have failed to defeat their enemy with atrocity against civilians, so it goes for the US in Yemen, really begging the question arguably more than ever before even under Joe Biden, just how much US attacks under Trump mirror those by Israel in the depravity stakes.
What we’ve been observing in Yemen has been so much like Gaza in many ways, except perhaps in scale, but that isn’t for lack of trying on the Trump administrations part and with far more cash to splash than Israel does, despite US aid amidst Israel’s economy continuing to slide, all that has meant against the Houthis is the sheer amount of wasted dollars being accrued, the Houthis having now downed their 19th $33m MQ-9 Reaper drone, meaning in drones alone, the Houthis have scattered $627m in US public cash across the sands of Yemen and to what avail?
Right, so the United States’ military campaign against Yemen’s Ansarallah movement, better known as the Houthis has become a case study in massively expensive strategic failure. Despite relentless airstrikes, the Houthis remain undeterred, unbowed and unbroken, continuing their attacks on Israeli targets and US military shipping in defence of themselves and in solidarity with Gaza. Nothing has quite summed up the failure and the cost of said failure more though, than the downing of yet another MQ-9 Reaper drone, an occurrence that has happened so often that its often not noted much anymore, but it is emblematic of the US continuing to pour vast sums of US public money into a war of attrition, to defend Israel’s right to continue to commit genocide in Gaza, that it cannot win, while Yemeni civilians pay the ultimate price for the US’ actions rather than the Houthis themselves, the US simply not knowing where they actually are, and therefore taking a leaf out of Israel’s book seemingly, in that any brown skinned person will do when it comes to attacks.
The US, just like Israel, is bombing civilian areas, killing and wounding at least 370 Yemenis since the Houthis resumed attacks following the fall of the Gaza ceasefire ended as that was by Israel. Most of those 370 Yemenis, just as so often proves to be the case in Gaza, were women and children. Ion top of that, because that civilian death toll just doesn’t appear to be high enough, the cruelty at US hands not significant enough against Yemen’s civilian population, Washington has cut off aid to Yemen, weaponising starvation in a country already ravaged by famine. Amnesty International has condemned this as a war crime, quite rightly, yet the US continues its campaign against not just the Houthis as dressed up by too many media outlets, but against all of Yemen with no tangible results except further devastation and all for the sake of Israel.
Meanwhile, the Houthis remain defiant, striking deep into Israel and vowing to continue until Gaza is free, so the biggest question that must be asked of the Trump administration at this point is: What is the point of this war? Because if the goal is to stop the Houthis, it has failed. If the goal was to protect Israel, it has backfired. Houthi missiles and drones still reach Tel Aviv. Houthi missiles and drones still strike US warships. If the goal was to assert US dominance, it has only exposed American weakness, so what we have here in actuality is a war of vanity, a waste of lives and money, and a testament to the brutality of US foreign policy that is barely any different from Israel’s anymore.
Lets start though with the downing of the 19th MQ-9 Reaper drone, by the Houthis, because these ridiculously expensive craft have become symbolic of Houthi resistance and a stark symbol of US futility in Yemen, that their military actions are not getting them anywhere. Each drone costs £33million, meaning the Houthis have destroyed $627 million worth of US hardware in drones alone, never mind the damage they are doing to other craft, both air and sea and the extortionate amount of munitions the US is wasting fighting a war against an enemy that for the most part they can’t find and are therefore choosing to waste said munitions striking civilian areas instead, depraved in the extreme as that is. It is especially maddening when you think how these massive amounts of cash could have funded humanitarian aid, infrastructure, or healthcare for millions of Yemenis, who have lost so much not just in the here and now, but through years of attacks again by the US, then aiding Saudi Arabia. Instead, $627m worth of drones has been reduced to scrap metal and the US war machine just keeps grinding its gears with further pointless attacks costing innocent lives, but as long as the arms companies turn a profit right?
The MQ-9 Reaper is one of the most advanced drones in the US arsenal, designed for surveillance and precision strikes. Yet, the Houthis, regarded with sneering contempt as primitive and poorly organised to the mistake of all those who face them have repeatedly shot them down. Instead of fighting an underpowered, far weaker, far less capable force, the US is fighting an unwinnable war against a determined, adaptive enemy that is making chumps of them and burning through US military hardware seemingly as fast as it gets thrown at them.
But while Washington continues to kid itself and boasts of degrading Houthi capabilities, what it is actually doing is wounding and killing Yemeni civilians. A recent US strike on a ceramics factory left dozens dead and wounded, with no evidence of military targets nearby. This brings us to a total of 370 total civilian casualties, since January, mostly women and children at that, par for the course for Israel in Gaza as we’ve become especially aware of, but this is the US in Yemen.
In addition to this, fresh strikes in Ma’rib and al-Jawf have been reported overnight, though fortunately this time with no reported lives lost at time of writing, again so much expense for so little purpose.
The US is not fighting the Houthis at all really, not with such little intelligence on their whereabouts and that of their munitions—it is terrorising Yemeni civilians instead, just as Israel is terrorising Palestinians.
And it isn’t just through siege and warfare that the US is doing this either. In a move that has been roundly condemned by Amnesty International, the US has frozen aid to Yemen, exacerbating one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Some 20 million Yemenis rely on aid, and now, with food and medical supplies blocked, famine is imminent. Here’s an excerpt on this from Amnesty itself:
‘Aid workers described to Amnesty International how President Donald Trump’s decision to cut US aid funding has led to the shut-down of lifesaving assistance and protection services, including malnutrition treatment to children, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, safe shelters to survivors of gender-based violence, and healthcare to children suffering from cholera and other illnesses.
“The abrupt and irresponsible cuts in U.S. aid will have catastrophic consequences on Yemen’s most vulnerable and marginalized groups, including women and girls, children, and internally displaced people, jeopardizing their safety, dignity, and fundamental human rights,” said Diala Haidar, Amnesty International’s Yemen Researcher.
“Unless the U.S. immediately reinstates sufficient funding for lifesaving aid to Yemen and ensures the money is disbursed expeditiously, an already devastating humanitarian situation will further deteriorate and millions of people in Yemen are going to be left without desperately needed support.
“Other donor states must also act urgently to uphold their human rights obligations by providing humanitarian assistance and supporting human rights in Yemen.”’
This is collective punishment, a deliberate strategy to weaken support for the Houthis by starving the Yemeni population. This is a war crime, yet the US faces no consequences. Meanwhile, the Houthis remain in power, still firing missiles, still defying Washington, who label them the terrorists.
And yet despite US attacks, the Houthis continue to launch missiles at Israel, forcing Tel Aviv to yet again shut down Ben Gurion Airport and sending Israelis into bomb shelters and their message remains as clear as it has ever been, that they will not stop until Gaza is free.
This is the ultimate failure of US strategy. After months of bombing, the Houthis are stronger politically, seen across the world as the only force actively defending Palestine by taking the fight directly to Israel and against those depraved enough to still support them, like the US and like the UK. Meanwhile, the US looks like a bully, wasting billions to bomb the poorest country in the Middle East with no strategic gain and its strikes on civilians there are rightly drawing direct comparisons between what they are doing and what Israel is doing in Gaza.
The US campaign in Yemen therefore is a total disaster by every metric and measure.
It is militarily ineffective with 19 drones lost at a cost of more than half a billion dollars alone as the most easily pointed to example of US failure and the Houthis very much still fighting back
The US’ actions in Yemen are also utterly morally indefensible, now blocking aid to civilians whilst hundreds are dead or wounded as a direct result of US strikes on civilian areas and it is completely strategically incoherent, with no effect being demonstrably seen against the Houthis, no real direction for how the US can change matters, strategically incoherent and there is no exit plan here, money being spent hand over fist ongoing as the Houthis continue to strike Israel until and unless they get out of Gaza.
This is not a war the US can win. The only solution is an immediate ceasefire, the resumption of aid, and a political settlement in Gaza. It’s a very short and simple statement by way of a solution when you boil it all down. Until then, the bombs will keep falling, the drones will keep crashing, and Yemenis will keep dying, all paid for by the American public and the Houthis will continue to retaliate.
But just as bad as all the waste here fighting the Houthis, just as bad as failing to get anywhere with them, is the fact the Houthis have actually been thanking the US amongst all of this, for all of the training their attacks are giving their troops! Yes, Ansarallah leader Abdul Malik Al Houthis has claimed not only are the US attacks futile, but that they are actually helping his men become even better! Get all the details of what would be the ultimate failure of US attacks on Yemen in this video recommendation here as your suggested next watch. Please do also hit like, share and subscribe if you haven’t done so already, so as to ensure you don’t miss out on all new daily content as well as supporting the channel at the same time which is very much appreciated, holding power to account for ordinary working class people and I will hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.