Military commanders have openly disagreed with the Pentagon over the U.S. military response to the Houthi threat in the Red Sea, calling for a stronger response.
“The US clearly needs to take more aggressive action against Iran, which is supplying and supporting the Houthis. Houthi attacks will continue unless the US imposes costs on Iran,” retired Navy Adm. Mark Montgomery, senior director of the Cyber and Technology Innovation Center at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital.
“The Biden administration is not pursuing an effective deterrence strategy against Iran, and therefore the Houthis, because the administration is overly interested in provoking Iran and not enough interested in shaping Iran's behavior,” Montgomery said.
“If you leave a bully alone for too long, eventually it becomes harder to stand up to them.”
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On January 14, 2024, Houthi supporters burned Israeli and American flags during a tribal rally on the outskirts of Yemen's capital, Sanaa. (Mohamed Hammoud/Getty Images)
Gen. Michael Kurilla, commander of Central Command, argued in a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that current policy is “not having the desired effect” on Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. According to the Wall Street Journal:.
Kurila called for a “whole-of-government” approach to the issue, saying it would include increased military pressure as well as economic and diplomatic pressure to dissuade terrorist groups from attacking ships in the region.
The letter's wording, particularly Kurilla's assertion that “American soldiers will die if this continues,” shocked some at the Defense Department, one official told The Wall Street Journal.
The Pentagon told Fox News Digital it had nothing additional to provide in response to a request for comment.
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The Houthis launched attacks on ships in the Red Sea after Israel invaded the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an October 7 attack by Hamas.
An F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet parked on the flight deck of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier during operations in the southern Red Sea, March 19, 2024. (Christopher Pike/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Although the Houthis claimed they were only attacking ships trading with Israel, their attacks struck vessels from dozens of countries, causing widespread disruption and putting the lives of hundreds of crew members at risk.
National Security Council spokesman Sean Sabet told Fox News Digital that the US was taking an “aggressive whole-of-government approach” to combat the Houthis, including imposing sanctions, designating them as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Organisation and cutting off their supply lines.
Houthi fighters march on the outskirts of Sanaa on January 22, 2024, during a rally calling for support for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and opposition to the US attack on Yemen. (AP Photo)
“As we have said before, we will continue to make it clear to the Houthis that they must cease their unlawful attacks or face the consequences. negatively impact the local economycausing environmental damage and hindering the delivery of humanitarian aid to Yemen and other countries,” Thabet said.
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Earlier this summer, officials described the six-month battle with the Houthis as “the most intense naval battle” in the country, according to the Associated Press, with one commander telling the news agency that the Houthis were launching missiles, drones or “other types of attacks” on an almost daily basis.
“I don't think people really understand how serious our actions are and how threatened the ship is,” Capt. Eric Blomberg of the U.S. Navy's Laboon, who toured the ship in the Red Sea, told The Associated Press.
In early February, missiles were fired from the warship during a US-led coalition operation against Houthi rebels in Yemen. (U.S. Central Command)
“We only have to get it wrong once,” he said. “The Houthis only have to get it wrong once.”
On August 21, the Houthis attacked a Greek-flagged oil tanker in the Red Sea, leaving it “out of control” and adrift on fire. The Houthis have not directly claimed responsibility for the attack, but the British military has said they are responsible.
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US Central Command said over the weekend it had sunk at least one Houthi unmanned aerial vehicle and one unmanned surface vessel off the coast of Yemen, after determining both posed a “clear and imminent threat” to US and coalition forces.
Rear Admiral Mark Miguez of the U.S. Navy said: Interviews with YouTube personalities Retired naval aviator Ward Carroll said a more aggressive strategy was proposed but the command passed it off for fear of an Iranian response.
The oil tanker Merlin Luanda is on fire after being attacked in the Gulf of Aden on January 27, 2024. (Indian Navy via Associated Press)
“There is a clear strategy that has been proposed, but the national military command has decided that it does not want to challenge what it calls a more aggressive posture or a more aggressive attack,” Miguez said in an interview published in late August.
“We all know that Iranian-backed groups like the Houthis are the source of that threat,” Miguez said, “and that's the calculation that gets handled at National Command Echelon Zero with the NSA and other actors.”
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“We're going to have to continue to address this issue,” he added. “It will be up to national command authorities to decide whether to use not just the Navy, but strike groups and all of our assets more aggressively.”
The Navy did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment at the time of publication, but an NSC spokesperson said separately that “the assertion that the Administration decided not to pursue a more aggressive policy out of concern for a possible Iranian response is false.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
