Verity Guardian: Debunking 8 Lies About the Houthis

The truth about the Yemeni rebels and what's happening in the Red Sea.

In the wake of the joint U.S.-U.K. attack on the Houthis in the Yemen, disinformation is rampant on social media. Here are eight lies about the situation that I have seen circulating:

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Lie #1: Joe Biden bombed Yemen.

The Houthis are not “Yemen.” They are a rebel insurgency inside that country, unrecognized by world governments, that has seized control of certain areas of Yemen, including the capital city of Sana’a and the Red Sea coastal region.

The United States did not unilaterally attack the Houthis. It was a joint operation conducted by the U.S. and Britain, with support from Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, and Bahrain, an Arab state. And it was in response to unprovoked Houthi attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea since the Hamas atrocities of October 7.

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Lie #2: This attack came out of the blue.

The Houthis have been cruising for a bruising for months now. On November 19, they seized a Japanese ship, taking 25 hostages. On December 3, they attacked three more merchant ships. On December 19, the U.S. launched Operation Prosperity Guardian, a coalition of 20 nations united against Houthi maritime attacks. On January 3, the U.S.—along with Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, he Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea—warned them to knock this shit off or else. On January 9, the Houthis ignored the warning, attacking more ships. On January 10, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution, telling the Houthis, “No, seriously, knock this shit off right now. Don’t make me pull this car over!” And on January 12, after repeated warnings by most of the civilized world, we pulled the car over.

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Lie #3: The Houthis are freedom fighters, a ragtag outfit taking on the mighty American Empire, much like the rebels in the Star Wars movies.

This is a violent Islamic fundamentalist sect with close ties to Hamas, Hezbollah, and the odious regime in Tehran. While they are certainly fighting the official Yemeni government—the Houthis assassinated the former president Ali Abdallah Salih, for example, when he ditched them to go along with the Western powers—the Houthis heretofore have demonstrated no larger ambitions.

“Up until this year, I don’t think the Huthis were very focused on what people outside the Arabian peninsular thought of them,” writes Arthur Snell on his Not All Doom Substack. “Their movement was rooted in the specific dynamics of North Yemen and the relatively obscure religious tenets of Zaydism (among other things, much emphasis is placed on families that claim a direct line of descent from the Prophet Muhammad, such as the Huthi family).”

While there may be a direct line of descent, this ain’t Luke and Leia versus Darth Vader.

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Lie #4: The United States is an imperial power, with aspirations to global hegemony, and because it is the ultimate colonizing force, any time the U.S. bombs anyone anywhere for any reason, it’s always in the wrong.

While the U.S. has certainly meddled in other countries over the years, with disastrous effect—the Iraq War comes to mind—the world’s preeminent superpower is, contrary to what a certain strain of strident leftists believe, not a true empire, abandoned whatever imperial ambitions it might have had in the first Roosevelt administration, and only engages militarily when there is a compelling reason to do so—usually, to preserve the international order. For sure, that reason might be ill-conceived, and we might all disagree with the decision to drop bombs, but the U.S. doesn’t do these things willy-nilly. In this case, we are guaranteeing the freedom of the seas and attempting, with all those other nations, to stop a volatile situation in the Middle East from further escalation. What part about that does the anti-America far left not like?

A lot of the time, our intervention has the desired effect. The Pax America exists in part because would-be troublemakers fear military reprisal from the policeman of the world. Not only that, but sitting these conflicts out can make things worse. One can make a compelling argument that had President Obama responded more aggressively when Putin took Crimea, or when Assad crossed the red line in Syria, Russia would never have invaded Ukraine and ISIS would never have formed. No one wants innocent people to die, and certainly not the fundamentally decent human being who now occupies the Oval Office. But allowing the Houthis—the Houthis!—to terrorize the seas is a non-starter.

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Lie #5: By supporting the Palestinian people in Gaza with their targeted attacks, the Houthis are heroic.

“The Huthis’ decision to attack international shipping, claiming to be acting in the Palestinians’ interests, even as much of their targets are in fact nothing to do with either Israel or Palestine, has proved a massive hit with the Arab Street,” Snell explains. “At a time when no Arab government has been seen to have responded to Israel’s destructive operations in Gaza, and when even Hizbullah appears to be pulling its punches, the Huthis have stepped up as the most determined and active member of Iran’s ‘Axis of Resistance’.”

If support for Gaza is popular in Western cities and college campuses, we can only imagine the ardor felt in the Arab world—not least because none of the Arab nations have thrown in with the Palestinians in any meaningful way. Egypt, for example, shares a border with Gaza, but has been reluctant to allow Palestinian refugees to enter the Sinai. With this sort of pusillanimous leadership, any show of resistance to the Great Satan might seem valorous in the Arab world. But, I mean, come on: there is nothing heroic about terrorizing merchant ships.

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Lie #6: The ships under Houthi attack are military vessels.

The Houthis are hitting maritime vessels: cargo ships bearing things like fuel, food, and medicine through the perilous Red Sea corridor—always a haven for pirates. Remember when Chris Christie blockaded the George Washington Bridge and ambulances couldn’t get through? This is like that, on a much larger scale, but if the assholes doing the blockade were Islamic fundamentalists who were using ballistic missiles on the ambulances.

This is from Biden’s official statement:

These strikes are in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea—including the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history. These attacks have endangered U.S. personnel, civilian mariners, and our partners, jeopardized trade, and threatened freedom of navigation. More than 50 nations have been affected in 27 attacks on international commercial shipping. Crews from more than 20 countries have been threatened or taken hostage in acts of piracy.  More than 2,000 ships have been forced to divert thousands of miles to avoid the Red Sea—which can cause weeks of delays in product shipping times. And on January 9, Houthis launched their largest attack to date—directly targeting American ships.

Many of the same people demanding fuel, food, and medicine be allowed to enter Gaza are cheering fuel, food, and medicine not being allowed through the Red Sea.

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Lie #7: The ships under Houthi attack are headed north through the Red Sea, and therefore must be bound for Israel.

Here is a map:

A ship heading south through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, as you can see, is moving away from Israel. A ship heading north through the Bab al-Mandab Strait is moving toward Israel—but also toward the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea. I highly doubt the Houthis are being picky about their targets, and, indeed, there is little evidence to suggest that they are. This is indiscriminate terrorism.

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Lie #8: The Houthis are an evolved, peace-loving sect that only wants what’s best for everyone.

The Houthis are world-class child abusers. As Afrah Nesser of the Arab Center Washington DC explains:

In the child soldier recruitment process, international humanitarian aid plays a significant role. According to numerous reports by local media, the Houthi group steals humanitarian aid and then exploits people’s need for said aid in order to recruit children. Several reports have documented that the group has diverted aid to its military effort.

The Houthi group has created the Supreme Council for Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and International Cooperation (SCMCHA), which supervises and regulates all humanitarian aid programs carried out in Houthi-controlled areas. However, it often uses this body and other means to “try to compel the selection of certain contractors, restrict the travel of aid workers or otherwise seek to influence aid operations,” according to a statement made in January by UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths.

There are a lot of disturbing photographs and videos of Houthi soldiers who in the U.S. would be in middle school. Kids with military weapons in Yemen is a humanitarian crisis.

And you’re not gonna believe this, but the Houthis are hideous, repulsive misogynists. As Moammar al-Eryani, Minister of Information and Culture for the Republic of Yemen—that is, the actual, official government—explains in a piece for the Wilson Center:

The tragedy of Yemeni women in areas controlled by the Houthis is not limited to the propaganda and cultural policies that it spreads through its media and extremist religious platforms. Limiting women’s role to produce fighters is in line with other policies such as preventing women from accessing reproductive health services, especially contraceptives, and the policy of restricting women's movement between governorates and traveling through the Sana’a airport “without a mahram.” Furthermore, the Houthi militia, just like the Taliban in Afghanistan, has banned women from working with organizations, using the phone, and applying cosmetics, prohibited them from going to restaurants except after presenting a marriage contract, banished them from sitting in public parks, and specified the method of tailoring and the colors of the clothes they wear. 

In addition to the repressive practices, crimes, and systematic violations that women have had to endure since 2014, the Houthi militia has abducted thousands from their homes, workplaces, public streets and checkpoints and took them to detention centers and secret prisons on trumped-up charges, subjecting them to all kinds of extortion, psychological and physical torture, harassment, and sexual assault for their political, media and human rights activities. This cruelty prompted the UN Security Council to issue Resolution 2564 in February 2021 to add Sultan Zabin, a leader of the Houthi militia who works as “Director of the Criminal Investigation Department,” to the sanctions list for systematic intimidation, exploitation, detention, torture, sexual violence and rape against politically active women. 

His claims are echoed by Human Rights Watch and the Yemen Organization for Combating Human Trafficking.

And if that doesn’t convince you, the Houthi slogan is Allāhu ʾakbar, al-mawt li-ʾAmrīkā, al-mawt li-ʾIsrāʾīl, al-laʿnah ʿalā 'l-Yahūd, an-naṣr lil-ʾIslām, which translates to “God Is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam.”

Bottom line, the Houthis are a Yemeni Taliban: yet another group of violent religious extremists who believe their interpretation of Islam is the only pure one, who hate Jews, hate Israel, hate America, and who treat women and children like livestock. This is who is terrorizing the Red Sea.

This is indefensible. It must stop.

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Photo credit: Abdullah Sarhan. A Houthi banner on a house in Yafaa-Dhamar-Jemen.