As President Joe Biden walked toward Air Force One on Jan. 18, he was asked whether the ongoing U.S. military strikes against the Houthis were working to keep the Red Sea’s shipping lanes open. “Well, when you say ‘working,’ are they stopping the Houthis? No. Are they going to continue? Yes,” Biden said.
It was an astounding statement, if only because Biden admitted the strikes weren’t having their intended effect. Why the administration believes it’s wise to stick with a policy that is proving ineffective and could usher in the very regional escalation it supposedly wants to prevent, Biden didn’t say. But it’s nevertheless an indictment of U.S. foreign policy in general and a prime example of how U.S. policymakers are frequently guided by emotional impulse instead of cold-blooded calculation.
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