Another Pivotal Shipping Strait is Captured
The Houthi advance is bad news for the U.S., and even worse news for Saudi Arabia.
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Doc_Sarvis
Joined 2006/01/26Visited 2026/09/12
Status: user
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Iran-backed Houthis seized Mocha and are now closing in on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a chokepoint that carries a quarter of the world's oil. This is a major development.[image or embed]" MeidasTouch (@meidastouch.com) 10:12 AM Sep 10, 2026
Iran-backed Houthis seized Mocha and are now closing in on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a chokepoint that carries a quarter of the world's oil. This is a major development.[image or embed]
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"As recently as last week, the Iran war appeared to be turning slightly in America's favor," writes Robert Worth. "The Houthis - the Yemen-based militia that is Iran's most formidable remaining ally in the Middle East - were under pressure from their local rivals, and the Saudi air force was pounding them with air strikes. The president of Yemen's internationally recognized government issued a triumphant statement declaring that the Houthis' miscalculations will open the door to their complete collapse.' With their Houthi partners wounded, Iran's leaders would have one more reason to back down and agree to Donald Trump's terms."
Yesterday morning, those delusions drifted away like smoke as Houthi forces broke through their enemies' defenses and seized the towns and islands around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, one of the most important maritime choke points in the world. That loss leaves Trump, who had been hoping to win back control of the Strait of Hormuz from Iran, with a bitter surprise. His enemies now control both of the two important straits in the Middle East, through which a combined total of about a third of the world's oil shipments pass every day.
That loss leaves Trump, who had been hoping to win back control of the Strait of Hormuz from Iran, with a bitter surprise. His enemies now control both of the two important straits in the Middle East, through which a combined total of about a third of the world's oil shipments pass every day.
#1 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2026-09-12 05:43 AM | Reply
"When one door closes another door opens, and then it also closes and still another door opens until it, too, closes and ... ."
(Apologies to Alexander Graham Bell.)
#2 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2026-09-12 07:52 AM | Reply
The United States has the most effective Navy in the world. This sharp instrument is not being used correctly. The issue is a failure of leadership. I know that SOMEBODY is thinking about the war, but it's not Donald Trump. The purge of military leaders was in part undertaken so that Donald and Pete have no one of standing left to critique their lack of energy, competence, or plan.
So what have we got? A MAGA military that stands around making mean faces at people and things while pretending the United States is, at this moment in time, exceptional.
We aren't exceptional now. We are being hag-ridden by preening, racist, losers. We are getting what we deserve until we do something about it. The midterms are only the start of getting rid of this cancer.
#3 | Posted by Zed at 2026-09-12 08:54 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 1
Donald Trump has ample stage in which to display his genius. If he can stay awake. If he can really understand what day of the week this is. If he can distract his increasingly rare attention from architectural projects. If he can acknowledge that there is a God, and it's not him.
But the world knows he cannot and will not do any of these things. He is 250 or more pounds of dead weight around the necks of the rest of us. He is one of those characters in life for whom the rationale to have ever been born is obscure.
We get nowhere, we have nothing, with him and MAGA. Support for them is support for the eventual extinction of this country.
#4 | Posted by Zed at 2026-09-12 09:26 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 1
Greatest POTUS everrrrrr!
#5 | Posted by e1g1 at 2026-09-12 09:38 AM | Reply
The point for meaningful negotiations was reached long ago. That's the problem for Americans"they elected a petulant child who thinks bullying is an appropriate approach to complex problems. This mess started when Der Dotard walked from the agreement reached by the Obama administration and its negotiating partners and the present administration will not admit to its mistake. Further, our former allies prefer to suffer a bit and watch the fat orange criminal insurrectionist twist in the wind.
Remember about America First! America Alone! Because that's where we are now thanks, MAGA and GOP toadies in Congress and the Senate ...
#6 | Posted by catdog at 2026-09-12 09:51 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 1
I'd say a new front has opened up in our special military operation.
The Saudi and US backed Yemeni military said they'd destroy the Houthis, now they're in retreat with Houthis expected to follow them east.
#7 | Posted by horstngraben at 2026-09-12 10:21 AM | Reply
For those not paying attention Piggy's war is slowly inexorably expanding.
Thanks magat scum
#8 | Posted by truthhurts at 2026-09-12 10:23 AM | Reply
All right all right all right... Stop the winning... I am sick of winning.
#9 | Posted by RightisTrite at 2026-09-12 10:56 AM | Reply
Iran has been preparing for this conflict for over 40 years. After 9-11 they knew it was just a matter of time until Zionists and the MIC found someone stupid and compromised enough in the WH to take the bait.
Meanwhile China continues to turn circles around America in everything and wake up each morning in awe of their sudden good fortune.
#10 | Posted by pumpkinhead at 2026-09-12 11:10 AM | Reply
Christ how the world would be different if Gore and Hillary had won.
#11 | Posted by truthhurts at 2026-09-12 11:17 AM | Reply
I wouldn't say so for Gore- he was a serviceable pawn, but Hillary definitely deserves some of the blame for the current situation America finds itself.
#12 | Posted by pumpkinhead at 2026-09-12 11:56 AM | Reply
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait will open naturally.
~ Pedo 47 ~
#13 | Posted by reinheitsgebot at 2026-09-12 12:11 PM | Reply
Right,
"All right all right all right... Stop the winning... I am sick of winning."
Is this a play on words, or just a spelling mistake?
It's actually clever.
#14 | Posted by BillJohnson at 2026-09-12 12:20 PM | Reply
Now now.. use the correct American name.
The American Straits of el-America.
#15 | Posted by donnerboy at 2026-09-12 12:21 PM | Reply
U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday that Iran-backed Houthis had asked Washington not to intervene and did not want to fight the United States. "They don't want us to go after them," Trump told reporters in Dublin, Ireland
... wut?
#16 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2026-09-12 12:34 PM | Reply
No question the USMC would steamroll Perim Island, but then you have to occupy it indefinitely. Those haven't worked out for us in awhile.
#17 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2026-09-12 12:35 PM | Reply
A f***-up of epic proportions': Blame game begins after Iran-backed Huthis' lightning advance down Red Sea coast www.egyptindependent.com
... The desperate pleas for air cover from Yemeni generals started coming mid-morning on Thursday. An advance by the Iran-backed Huthis toward Yemen's strategic port city of Mocha was in full swing, and backup support from chief ally Saudi Arabia was nowhere in sight. "The Huthis committed everything they had " waves upon waves of fighters ... along with their available ballistic missiles and weapons," a senior Yemeni source attached to their military forces told CNN. The source said he contacted the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) and was assured the US was "watching the situation closely and that Saudi air support was coming." "But the air support never came," the source said. "And Mocha has now fallen." Hours later, on Friday, the Huthis captured another key coastal asset, Perim Island, at the mouth of the Red Sea. The island splits the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in two, giving Tehran de facto control over another key shipping route. The Huthis' rapid advance amounts to an extraordinary 36 hours in a conflict that had been largely on ice for years. But the kindling for renewed fighting had been laid for months amid the conflict between the United States and Iran, as Tehran seeks to use oil prices -- and their impact on the global economy -- as leverage. Now, Yemen and the Red Sea have the potential to become a true second front in the Iran war. ...
"The Huthis committed everything they had " waves upon waves of fighters ... along with their available ballistic missiles and weapons," a senior Yemeni source attached to their military forces told CNN. The source said he contacted the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) and was assured the US was "watching the situation closely and that Saudi air support was coming."
"But the air support never came," the source said. "And Mocha has now fallen."
Hours later, on Friday, the Huthis captured another key coastal asset, Perim Island, at the mouth of the Red Sea. The island splits the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in two, giving Tehran de facto control over another key shipping route.
The Huthis' rapid advance amounts to an extraordinary 36 hours in a conflict that had been largely on ice for years. But the kindling for renewed fighting had been laid for months amid the conflict between the United States and Iran, as Tehran seeks to use oil prices -- and their impact on the global economy -- as leverage.
Now, Yemen and the Red Sea have the potential to become a true second front in the Iran war. ...
#18 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-09-12 12:39 PM | Reply
@#16 ... ... wut? ...
My guess is that Pres Trump is desperately looking for an exit ramp for his war of choice and, as such, he does not want to get deeper into the war.
#19 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-09-12 12:42 PM | Reply
"but then you have to occupy it indefinitely"
No worries! Just put Rubio in charge of the occupation.
I'm sure he has some room left on his calendar now that he is down to 2 jobs from his previous 4 jobs.
#20 | Posted by donnerboy at 2026-09-12 12:43 PM | Reply
Pedo 47 Loses the Other Strait
politicalwire.com
#21 | Posted by reinheitsgebot at 2026-09-12 12:45 PM | Reply
"No question the USMC would steamroll Perim Island, but then you have to occupy it "
A very 20th century, Russian way of thinking. Drones would quickly make mincemeat of those unfortunate marines whose intellectually stunted leadership chose to trap them on an island like sitting ducks ... and for nothing.
#22 | Posted by pumpkinhead at 2026-09-12 12:49 PM | Reply
Hillary would have been worse. She would still attack countries without roths central banking, cackling the whole time, and raise taxes at home as well.
#23 | Posted by john_savage2 at 2026-09-12 12:49 PM | Reply
Daddysfist's child-raping hero hid in a food cart.LOL
#24 | Posted by reinheitsgebot at 2026-09-12 12:50 PM | Reply
I think Spengler was right. A culture, a nation or civilization is an organism in it's own, with a life-cycle like any other organism. USA is geriatric, for the remainder of it's life it will exist as a debt slave until all resources are exhausted. Similar to a nursing home resident, kept barely alive at enormous cost.
#25 | Posted by john_savage2 at 2026-09-12 12:55 PM | Reply
It's all so Saturnian. The only durable structure is not a culture, but a parasitic cabal that survives by feeding off of young cultures in succession, sucking them dry and moving on to the next.
#26 | Posted by john_savage2 at 2026-09-12 01:00 PM | Reply
Drones would quickly make mincemeat of those unfortunate marines
#22 | Posted by pumpkinhead at 2026-09-12 12:49 PM | Reply | Flag:
You underestimate the marines. They're the most successful island conquering force in history, even against massively concentrated, nearly invincible entrenched artillery in an impenetrable mountain. They still won. They have drones too, and drone defenses, and their own aviation wing, and a Navy that's already extensively battled the Houthi. They would steam roll it.
They'd be mincemeat holding it, that's when the drones would matter.
#27 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2026-09-12 01:03 PM | Reply
Says the desiccated pissant who sucks off pedo 47.
#28 | Posted by reinheitsgebot at 2026-09-12 01:03 PM | Reply
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