For all his talk about bringing peace, Donald Trump (in both 45 and 47 incarnations) has proven more than willing to bring the wood when it comes to whacking jihadis that have attacked American interests.
Item the first: “A U.S. airstrike in western Iraq on Thursday killed the ISIS chief of global operations who also served as ISIS second in command, Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai, also known as “Abu Khadijah,” along with one other ISIS operative.”
On Thursday, U.S. Central Command forces, in cooperation with Iraqi Intelligence and Security Forces, conducted a precision airstrike in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, that killed Abu Khadijah, according to a statement from CENTCOM.
“As the Emir of ISIS most senior decision-making body, Abu Khadijah maintained responsibility for operations, logistics, and planning conducted by ISIS globally, and directs a significant portion of finance for the groups global organization,” officials said.
After the strike, CENTCOM and Iraqi forces moved to the strike site and found the two dead bodies, both of whom were wearing unexploded “suicide vests” and had multiple weapons, CENTCOM said.
CENTCOM and Iraqi forces were able to identify Abu Khadijah through a DNA match from DNA collected on a previous raid where Abu Khadijah narrowly escaped, officials confirmed.
Item the second: We’re bombing the snot out of the Houthis.
President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered “decisive and powerful” U.S. airstrikes on Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen and issued a new warning in response to the group’s attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
The strikes mark the largest U.S. military operation in the Middle East since Trump’s return to the White House for a second term.
Trump warned the Houthis in a social media post that “HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE” if they don’t cease their attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
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“To Iran: Support for the Houthi terrorists must end IMMEDIATELY!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. He told the Iranians if they continue to back Houthi attacks on shipping then “America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!”
The strikes resulted in the initial deaths of at least nine civilians and nine injured in Sanaa, the largest city in Yemen, according to the Houthi-run health ministry.
Residents in Sanaa said the strikes hit a building in a Houthi stronghold. “The explosions were violent and shook the neighborhood like an earthquake. They terrified our women and children,” one of the residents, who gave his name as Abdullah Yahia, told Reuters.
Will this stop the Houthis from attacking shipping? Maybe. For a while. Maybe a longer while if followed up by targeted special forces assassinations of sundry Houthi leaders and their Iranian enablers. But only bankrupting or deposing the Mullah’s regime in Iran will effect a real end to their shenanigans.
Destroying the Assad regime has eliminated that particular Iranian catspaw from backing terrorist activities outside Syria (though at the cost of some continuing low-level genocide within it). Hopefully we can fund elements in Yemen to destroy the Houthis for us without a side-order of slaughtering innocents.
Tags: Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai AKA Abu Khadijah, Donald Trump, Foreign Policy, Houthi, Iran, Iraq, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Jihad, Military, Sanaa, Yemen
why bother? why is it the United States’ responsibility? even if we make the ruble bounce, what will we have accomplished? why is Trump doing this? what are the “American interests”?
“why bother? why is it the United States’ responsibility? even if we make the ruble bounce, what will we have accomplished? why is Trump doing this? what are the “American interests”?”
You might not have noticed that Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai was ISIS’s global head of operations. Their most recent operation was radicalizing Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who killed 14 Americans and wounded 35 on Bourbon Street, in NOLA, on January 1st.
“why is it the United States’ responsibility?”
Article 1, Section 8: “Congress shall have power to … To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;..”
Thomas Jefferson sent US Marines to Tripoli in a punitive expedition against Barbary Coast Muslims. It was his “responsibility” because these pirates were preying on US citizens. US Marines visited the “halls of Montezuma” on a similar mission.
It is not possible to retreat into a Fortress America from which we may casually dismiss armed aggression, whether by land or sea.
15% of all shipping transits the Suez Canal. It is an essential link between Asia and Europe. Forfeiting this vital waterway to Islamic control is at variance with US law, naval history and economic well-being.
The shipping that transits the Suez canal is between Europe, the middle East and Asia. Let the countries in those areas step up and deal with the problem.
As Malthus noted above, it is an ideology. Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai will be replaced. Even if you killed all the humans in Yemen, they would soon be replaced by others who follow the same ideology. The Barbary wars were about 200 years ago. The ideology has not changed.
The United States has problems in the United States that need serious attention. It is time to stop trying to save the world and instead save the United States.
“It is time to stop trying to save the world and instead save the United States.”
This is a category error. Bombing Houthis will not save the world but it will save these United States from the deleterious effects of piracy. If goods transiting the Suez Canal are are forced to reroute, transportation costs will increase.
Moreover, standing down when challenged by primitive screwheads is dubious foreign policy. If your adversary is determined to inflict an injury on you, make him pay dearly.
Lex Talionus is the oldest law known to man: Eye for eye; tooth for tooth. You will find it in the law code of Hammurabi and the revelation given to Moses on Mt Horeb. Fighting back is Kosher. Did you imagine the Tomahawk missile emplacements aboard USN frigates and destroyers were there simply for show!?
Neocon (hoisting flag): These colors don’t run!
Alt-right: (striking The Colors): He who live and runs away lives to run another day!
“The shipping that transits the Suez canal is between Europe, the middle East and Asia. Let the countries in those areas step up and deal with the problem.”
The Houthi attacks have increased the prices of imported (to) and exported (from) goods of the United States by about 5%. One to two percent due to increased insurance rates. the rest due to increased fuel burn and risk going around Cape Agulhas.
Guess who pays for this? You do.