Why The U.S. Bombed Houthi Rebels In Yemen

Summary

Summary of "Why The U.S. Bombed Houthi Rebels In Yemen" - The NPR Politics Podcast (Release Date: May 8, 2025)

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Introduction

In this episode of The NPR Politics Podcast, hosts Susan Davis, Greg Myhre, and Tamara Keith delve into the recent decision by President Donald Trump to terminate the United States' prolonged bombing campaign against the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The discussion explores the origins, impacts, and broader implications of this military action, providing listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the geopolitical dynamics at play.

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Background on the Houthi Rebels

Greg Myhre provides an in-depth overview of the Houthis, outlining their significant role in Yemen over the past two decades.

• History and Influence:
  “The Houthis are a militant group in Yemen and they've been fighting virtually nonstop for around two decades now. They ousted the government in the capital of Yemen, Sana'a, more than a decade ago. They've controlled much of the country for years.”
  (02:01)

• Regional Impact:
  The Houthis' aggressive actions, especially since aligning with Palestinian causes amidst the Israel-Hamas conflict in October 2023, have significantly disrupted international shipping routes. Their missile and drone attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea have forced the rerouting of global shipping around Africa's southern tip, escalating shipping costs and contributing to global inflation.

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US Bombing Campaign: Rationale and Execution

The Trump administration's intensified military response against the Houthis marked a significant shift from previous strategies.

• Initial Response:
  “The Biden administration was doing something similar, but on a smaller scale. The US sent naval forces into the region, mostly a defensive effort to shoot down those Houthi missiles and drones...”
  (03:34)

• Aggressive Escalation:
  Under President Trump, the US launched daily strikes against the Houthis starting March 15th, aiming either to decisively defeat the group or halt their attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes.

• Lack of Transparency:
  The campaign was notably low-profile, with limited briefings and public updates, raising questions about its strategic communication and objectives.

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President Trump's Announcement of Ceasefire

The unexpected announcement of a ceasefire by President Trump has reshaped the narrative around the US's involvement in Yemen.

• Official Statement:
  “President Trump then this week announced that there would be a ceasefire, that the Houthis would stop going after the ships and that the US would back down.”
  (04:58)

• Praise for the Houthis:
  Despite being adversaries, Trump lauded the Houthis for their resilience and commitment.
  “We honor their commitment and they were, they gave us their word that they wouldn't be shooting ships anymore. And we honor that.”
  (05:51)

• Skepticism on Ceasefire Reliability:
  Both the hosts and Greg express doubts about the Houthis’ commitment to the ceasefire, noting conflicting reports and the group's continued support for Palestinian actions against Israel.

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Credibility and Future of the Ceasefire

The sustainability of the ceasefire remains uncertain amidst ongoing tensions and conflicting interests.

• Houthis' Position:
  “The Houthis are saying they're not stopping their attacks against Israel... So the evidence we'll get pretty quickly is are the Houthis continuing to fire on commercial ships in the Red Sea, and will that Red Sea traffic pick up?”
  (06:32 - 07:31)

• Regional Stability:
  The ceasefire's effectiveness could have broader implications for regional stability, especially concerning Iran's influence via proxy groups like the Houthis.

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Regional and International Implications

The US withdrawal from active military engagement in Yemen intersects with broader geopolitical strategies and relationships.

• Iranian Influence:
  The Houthis are identified as an Iranian-backed group, linking the ceasefire to potential negotiations between the US and Iran, particularly on nuclear agreements.
  “Iran has supported these proxy groups for decades...”
  (07:50)

• Potential Regional Gains:
  A successful ceasefire could alleviate tensions in the Middle East, fostering a more conducive environment for diplomatic negotiations and reducing the burden on international shipping.

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Broader U.S. Foreign Policy Context

The episode contextualizes the Yemen ceasefire within President Trump's broader "America First" foreign policy agenda, highlighting contradictions and strategic priorities.

• Transactional Approach:
  President Trump's focus on business deals in the Middle East, particularly with Saudi Arabia, underscores his administration's emphasis on economic gains over prolonged military engagements.
  “He is looking at it again through his business lens...
  (12:56 - 13:18)

• Conflicts and Commitments:
  Despite Trump's campaign promises to reduce foreign conflicts, the Yemen bombing campaign signifies the complexities and often contradictory nature of international politics, where strategic interests may override initial declarations.

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Additional Foreign Policy Developments

The hosts briefly touch upon other significant foreign policy issues, notably the Russia-Ukraine war, indicating a shifting stance from the White House.

• Shift in Attitude Towards Russia:
  There’s an emerging negativity towards Vladimir Putin and Russia, diverging from Trump's previously more favorable tone.
  “There is this shift where President Trump and now also JD Vance are getting the sense that Vladimir Putin may not be that eager to make a deal...”
  (13:31 - 14:26)

• US Support for Ukraine:
  Despite uncertain commitments, the US continues to support Ukraine with military aid, though there are concerns about the sustainability of such support under the current administration.
  “If this US Aid does peter out and end at some point in the coming months, that's going to put Ukraine in a much more difficult position.”
  (15:05)

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Conclusion

The episode concludes by highlighting the intricate balance between military intervention, diplomatic negotiations, and economic interests that define current US foreign policy. The cessation of the bombing campaign in Yemen represents a potential pivot point that could influence broader regional dynamics and future US engagements.

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Notable Quotes

• Greg Myhre (02:01):
  “The Houthis are a militant group in Yemen and they've been fighting virtually nonstop for around two decades now.”

• Tamara Keith (05:51):
  “We honor their commitment and they were, they gave us their word that they wouldn't be shooting ships anymore. And we honor that.”

• Greg Myhre (07:50):
  “Iran has supported these proxy groups for decades, and they include the Houthis in Yemen, Hamas in Gaza, Hezboll in Lebanon.”

• Tamara Keith (10:15):
  “The reality is American presidents don't get to choose their world. They don't get to choose the conflicts that exist.”

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates the critical discussions from the episode, providing clarity on the US's military actions in Yemen, their implications, and the interplay with broader international relations.

Transcript

[Malcolm Gladwell]

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[Tamara Keith]

Whoa.

[Susan Davis]

This podcast was recorded at 12:34pm on Thursday, May 8. Things may have changed by the time that you listen to this, but I'll still be preparing to start law school this fall. Okay. Enjoy the show. I bet that was a big check.

[Greg Myhre]

Wow. Three painful years, it sounds like.

[Susan Davis]

Hey there, it's the NPR Politics podcast. I'm Susan Davis. I cover politics.

[Greg Myhre]

I'm Greg Myhre. I cover national security.

[Tamara Keith]

And I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House.

[Susan Davis]

And today on the show, President Trump announced the end of a months long US Bombing campaign in Yemen and that there's a truce with the Houthi rebels who were the target of that campaign. Greg, I want to start here. Who exactly are the Houthis and where do they fit in the broader constellation of militants in that region?

[Greg Myhre]

Right. So the Houthis are a militant group in Yemen and they've been fighting virtually nonstop for around two decades now. They're very tough fighters. They ousted the government in the capital of Yemen, Sana' a, more than a decade ago. They've controlled much of the country for years. And Saudi Arabia tried to oust them after they took over with an air campaign. They couldn't do it. And then after the Israel Hamas war broke out in Gaza In October of 23, the Houthis entered the war in support of the Palestinians. And what the Houthis did is they began firing missiles and drones to attack commercial ships in the Red Sea just off the west coast of Yemen. And this proved pretty effective. It really redirected Red Sea shipping outside the region around the southern tip of Africa. So a huge volume of shipping traffic that used to go through the Red Sea has not been going through the Red Sea and through Egypt, Suez Canal. So for the past 18 months, global shipping routes have been redirected. This adds to shipping costs, insurance rates, and ultimately higher costs, inflationary costs. So the Houthis don't control all of their country. Yemen, it's a very poor country at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. And yet they found a way to have a substantial impact on the region and even on international commerce with this campaign.

[Susan Davis]

So, Greg, the Trump administration began bombing in March. What was the rationale for this campaign?

[Greg Myhre]

So it was to reopen the Red Sea shipping lanes that have been sparsely populated by commercial shipping for the past 18 months or so. Now, the Biden administration was doing something similar, but on a smaller scale. I mean, basically, after the Houthis began their campaign In October of 23, the US sent naval forces into the region. It was mostly a defensive effort to shoot down those Houthi missiles and drones that were going after the commercial ships or after the US Navy ships. They hit a couple of commercial ships, sank a couple of them, killed some people. President Trump came into office and ordered a much more aggressive campaign. The U.S. has been carrying out daily strikes basically since March 15th. So nearly two months. We weren't hearing much of about it. One of the strangest US Military campaigns I can recall. I mean, most of what we heard was from that now infamous signal group chat that emerged shortly after the campaign began in the middle of March. And the goal has been either to defeat the Houthis entirely or at least get them to stop firing on ships in the Red Sea.

[Susan Davis]

Greg, as you noted, the administration didn't exactly hold a ton of briefings about this campaign. And then suddenly, Tim, earlier this week, Trump just announced that there was a ceasefire. What did he say?

[Tamara Keith]

So the White House has been describing this campaign in Yemen against the Houthis as a wild success all along, from day one. As soon as anybody asked about the signal gate situation, they said, don't look over there. Look at what we've done. We are hitting the Houthis hard. So that's the context for this. President Trump then this week announced that there would be a ceasefire, that the Houthis would stop going after the ships and that the US Would back down. He was asked about it yesterday in the Oval Office, and he described it as a very good outcome. He said that the US Dealt with other countries that were close with the Houthis and their surrogates. And he said that hopefully it's over. He seemed to really want to be done with this. And then he went on to more or less praise the Houthis.

[Greg Myhre]

It was, you know, we hit them very hard. They had a great capacity to withstand punishment. They took tremendous punishment. And, you know, you could say there's a lot of bravery there, that it was amazing what, what they took. But we honor their commitment and they were, they gave us their word that they wouldn't be shooting ships anymore. And we honor that.

[Tamara Keith]

I mean, in some ways, it's kind of surprising to hear the president to laud your enemies. Yeah, yeah. Say, oh, we're going to. We'll take their word for it.

[Susan Davis]

And Greg, I think it's worth noting, I mean, the Houthis may not be the most reliable source in the story either. But it' also appears in media reports that senior Houthi officials dispute Trump's characterization of what occurred.

[Greg Myhre]

Right. So we'll get some evidence pretty quickly, I think, one way or the other. Now, the Houthis are saying they're not stopping their attacks against Israel, which they say they're doing in support of the Palestinians, so Israel could still come under attack. And the Houthis fired a missile that hit very close to Israel's main airport outside Tel Aviv on Sunday, so that part of the campaign could still carry on. And the Houthis have also had this very broad definition of what an Israeli ship is in the Red Sea. And they fired on a lot of commercial ships and claimed that these were linked to Israel in some way, that they were going to Israel or had an Israeli owner. A lot of the time it did not. That did not seem to be true. So the evidence we'll get pretty quickly is are the Houthis continuing to fire on commercial ships in the Red Sea, and will that Red Sea traffic pick up?

[Susan Davis]

Again, Greg, the Houthis are an Iranian backed affiliate. And I wonder if there is potentially broader conclusions here or questions to raise about the US Interests entangling with Iran, considering the fight that even the president acknowledges the Houthis were willing to put up.

[Greg Myhre]

Oh, absolutely. I mean, you do need to see this in the broader regional context. Iran has supported these proxy groups for decades, and they include the Houthis in Yemen, Hamas in Gaza, Hezboll in Lebanon. So if the Houthis do, in fact stop or at least scale back their attacks, that improves the overall atmosphere in the region, and the Trump administration is trying to negotiate a deal with Iran on nuclear weapons. So if Iran is telling the Houthis to stop or stop supplying them weapons and does seem interested in this nuclear deal, this absolutely could have both a tangible real impact in terms of tamping down tensions in the region and just in terms of the overall atmospherics. So there are potential real gains if, in fact, all this is true, that the US has stopped attacks and the Houthis have stopped attacks.

[Susan Davis]

All right. Let's take a quick break. More in a moment. This message comes from Saatva, the first company to sell luxury mattresses online without the hassle or expense of traditional mattress stores. So Saatva customers have always paid about less than retail. Visit swatva.com NPR today, where NPR listeners save an additional $200.

[Tamara Keith]

A lot of short daily news podcasts focus on just one story, but right now you probably need more on up first from NPR, we bring you three of the world's top headlines every day in under 15 minutes, because no one story can capture all that's happening in this big crazy world of ours on any given morning. Listen now to the upverse podcast from npr. Know that fizzy feeling you get when you read something really good? Watch the movie everyone's been talking about or catch the show that the Internet can't get over. At the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, we chase that feeling four times a week. We'll serve you recommendations and commentary on the buzziest movies, TV music and more, from lowbrow to highbrow to stuff in between. Catch the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from npr.

[Susan Davis]

And we're back. And Tam, President Trump campaigned on and has long said he wants less foreign conflicts. So how do you square this bombing campaign with the broader foreign policy agenda of America First?

[Tamara Keith]

Yeah. In fact, he said that he would end the wars on day one, that the conflict in Ukraine, the conflict in Gaza, it would just all end because he was there. Continues to repeat that if he had been president, none of these things would have happened. The reality is American presidents don't get to choose their world. They don't get to choose the conflicts that exist. And so there isn't sort of a shortcut around many of these conflicts that the US Would like to not see happening. As for the Houthis, you know, President Trump stands behind the decision to have this lengthy bombing campaign. But you could also tell in the way he talked about it yesterday that he wants all of these things to be done. He may just not get that choice. Meanwhile, you know, we saw conflict break out between two nuclear armed neighbors in India and Pakistan. So the world is not getting less complicated.

[Susan Davis]

Greg, the president is also planning what I think is fair to call a pretty high profile trip to the Middle East. What do we know about what Trump's broader foreign policy agenda is in that region?

[Greg Myhre]

Well, I think much like his first term when he helped oversee the Abraham Accords, these deals between the US And Israel and a number of Arab countries, that he's looking to do more of that or build on those. He's going to Saudi Arabia. Saudi is very critical in Trump's mind in terms of how the US should interact with the Middle East. He wants to do big business deals with the Saudis. He would like the Saudis to formally recognize and have normal diplomatic relations with Israel. That's not going to happen right now because of the war in Gaza. The Saudis have held back on that, but they'll still probably do business with the US not clear if there's a big deal in the works. He's also going to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Those are countries where the US Is very deeply involved economically and has military interests as well. So he's building on what are already strong relations with the oil and gas rich countries of the region. He sees that as the way to build the US Relationship in the Middle East. He is less concerned about the conflicts in the region, the Israel, Hamas fighting in Gaza, what's going on in Syria, which is still trying to emerge from a half century of dictatorship. So he's looking at it again through his business lens. And I think that's what he's hoping to achieve there.

[Tamara Keith]

He is and has always been very transactional, and that is definitely something that is characterizing his travel. He, in fact, has boasted that he's going to get a trillion dollars in deals for US Companies with Saudi Arabia. And that, he says, is why he went to Saudi Arabia first, because he said he would go there first if they would do big deals.

[Susan Davis]

Before we go, I also think it's worth noting a tonal shift coming from the White House in a separate foreign policy engagement, which is the Russia, Ukraine war. Tam, how would you explain that tonal shift?

[Tamara Keith]

You know, I think that the shift is essentially that President Trump has always somehow seemed a bit more favorable towards Russia than towards Ukraine. And he has shown this in a lot of ways, saying things like, you know, Ukraine wouldn't even still be in this war if not for us. There was the very spicy Oval Office meeting where Vice President J.D. vance scolded President Zelensky for not showing enough respect or gratitude to President Trump and to the Americans for what they've done to help. But there's been this shift where President Trump and now also JD Vance are getting the sense that Vladimir Putin may not be that eager to make a deal to find his way out of this. Vice President Vance said yesterday that the Russians are asking for too much.

[Susan Davis]

And.

[Tamara Keith]

That they are uninterested in bringing this thing to a resolution. That is a real change. The sort of negativity about Putin and Russia has been creeping in, and it is very clearly there now. I don't know what that means, whether that just means that the US Decides to disengage entirely, throw up their hands, say we can't do this, or whether they more actively support Ukraine, though I will note that. And Greg can probably explain this better, but some Patriot missiles systems were sent to Ukraine, which would seem to indicate that the US Is siding a little bit with Ukraine these days.

[Greg Myhre]

Yeah, Tam, to pick up on that, it looks like the US Is trying to send another Patriot missile battery to Ukraine. They have about eight of them right now. This one, it looks like, would come from Israel. We don't know when it will get there. It's not going to be a major game changer. But every little bit helps as Ukraine tries to fend off these Russian air attacks, and that's really the place where it's most vulnerable. So it is a sign that the US Is trying still to assist Ukraine. But we are reaching the point where this big military aid package from last year is starting to run down. There's been some stuff in the pipeline, but it's going to run out at some point this year. And what will the Trump administration do? We're still not seeing any signs that they're going to push for additional assistance to Ukraine. Ukraine's not going to collapse. Europe is providing more. The Ukrainians are building, building more of their own war material, drones in particular. But both in the practical level and the psychological level, if this US Aid does peter out and end at some point in the coming months, that's going to put Ukraine in a much more difficult position.

[Susan Davis]

All right, we're going to leave it there for today. I'm Susan Davis. I cover politics.

[Greg Myhre]

I'm Greg Myhrey. I cover national security.

[Tamara Keith]

I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House.

[Susan Davis]

And thank you. Thanks for listening to the NPR Politics podcast.

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