I keep hearing the Trump Administration and their defenders claim the attack on the Houthis was completely successful as a defense, but setting aside that is not the primary issue here, it is worth examining whether it is fair to call an incomplete mission a success?
Background (3/21 article):
“…Officials said the new round of strikes in Yemen may last for weeks and that they are now less worried about casualties. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Sunday claimed the renewed military operation is necessary due to attacks on
Navyships and shipping,
telling Maria Bartiromo on Fox News that "ships haven't been able to go through for over a year without being shot at."
However, as leaders like Hegseth demand the Houthis halt their attacks as a condition of ending the strikes, multiple officials at the Pentagon, who spoke on condition of anonymity to more freely discuss the current situation, told Military.com that the last Houthi attack they were aware of occurred in December -- months ago and before President Donald Trump even took office.
In his Fox News appearance, Hegseth said that, around that time frame, "we sent a ship through, it was shot at 17 times," but he didn't offer any further details about whether it was a U.S. warship or merchant ship.
U.S. Central Command did
announce two attacks against U.S. warships and merchant ships that month, but the munitions used didn't appear to add up to 17.
…
The Trump administration's military operations against the Houthis began Saturday with a strike that hit "over 30 targets at multiple locations," Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, the joint staff's planning boss, told reporters Monday.
"These included terrorist training sites, unmanned aerial vehicle infrastructure, weapons manufacturing capabilities and weapon storage facilities," Grynkewich said, adding that the targets "also included a number of command-and-control centers, including a terrorist compound where we know several senior Houthi unmanned aerial vehicle experts were located."
Since Saturday, Grynkewich said strikes have continued; posts on the U.S. Central Command
and Defense Department social media pages show that jets from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman were flying as late as Thursday.
Grynkewich wouldn't say how many targets were hit on subsequent days, but several defense officials told Military.com that the number of targets was lower than the total reported Saturday. …”
www.military.com
Meanwhile, the Houthis have vowed to retaliate and to resume attacking shipping lanes …