I guess we've arrived at the part where a bunch of low-information lemmings come to say that Biden is bad for striking Houti terrorists who have been attacking and hijacking international shipping lanes, after being warned multiple times over the last weeks to stop. Boo fucking hoo.
Pro tip: when the US military gives you a "final warning" to knock off your shit, maybe listen.
The country supplying arms for genocide is bombing the only country that is trying to put an end to it. Yemen is imposing sanctions on Israel because it is committing genocide. Israel should be sanctioned by the entire world. The united states imposes debilitating deadly sanctions on countries for decades simply because they are not under its boot. The United States is evil and no amount of propaganda is going to change that.
The terrorist Houthis in Yemen, like Hamas, are backed by Iran--all three of which have individually called for the genocide and annihilation of Israel.
Last week America gave the Houthis one final warning (after multiple others) to knock off their piracy and hijacking of international trade routes.
Instead of widely heeding that warning, they made the very stupid decision to call America's bluff. As the saying goes "fuck around, find out."
By the way, Iran is also an authoritarian Islamic theocracy in which women are subjugated, homosexuality is subject to persecution, and freedom of expression is nonexistent. They represent the model of a Muslim State under Sharia religious law, back Islamic terrorist groups in various parts of the world, are creating instability in the region (like the Oct 7 attacks and these trade route hijackings), and are generally not your friend no matter how much koolaid you drink or what medal you pick up in the mental gymnastics Olympics.
Not even hamas supports mass killings of Israelis. Hamas's position is military resistance until Palestine is liberated. Subjugating people and standing in the way of their liberation puts you at danger of violence. The only one responsible for that is you. If Israelis chose to accept Palestinians as equals, payed reparations, and became Palestinian citizens, no one would have a problem with them. Israel of course is not willing to accept the Palestinians it ethnically cleansed and those it occupies because it is a fascist ethno state.
Yemen, not "the houthis" is the only country in the world brave enough to stand up and fight against genocide in the face of the US. Iran backing the resistance is a point in it's favor, not against it or the resistance. Iran is supporting antimperialism and it should be commended for doing so.
Good job on ticking every box on the islamophobic white supremacist demonization checklist. You were propagandized well.
The Houthis are attacking random ships, not Israeli ships. They were warned to cease attacking civilian ships on one of the largest trading routes in the world, and they didn’t. They fucked around and now they’re finding out.
First of all they're not attacking ships. They are first warning them to reroute and not dock at Israel. When these ships refuse these orders they are boarding the ships and rerouting then without injuring anyone. Their operations are entirely reasonable.
They have fired on civilian vessels without provocation, attempted to violently board other vessels and have attacked ships that were not going to Israel. They are treating any ship as a target (a war crime, by the way).
If enforcing a total blockade in Bab Al mandeb will harm israeli and world capitalist economy enough to pressure them into ending the genocide, then it is the duty of all who are able to enforce it. As long as the genocide is being carried out Bab Al mandeb will be restricted. Yemen is the only country courageous and moral enough to put pressure where it counts to end the genocide. While the genocidal United States cynically uses "international law" to ensure its continuation. It's the duty of all actors to do everything in their ability to stop genocide.
"Moral enough", let's not pretend they're not thirsting for their own genocide, just read their catchphrase "God Is the Greatest, Death to America, Death to Israel, A Curse Upon the Jews, Victory to Islam"".
Because they associate the Zionist state with Judaism, a conflation that Israel itself works tirelessly to uphold. Zionism and israel must be extracted from Judaism like the cancer that they are so that Jewish people can return to being an integral part of Arab societies.
Since they became its government lmfao. Since they were fighting against imperialist encroachment and control over their country. The American backed puppet government operating out of the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh certainly isn't the recognized government of Yemen. It is not just Ansarallah in the Yemeni government, it's multiple parties that were not previously allies now ruling as a unified central government. The alternative government is literally just the Saudi military. It has absolutely no popular support and it controls a steadily dimishing portion of the country.
Blockades are usually enforced by shooting at violating ships. And "shooting at more civilians isn't the way to do it" then what is? Because there's no world where "Just shut up and watch genocide happen" is the right answer.
Then what is the right answer? Because as long as they're not directly shooting and killing people they're well within their rights to do anything to stop the genocide of Gaza.
Not sure about rights, because they are shooting out of their territorial waters. But the "rights", or perhaps "powers" of any nation only go as far as they can enforce them.
So right now Yemen is indeed expressing itself, but they are finding out they don't really have the power?
Ultimately, protest is valid and what's happening in Gaza is a genocide. But killing (or endangering) third parties who are just working a shift is always wrong.
They're only blockading ships that are going to dock in Israel, are owned by Israelis or are flying the Israeli flag. It's more targeted than just "we're shooting rockets at any ship that passes".
The Yemeni armed forces did not shoot or iniure anyone in their operations. The United States has killed 10 in its first operation and who knows how many it has killed in it's recent bombing of civilian areas in Yemen.
No they aren't. If they were only attacking Israel bound ships then you could make that argument. But they've de facto declared war on 90 percent of the planet.
Yemen is perfectly within the provisions of international law in blocking Israeli boats from transiting. The only violation of international law is if you claim that Ansar Allah is not the rightful and legitimate government of Yemen.
I can only imagine being so brainwashed to believe that the Houthis harassing, threatening and attacking one of the biggest international trade routes on Earth, while indiscriminately targeting ships from various countries and ignoring multiple warnings from the UN, Britain and the US, is in any way legitimate.
They attacked civilian ships, they were warned not to, they didn't stop attacking civilian ships, and now they've been retaliated against as promised. Let's see if they're smart enough to finally stop fucking with international civilian trade ships.
The US doesn't have a blockade on Cuba. They have an embargo which only affects US ships and businesses. Basically a ban on Americans conducting business with Cuba.
When the US did institute a blockade it was to prevent Russia placing nuclear weapons there. And it was tightly enforced around the island. Not on any ship heading into the Caribbean.
By... Enforcing a blockade of companies that trade with Israel?
Jeez, you're really starting to sound like an antisemite with your idiotic "Jews control the world" narrative. Are you going to pull out an octopus emoji next?
I never said anything like that. The Houthis have attacked ships that are entirely irrelevant to the Israelis. That's why they've declared war on the world. I've been pretty clear about that. So we're done here since you want to try and insert stupid stuff.
Globalization sort of means that a lot of ships and shipping companies are relevant to the Israelis.
Edit: if you name a ship that was struck with AIS off... There's a reason it's a violation of international law to turn off AIS. People might think you're trying to avoid sanctions, or something.
If the US Navy wasn't swatting missiles and drones, hundreds of sailors would be at the bottom of the sea by now.
Don't forget environmental damage from spilled fuel and actual oil tankers that would be damaged. You know, like the Russian tanker they accidentally fired on today even though it had even less to do with them than anyone else in the sea.
Launching missiles at civilian ships is not a "protest".
can we worry about the environmental damage in palestine too?
oh the poor crewmembers trying to ignore the known agressive blockade, maybe someone in yemen can go to their rescue oh whoops no they will be leveled by the millions lol.
What if some of those merchant sailors (who are often so poor they can't even afford to leave port) are Palestinians? Is it okay to kill those Palestinians?
of course not. but its very disingenious to start caring about palestinians when trade routes are disrupted but not when millions of them are getting killed or displaced.
The crew members are there for a wage, and the ships themselves mostly have nothing to do with Israel.
A huge portion of global trade runs through the area, and it's not just "trinkets from China" as some like to say. It's grain, fuel, steel, all of the things that keep the world running in a globalized economy.
You can't blockade the entire world and not expect retaliation. If anything, I'm surprised it took this long.
As ugly as it sounds? Yes. There are nearly 8 billion humans on a planet with finite resources, globally distributed. The resources, unfortunately, are more valuable than any specific subset of humans at this point.
Without trade, billions would die. And they won't be Westerners, they'll be people who live in places where population exceeds carrying capacity. Namely, the ME and Asia.
Yemen in particular is highly dependent on foreign aid. By blocking trade the Houthis are not looking out for the people of their country any more than Hamas is looking out for the people of Palestine. In fact they are the reason Yemen is starving. I'm not sure why so many people on Lemmy are professing support for an illegitimate, theocratic revolutionary force.
“Arab countries and all Islamic countries will not be safe from Jews except through their eradication and the elimination of their entity.” - Al-Houthi
Yes, the Houthi are real opponents of genocide.
If the Houthis really feel like they have a dog in the fight, they could declare war on Israel and deploy and fight rather than harassing non-combatants. They're nothing but terrorists, not combatants - and if the world agrees on one thing it's that we do not negotiate with terrorists.
Boo hoo, clearly you didn't read about how shipping is the lifeblood of the world, and it's not about some "stuff" not arriving. It's about not setting a precedent that anyone with a rocket launcher is allowed to take potshots at civilian vessels.
Without nuts and bolts and cultivator shovels and sickle knife sections Canada won't have grain to export to the rest of the world. Oh no, we don't make any of those ourselves? The world is extremely co-dependent now, which is part of the reason that we don't have any major wars going on.
You know who can stop this right now? Hamas can stop this right now. They are clearly not going to "win". Their prolonged actions are only causing suffering to their own people. They could do the honourable thing and SURRENDER which would end the war right now. But they aren't going to do that, because they aren't fighting for benefit of the Gazan people. They're fighting because they hate the Jews.
Israel walked away from Gaza many years ago, left it entirely under its own governance. If its people had put the past aside and chosen a path that led to alliances and peaceful cooperation with the world, it could be a bustling trade hub and a beautiful little vacation destination on the shores of the Mediterranean.
Instead they chose their hatred of the Jews and spent decades launching rockets into Israel.
The same applies to the Houthis. Yemen could be a prosperous nation like its neighbours. Instead it's a war-torn dump in abject poverty. Ever wonder why we sell weapons to our questionable "ally" of Saudi Arabia to fight them? Because for all that SA is terrible, the Houthis are worse.
Do you think their Iranian backers will tell them to back down once they learn that they have full control over a major shipping lane, and the ability to blackmail the world with it? That's the true path that leads to WW3.
As shitty as it is, when it comes to the actual presidential election, that’s basically a vote in trump’s pocket if he’s the candidate. Trump’s base is already solidified. They’re voting for him no matter what. He could get on live tv and say he’ll have everyone who voted for him executed after becoming dictator, and they’d cheer louder. For Biden, he’s going to struggle to get votes beyond “always vote blue” so any vote not for him is going to weaken his position against Trump. There’s no scenario where a third party wins.
It’s not how it should be, but in this election, it’s what’s going to matter.
These aren't lost votes for Biden. Most of these people straight up would never vote for him to begin with. You neolibs need to accept that the world doesn't revolve around you.
Yes, my super neoliberal alignment is where my decisions are based. I would love for another candidate to get the presidency, but the 70k or so active users on Lemmy voting for so won’t matter.
Ok so then what? Biden wins another election term, continues committing genocide in Gaza, and after 4 years we're still stuck in the same place we started?
Vote for Democrats again so Arabs in the middle east are murdered and Nazisrael expands their Lebensraum to include Lebanon and Jordan?
If Biden wins while committing genocide it's signaling that Democrat voters are just as fine with genocide as Republicans are, giving the Democratic party no reason to stop doing it.
Genocide Joe must be replaced by a different candidate without a funny nickname, because voting for Biden now means you directly endorse genocide.
Or, vote for a third party candidate. Trump wins. He guts the checks and balances of the US government, a civil war erupts, the “little” insurrection we saw becomes very real. All the proud boys sitting home with their rifles scrolling truth social start to walk outside and shoot people they don’t like because Trump said it’s ok. Half the police are trying to quell the violence, half of them are siding with the insurrection.
Foreign policy doesn’t matter at this point, it’s a matter of who survives the internal struggle. The EU and other nations ban travel to and from the US while they decide whether or not to intervene. Our NATO treaties are about protection from other nations, not from ourselves. The fascist uprising in the US gives strength to other international fascist uprisings that are currently rearing their heads across the world. Israel does whatever the fuck it wants, and the weapon dealers of the US, no longer bound by international treaty are happy to fill those weapon orders.
Either a stronger section of what remains of the US government defeats the insurrection, and begins to pull apart the rubble for survivors, or what has won becomes the new “America,” no longer United States, but one “strong nation” so on and so forth.
This isn’t a standard election, it’s literally deciding whether to vote in someone who has actively claimed they will become a dictator once in power. And it has very broad global implications beyond Israel’s imperialist invasion of Gaza.
The world stage was not nearly as volatile in 2016 as it is now, and Trump, who did manage to gut much of the US government legally at the time (Supreme Court, EPA,
FCC, Education, Labor, Agriculture, Transportation, etc), was not at that point declaring he would go full dictator like he is now. He wasn’t on trial for being a literal insurrectionist and traitor against our democracy at that point. Like I said, it’s a very different election. I don’t like Biden, but I do like the idea that Biden can be legally voted out of power, and then the next president can also, legally be voted out of power. Trump’s goal is that he cannot be legally voted out of power, to the point that his militia will try to murder anyone that makes an effort to remove him from unlawful power.
Here's the big problem: Democrats have refused to fix it even when they were in power. Because it benefits them. The Democrats with Obama had full control of everything before 2016. Obama and Biden could have prevented this but they didn't.
Democrats purposely didn't encode any rights such as abortion. All so they can keep saying "Oohhh look at the other scary side, keep voting for us Democrats! You can't vote third party this time they will take your abortions away!".
Unless Americans start waking up to these extremely obvious forced scare tactics that the Democrats themselves hold in stand, nothing will ever change. And Genocide has to be the line at which you say "holy shit this is too far". The end do not justify the means anymore if the means include genocide.
Ok, so you are opting for a forced revolution, because my position of trying to prevent fascism isn’t the solution, and your position of voting for another candidate will allow the us to enter a civil war period. That’s fine, but you have to mop up the blood. A revolution or civil war in the US is likely inevitable, but you’re an accelerationist, claiming a position within the existing system with the interests of forcing the system to end
You aren't trying to prevent fascism by voting for Genocide Joe who is trying to start WW3. You are endorsing and enabling fascism and supporting Nazism.
Problem. Biden is the only candidate with a chance of winning and plans to let people vote again in 2028. Protest voting or staying at home means we're stuck with a genocidal idiot for the rest of his life. And God help us when he's replaced by the genocidal smart guy with no checks against his power.
At some point you have to vote in your own interest.
All that will still happen under trump, plus the Ukrainians will lose their lifeline and be conquered by Russians, and we’ll likely have purges in America or a civil war as trump tries to end America’s run as a democracy.
look at the overall picture instead of voting one issue
consider the alternative
stop being unrealistic that anything will change
We can all agree with wanting the suffering of civilians to end but random countries in civil wars taking potshots at merchant ships passing by or throwing missiles in the general direction of hostilities, seems more like an attention getting tactic
This is what shipping through the red sea looks like right now in 1000's ships:
The Houthis are most definitely making an enormous global impact. Since the West is not standing up for humanitarian rights it seems like the only thing that will stop this genocide them is losing money.
So the Houthis are coming off a civil war resulting in 300,000 deaths, yet now we’re getting worked up about less than a tenth that. Houthis are pirating or taking potshots at random merchant ships passing by, yet this is Israel’s fault?
Yes the Houthis were actually chosen by god 3000 years ago and there was a Hamas tunnel under the cargo ship. Thus they have the right to defend themselves.
Unless you live in one of the handful of close states, your vote red or blue makes no difference to the electoral college. Why give either of these your symbolic popular vote.
No 3rd party will win, but a rising 3rd party is competition that may at least raise an issue’s prominence or worry the main parties enough to pull their finger out and run better candidates.
Come lead our Constitutional Convention then. Or persuade 38 states to vote for an election amendment. It's easy to criticize, come actually do something.