Russia Joins Iran
And Blinken Clears the Table
While the Iranian backed Houthis in Yemen are making a joke out of “freedom of the seas” by not only stopping Israel based shipping and all but closing down the Port of Eilat but also by threatening to stop any shipping heading to the Red Sea, Iran has free reign to use the seas to re-arm its main ally in the region, Hezbollah. The Houthis have now set fire to a Swedish ship with no apparent connection to Israel so yet another front has officially been opened by the Axis against the West in general and US leadership in particular.
Iranian arms shipments continue apace. Israel, and to a lesser extent the US have been trying to bomb the land routes moving from Iran via Iraq and Syria to the Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel has been bombing Syrian airports and bases to try to limit if not stop air transport of arms. But this is a wack-a-mole strategy and in any event, is only one small part of the Iranian arms shipments.
Now that the Islamic Republic of Iran is part of a larger global Axis they and the Russians are now combining to use their power and spread their influence over the entire middle east. According to Syrian opposition reports and reported by various Israeli sites, Iran has been shipping arms to the Libyan port in Benghazi, where the Russian Wagner Group has a major facility. From there, Wagner-Russia is shipping the arms via Russian, Iranian and Syrian aircraft to a Russian airbase south of the northern Syrian city of Homs. The relatively short distance from Libya to Syria combined with Russian protected aircraft and air bases makes this method of re-arming Hezbollah safer and more efficient.
Iran is able to use international shipping lanes that go through the Straits of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab and up to the Suez Canal and on to the Mediterranean to Russian-Wagner controlled areas of Libya – Obama’s “lead from behind” disaster of a country.
While all this is going on China is reinvigorating the Russian economy and industry, and doubling down on their threats in the South China Sea. Appeasement is the Blinken State Department global policy but the price will be paid by Lloyd Austin’s Pentagon.
Regime change in Iran is off the table. Preventing a nuclear Iran is off the table. Massive attacks on Iranian proxies in Iraq and Syria are off the table. Attacking the Houthis in Yemen is off the table. Destruction of the minuscule Houthi naval and air forces is off the table. Helping the Philippines in the South China Sea is off the table. Arming Ukraine properly is off the table. Ukrainian victory is off the table. Pushing back against a rejuvenated Russia in the middle-east is off the table.
All that is left on the table are the salads. And they don’t look too fresh.
If the American government had not squandered so much of its credibility, force and treasure trying not just to defeat the enemy but to establish democracies in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, we would be in a much stronger now in dealing with very real threats.
Plus the current US government has its own ideas of what constitutes a security threat. For example: pro-life activists, election deniers (who are not a threat if they contest Republican victories by the way); parents objecting to school curricula; those who are concerned about the soundness of the dollar and the southern border catastrophe.
Fortunately, such threats are easier to deal with than deadly enemies who hate you and want to destroy you.