The U.S. has ramped up its military campaign against Yemen’s Houthi movement, launching waves of air and naval strikes aimed at deterring the group’s attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. Yet after months of sustained bombardment, the Houthis remain undeterred. Their anti-ship missile and drone assaults continue to imperil one of the world’s most critical maritime corridors.

The Pentagon has reiterated that it does not intend to entangle itself in Yemen’s protracted civil war, focusing narrowly on securing international waters. However, this tactical compartmentalization belies the inextricable links between the Houthis’s actions and Yemen’s broader conflict — and by extension, the wider regional power struggle.

At its core, the Houthi movement is a byproduct of Yemen’s long-standing state collapse and sectarian fragmentation. Emerging from the wreckage of decades of weak governance and economic freefall, the group has proven remarkably resilient. Iran’s material and logistical support has been instrumental, but the Houthis' staying power is equally rooted in the domestic despair of Yemen itself. U.S. airpower can degrade weapons stockpiles and delay operations, but it cannot eliminate the socio-political fuel that sustains the Houthis’ insurgency.

Washington’s current approach echoes a well-trodden path of military interventions that fail to achieve decisive........

© The Hill