The Houthis fired missiles at a US aircraft carrier. They have announced that no US ships will be permitted to sail through the Red Sea. Trump is a President who is doing all that he can to keep this nation out of conflict. However, the US cannot ignore a state sponsored terrorist group telling the US that they cannot sail in a given area. The first time this was done has caused the Marines to sing about it for over 200 years after President Madison ordered them to go kick some Barbary ass. The Navy has a long tradition of enforcing freedom of navigation. That is the entire reason why we have a Navy.
In response, Trump could probably order US aircraft to do some serious damage to the Houthi encampments. That will be time consuming and expensive, but he will probably do it. More effective in my opinion would be to go ahead and back up his warning to Iran. They are supplying the weapons, they pay the price.
Initiate Praying Mantis II. For those who don’t remember, Praying Mantis was a naval action in 1988 that saw the Iranian navy get its ass kicked over an 8 hour period by the US Navy. I don’t think that they learned their lesson the first time.
The Iranian navy has 6 submarines, 7 frigates, 3 corvettes, and a whole bunch of smaller craft. I think that sinking most of their Navy would perhaps be appropriate. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of days. If they try to defend those ships with aircraft, shooting most of them down would also be appropriate. If the UN and International court don’t like it, that’s just too damned bad.
4 Comments
old geezer · March 17, 2025 at 11:00 am
i remember years ago hearing about iranian sleeper cells in the us. transformers, energy grids, that sort of thing.
haven’t heard much about that in awhile.
Aesop · March 17, 2025 at 1:51 pm
Follow it up by carpet-bombing Tehran with the B-1 and B-2 fleet, and iron bombs.
They’ve had that one coming since 1979.
It worked in Hanoi in 1972, FWIW.
Michael · March 17, 2025 at 1:57 pm
Divemedic, did you miss how the famed Israeli “Iron Dome” got tested to exhaustion by the Iranians.
Iran CHOOSE to STOP as they had made their point.
Navys today are TARGETS for Hypersonics which Iran has plenty. The Hothi’s already made the point of doing a successful strike on one of our carriers earlier during the defend Israel from Hothi missiles events. Oh, we denied it, but I know from friends working at Norfolk that that carrier did indeed withdraw from the range of the Hothi’s and was repaired and respite.
Then I suppose we have to go into a country far stronger than Afghanistan and try for a stalemate there like what happened in Iraq when it was all said and done?
Maybe we should discuss something more sensible. At the cost per sortie and the tiny Hothi national budget, perhaps a reasonable discussion, allow Israel to fight their OWN wars and a settlement for peace might work better.
https://costaide.com/aircraft-carrier-cost/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Yemen
But hey what’s the value of a few thousand American Navy Personnel?
OR as someone earlier mentioned the cost of sleep cells of a few 100 motivated folks destroying our power grid, water purification plants and such?
Were not America of the 70’s anymore.
Divemedic · March 17, 2025 at 3:22 pm
The ship that was supposedly shot at was the USS Eisenhower, the ship that I was assigned to when I was in the Navy. Some of the guys I served with are still in the Norfolk area and now work at the shipyard. The IKE did not get hit with anything.
I guess we should just surrender and pay the Barbary pirates their ransom. The Iranian and Yemeni missile teams are more than we can handle.