January 23, 2024 • 10 mins
The Houthis have been continuously attacking the US in Yemen. How do we get them to stop the strikes?
Talking to A&G, military analyst Mike Lyons breaks it down for us.
Hear the entire conversation in a new episode of Armstrong & Getty's Extra Large Podcast....
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
US and British forces launching another major attack on Iranian
back militias had multiple targets across Yemen. They're aim stopping
Houthi rebels attacks on ships in the Red Sea. The
White House insists the strategy is working, but so far
retaliatory air strikes have failed to stop the Hoothies, and
it comes amid escalating tensions.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
In the region.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
US troops at Alasad Air Base in Iraq came under
attack over the weekend. Iranian back militias fed seventeen ballistic
missiles and rockets. Most were intercepted, but the Pentagon says
at least two US personnels suffered traumatic brain injuries.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I like the two back to back sentences. The administration
insists their deterrence is working, the Houthis continue to attack.
Those two things do not fit together. It became clear
to me. I was just thinking about it before we
played these clips. The reason the I could call it
the Obama Biden crowd because I think it goes clear
(00:53):
back to the not acting on the Red Line in Syria.
But if you make it clear to people that you're
not going to punch them in the mouth, then the
whole don't don't doesn't work. The only way don't doesn't work.
It does work is if you've made it clear to
people that you mean business, you're going to punch them
(01:13):
in the mouth. Then dont can work. But it doesn't
work if you've made it clear that you're not willing
to do that.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Right, I agree one hundred percent. I think now might
be a great time to usher in. Mike Clions, military
analyst from CNN. Mike, it's always enlightening.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
How are you taking one of you guys? Good to
be back?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Thank you. I think it would be fairly safe to
say that practically the entire mission of an intelligence operation
is to figure out what your opponent is actually going
to do, what they're actually thinking. And it's our opinion
that the United States is absolutely telegraphing the fact that
what we're actually going to do is practically nothing.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
Yeah, it's difficult to see where this administration goes. They
whip saw back and forth, beature these air strikes and
to Yemen and thinking they're going to stop the hooties
and actually deter them and make statements like you just said,
and then actually having that as a result. And my favorite,
my favorite is when they sit there and say, well,
the Uranians are not involved with this. Uranians don't want
any escalation. But the Iranians fingerprints are all over this.
(02:17):
They're the ones directing these attacks, they're the ones that's
provided the information, they're the ones that have given them
all supply. So I don't buy that one either. I
don't buy that the Uranians don't want to escalate it.
I just think they're confident that we're not going to
do anything. On top of that, to your point, it's
you know, we've gotten away from the Teddy Roosevelt speaks
softly and carry a big stick. Instead, we have hysteronics
(02:37):
and we try to proclaim all kinds of things with
regard to what we're going to do, and then and
then you know it just can't can't follow through.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Well, you said on TV the other day and then
you tweeted it what a what really hitting back would
look like with the sustained air campaign.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Explain that to it, right, right, So we've got to
tell the who he's okay, we're going to end we're
going to be at war with you now, and the
fact that we're shooting each other for different reasons. I
think you know the hoho. Thies want well with us.
They want to punch up, they want to punch up
for their weight, and we keep saying, oh no, no, we
just want to open up the shipping lanes. But we
have to sit there and say, now, okay, we need
a thirty day air campaign twenty four to seven twenty,
(03:13):
you know, two thousand sorties a day, continuous bombing, continuous mission,
similar to what we did in Desert Storm. It would
be a tremendous investment for us to do this. But
this is going to not stop until you stop, and
it's we're not going to be tit for tat. We're
not going to only fire these rockets at you when
(03:34):
you fire one at us. And I think that's what
we should do that we should do it for a
certain period of time, have a specific metric that says
you're going to stop fighting at us, and it should
last for a while, as opposed to saying, okay, this
is it. Now is the last one we're going to fire,
so don't fire anything more of us. So a formal
air campaign up puts a lot of American airmen and
(03:54):
Navy pilots and harms way. But I think that's the
only way you're going to get them to stop the philosophy.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
The answer to that would be they're going to be
in harm's way eventually. Anyway, we're trying to preclude the
greater harm and not to get too far afield into
psychology and diplomacy. But it strikes me that in the
same way that the Twitter left has a wildly outsized
influence and domestic policy as if that's the American people,
I think the diplomatic intelligentsia un crowd has an outsized
(04:25):
effect on the Biden administration's foreign policy. They are so
interested in courting the approval of these people as opposed
to fixing their eyes on a successful execution of the
goals of the United States and the needs of the
US that I just I think that the foreign policies
perverse in that way.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Right, it's a globalist mentality that exists on a one level,
but it's also wishing the world the way they want
it to be, as supposed to the way it is
real politique. And I think that is the main reason
that the main change that will come to an administration
if it happens, and the Obama administration and the Biden industry,
we should think that this is a world but the
(05:01):
Iranians will eventually come to the table and be part
of the international community, and all lot will go with that.
This is not going to happen, and they're doing everything
they can in order to try to give the Iranians
every way out to do that. I just think we've
run out of time for a long time about that.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
You also tweeted out the large number of different sorts
of little I don't know what you want to call them,
points of conflict around the Middle East to exist. There's
there's like a dozen.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Yeah, it's an amazing we think about it. If you
just take inventory about who's shooting at home in the
Middle East, and they're all mostly trending up. We saw
the Iranians. Now let's go back to Iran. Iran is
an authoritative government that now as I see it, is
more focused on internal problems. The fact that we had
isis to attack. We saw Isis attack them in Kerman
(05:52):
a couple of weeks ago. They're starting to have I
think internal issues with separatist organizations, which is why they
decide to attack into Pakistan, into the Blue Cheese and
those organizations that want to see the overthrown of of
the Iranian government, and now they are attacking into Syria
to attack ISIS units in there, and then they're attacking
into Iraq and US forces are seeing the side effects
(06:15):
of that, but they're also attacking the Kurds there. The
Iranian government I think is now sending a message within
the Middle East about they've got to show within their
country that they're going to stand up the threats that
they have, and they're starting to see the fact that
terrorism has now come home to roost in Iran is
a big change, and I think that's why they're going
to see them escalate with a lot of these attacks
(06:35):
outside of Iran by Iranian forces, not the proxies.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Let's turn our gaze to Israel for a moment at least,
it seems that the trading of ordinance with Hesbala is
absolutely on the brink of erupting into an all at war.
Does it seem that way to.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
You, Yeah, that's the biggest concern in that. The only
thing holding that back is two things. I think the
population there does not want a war, and it's classic
example of Hesbolah runs the country as a kind of
an outside organization and the Iranians, I think are putting
a little bit of the brakes on them as well,
(07:14):
because if they gave them the green light, I think
that they would go and I think that would open
up a second front. You know, this is two countries, Israel,
is An Ali, the United States, Hesbela Gaza or the
Housis Hamas, all of these other Iranian proxy organizations, they're
all under existential threats right now. And I think that's
(07:36):
the calculus that the Iranians are making. And I think
that for right now, they don't want to see hes
Blah destroyed because I think they're watching Hamas be destroyed
in place in the southern part of Israel.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Well, with Israel losing was it twenty one or twenty
four guys in one day, man opening up another front,
that'd be something.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Well, they have those units that they had brought up.
That's why they brot up three hundred thousand recalls back
in October, and they since some home already, but they're
in it for an existential fight, so I don't think
they're going to stop. It's starting to hurt their economy.
This is where no allies that they have right now
is really hurting them if the world will change, if
the Saudis or some other Middle Eastern country the sides
(08:17):
to come to the support of Israel, and I think
that's when the world changes. But we just don't see
that in site.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Interesting. Yeah, from what I've understood, the Israeli the IDF
are a little discouraged at the extent to which they
have destroyed Hamas, because Hamas is pretty good at melting
into the landscape and the tunnels and the rest and
surviving it. So it's just unquestionable that this is going
to be a long slog, and you know, the fatigue
(08:43):
both of Israel and its people and the international community
is going to be balanced against more and more hostages
turning up dead and more and more attacks from Hamas
and Hesbel. I just I think this. I think we
need to settle in for the long haul.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Yeah, I don't see any and in sight, in fact,
I think is double trending up. I think it's the
Israeli government is not going to stop. And at this
point now until they get more hostages back, there'll be
no cease fire, there'll be nothing. They're just going to
continue to just raise the ground down there.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
So the we mentioned this. Yesterday, the Open Intelligence Defense
crowd was reporting that there's some people in defense in
the Pentagon or wherever that are really unhappy with the
administration not letting them just do what they got to
do to stop the houthis do you hear any any
of that kind of chatter.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Well, I know they've been given many courses of action
because back to one of those courses of action has
been an air campaign and has been a much more detailed,
in a better operation. We know where the who, the
supply chains are, we know where the logistics are. The
other thing that just going to go with this though,
is we're going to have to resupply. If we keep
launching Tomahawk missiles in their direction, we're going to start
(09:56):
running out ourselves. And now you think about from strategic perspective,
if you know, if all these destroyers that we're sending
there and firing all these Tomahawk missiles were kind of
not keeping our powder dry for something that could potentially
happen in the Far East. So it's got to be
part of an overall campaign that the administration thinks it's
going to be over very quickly. But I think from
(10:17):
what the people I talked in the Pentagon, and the
people that I know there are always looking over the
horizon to make sure that we're ready to go for really,
what's going to be the next bigger conflict.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Military analyst Mike Liones a CNN. Mike, great to talk
to you, Thanks for the time.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Thanks guys, thanks for habbing me.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Armstrong and Getty
US and British forces launching another major attack on Iranian
back militias had multiple targets across Yemen. They're aim stopping
Houthi rebels attacks on ships in the Red Sea. The
White House insists the strategy is working, but so far
retaliatory air strikes have failed to stop the Hoothies, and
it comes amid escalating tensions.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
In the region.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
US troops at Alasad Air Base in Iraq came under
attack over the weekend. Iranian back militias fed seventeen ballistic
missiles and rockets. Most were intercepted, but the Pentagon says
at least two US personnels suffered traumatic brain injuries.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I like the two back to back sentences. The administration
insists their deterrence is working, the Houthis continue to attack.
Those two things do not fit together. It became clear
to me. I was just thinking about it before we
played these clips. The reason the I could call it
the Obama Biden crowd because I think it goes clear
(00:53):
back to the not acting on the Red Line in Syria.
But if you make it clear to people that you're
not going to punch them in the mouth, then the
whole don't don't doesn't work. The only way don't doesn't work.
It does work is if you've made it clear to
people that you mean business, you're going to punch them
(01:13):
in the mouth. Then dont can work. But it doesn't
work if you've made it clear that you're not willing
to do that.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Right, I agree one hundred percent. I think now might
be a great time to usher in. Mike Clions, military
analyst from CNN. Mike, it's always enlightening.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
How are you taking one of you guys? Good to
be back?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Thank you. I think it would be fairly safe to
say that practically the entire mission of an intelligence operation
is to figure out what your opponent is actually going
to do, what they're actually thinking. And it's our opinion
that the United States is absolutely telegraphing the fact that
what we're actually going to do is practically nothing.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
Yeah, it's difficult to see where this administration goes. They
whip saw back and forth, beature these air strikes and
to Yemen and thinking they're going to stop the hooties
and actually deter them and make statements like you just said,
and then actually having that as a result. And my favorite,
my favorite is when they sit there and say, well,
the Uranians are not involved with this. Uranians don't want
any escalation. But the Iranians fingerprints are all over this.
(02:17):
They're the ones directing these attacks, they're the ones that's
provided the information, they're the ones that have given them
all supply. So I don't buy that one either. I
don't buy that the Uranians don't want to escalate it.
I just think they're confident that we're not going to
do anything. On top of that, to your point, it's
you know, we've gotten away from the Teddy Roosevelt speaks
softly and carry a big stick. Instead, we have hysteronics
(02:37):
and we try to proclaim all kinds of things with
regard to what we're going to do, and then and
then you know it just can't can't follow through.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Well, you said on TV the other day and then
you tweeted it what a what really hitting back would
look like with the sustained air campaign.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Explain that to it, right, right, So we've got to
tell the who he's okay, we're going to end we're
going to be at war with you now, and the
fact that we're shooting each other for different reasons. I
think you know the hoho. Thies want well with us.
They want to punch up, they want to punch up
for their weight, and we keep saying, oh no, no, we
just want to open up the shipping lanes. But we
have to sit there and say, now, okay, we need
a thirty day air campaign twenty four to seven twenty,
(03:13):
you know, two thousand sorties a day, continuous bombing, continuous mission,
similar to what we did in Desert Storm. It would
be a tremendous investment for us to do this. But
this is going to not stop until you stop, and
it's we're not going to be tit for tat. We're
not going to only fire these rockets at you when
(03:34):
you fire one at us. And I think that's what
we should do that we should do it for a
certain period of time, have a specific metric that says
you're going to stop fighting at us, and it should
last for a while, as opposed to saying, okay, this
is it. Now is the last one we're going to fire,
so don't fire anything more of us. So a formal
air campaign up puts a lot of American airmen and
(03:54):
Navy pilots and harms way. But I think that's the
only way you're going to get them to stop the philosophy.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
The answer to that would be they're going to be
in harm's way eventually. Anyway, we're trying to preclude the
greater harm and not to get too far afield into
psychology and diplomacy. But it strikes me that in the
same way that the Twitter left has a wildly outsized
influence and domestic policy as if that's the American people,
I think the diplomatic intelligentsia un crowd has an outsized
(04:25):
effect on the Biden administration's foreign policy. They are so
interested in courting the approval of these people as opposed
to fixing their eyes on a successful execution of the
goals of the United States and the needs of the
US that I just I think that the foreign policies
perverse in that way.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Right, it's a globalist mentality that exists on a one level,
but it's also wishing the world the way they want
it to be, as supposed to the way it is
real politique. And I think that is the main reason
that the main change that will come to an administration
if it happens, and the Obama administration and the Biden industry,
we should think that this is a world but the
(05:01):
Iranians will eventually come to the table and be part
of the international community, and all lot will go with that.
This is not going to happen, and they're doing everything
they can in order to try to give the Iranians
every way out to do that. I just think we've
run out of time for a long time about that.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
You also tweeted out the large number of different sorts
of little I don't know what you want to call them,
points of conflict around the Middle East to exist. There's
there's like a dozen.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Yeah, it's an amazing we think about it. If you
just take inventory about who's shooting at home in the
Middle East, and they're all mostly trending up. We saw
the Iranians. Now let's go back to Iran. Iran is
an authoritative government that now as I see it, is
more focused on internal problems. The fact that we had
isis to attack. We saw Isis attack them in Kerman
(05:52):
a couple of weeks ago. They're starting to have I
think internal issues with separatist organizations, which is why they
decide to attack into Pakistan, into the Blue Cheese and
those organizations that want to see the overthrown of of
the Iranian government, and now they are attacking into Syria
to attack ISIS units in there, and then they're attacking
into Iraq and US forces are seeing the side effects
(06:15):
of that, but they're also attacking the Kurds there. The
Iranian government I think is now sending a message within
the Middle East about they've got to show within their
country that they're going to stand up the threats that
they have, and they're starting to see the fact that
terrorism has now come home to roost in Iran is
a big change, and I think that's why they're going
to see them escalate with a lot of these attacks
(06:35):
outside of Iran by Iranian forces, not the proxies.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Let's turn our gaze to Israel for a moment at least,
it seems that the trading of ordinance with Hesbala is
absolutely on the brink of erupting into an all at war.
Does it seem that way to.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
You, Yeah, that's the biggest concern in that. The only
thing holding that back is two things. I think the
population there does not want a war, and it's classic
example of Hesbolah runs the country as a kind of
an outside organization and the Iranians, I think are putting
a little bit of the brakes on them as well,
(07:14):
because if they gave them the green light, I think
that they would go and I think that would open
up a second front. You know, this is two countries, Israel,
is An Ali, the United States, Hesbela Gaza or the
Housis Hamas, all of these other Iranian proxy organizations, they're
all under existential threats right now. And I think that's
(07:36):
the calculus that the Iranians are making. And I think
that for right now, they don't want to see hes
Blah destroyed because I think they're watching Hamas be destroyed
in place in the southern part of Israel.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Well, with Israel losing was it twenty one or twenty
four guys in one day, man opening up another front,
that'd be something.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Well, they have those units that they had brought up.
That's why they brot up three hundred thousand recalls back
in October, and they since some home already, but they're
in it for an existential fight, so I don't think
they're going to stop. It's starting to hurt their economy.
This is where no allies that they have right now
is really hurting them if the world will change, if
the Saudis or some other Middle Eastern country the sides
(08:17):
to come to the support of Israel, and I think
that's when the world changes. But we just don't see
that in site.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Interesting. Yeah, from what I've understood, the Israeli the IDF
are a little discouraged at the extent to which they
have destroyed Hamas, because Hamas is pretty good at melting
into the landscape and the tunnels and the rest and
surviving it. So it's just unquestionable that this is going
to be a long slog, and you know, the fatigue
(08:43):
both of Israel and its people and the international community
is going to be balanced against more and more hostages
turning up dead and more and more attacks from Hamas
and Hesbel. I just I think this. I think we
need to settle in for the long haul.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Yeah, I don't see any and in sight, in fact,
I think is double trending up. I think it's the
Israeli government is not going to stop. And at this
point now until they get more hostages back, there'll be
no cease fire, there'll be nothing. They're just going to
continue to just raise the ground down there.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
So the we mentioned this. Yesterday, the Open Intelligence Defense
crowd was reporting that there's some people in defense in
the Pentagon or wherever that are really unhappy with the
administration not letting them just do what they got to
do to stop the houthis do you hear any any
of that kind of chatter.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Well, I know they've been given many courses of action
because back to one of those courses of action has
been an air campaign and has been a much more detailed,
in a better operation. We know where the who, the
supply chains are, we know where the logistics are. The
other thing that just going to go with this though,
is we're going to have to resupply. If we keep
launching Tomahawk missiles in their direction, we're going to start
(09:56):
running out ourselves. And now you think about from strategic perspective,
if you know, if all these destroyers that we're sending
there and firing all these Tomahawk missiles were kind of
not keeping our powder dry for something that could potentially
happen in the Far East. So it's got to be
part of an overall campaign that the administration thinks it's
going to be over very quickly. But I think from
(10:17):
what the people I talked in the Pentagon, and the
people that I know there are always looking over the
horizon to make sure that we're ready to go for really,
what's going to be the next bigger conflict.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Military analyst Mike Liones a CNN. Mike, great to talk
to you, Thanks for the time.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Thanks guys, thanks for habbing me.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
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