I thought when Israel is attacked by Hamas or Hezbollah,
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not hesitate to respond.
So critics are asking why isn't the Biden administration responded
militarily to the continued Iran backed hoodie,
ballistic missile and drone attacks on international shipping and our
Navy in the Red Sea?
You know, the attacks echo exactly what happened during
Iran's attacks on international shipping in the 1980s.
But back then, President Ronald Reagan,
he blew up half of Iran's Navy.
Doctor Rebecca Grant joins us.
She's a national security military analyst,
president of IRIS Independent Research.
Also Fox's Fox News contributor
Dr. Grant. So the USS Carney,
busy yesterday, shot down 14 drones.
British and French warships have done the same.
Why are our assets and international shipping sitting there?
Like taking all this incoming without an offensive military action
or response?
Is that wise?
The goal, Eric, is to keep the shipping lanes open,
but I think is a great job that the USS
Kearney and the other destroyers are doing out there.
But things are really getting to a crisis point because
just in the last few days the
world's major shipping companies like Maersk and MSC and some
others have said,
hey, we're going to suspend operations up in the Red
Sea.
And that is bad news because that is means that
the Houthis are making a point.
And so it's time for the US to decide with
Task Force
153, our maritime task force there with allies,
what's the fresh response to these renewed Houthi attacks?
In the Telegraph, Tom Sharp wrote this recently and I'm
going to read this line to you.
He said quote In 2016
missiles were fired at the USS Mason
and this was met almost immediately with Tomahawk counter strikes
on qui hootie radar sites.
Clearly it isn't the way now.
The Hootie's would be similarly demotivated if every time they
approach a long site they wonder if it is to
be their last,
why isn't there this type of response now?
Oh what a good idea.
I would love to see some targeted strikes against legitimate
military infrastructure. The Houthis, you know,
possibly Iran, if they're supporting him that that new terminal
down at Jask.
But here's the point. We have to wait for the
Biden administration to say,
let's make plans and let's do something.
To my way of thinking,
the traffic in the Red Sea has gotten so dangerous
with this escalation by the hoodies against our U.S.
Navy ships who are trying to defend all that maritime
traffic
that it's time to do something more.
Right now, the rules of engagement say the Kearney can
shoot back if the drones get within about 10 nautical
miles.
But watch. This week, Secretary Austin is going to Bahrain,
He'll talk to the Admirals there and the Allies who
participate in Task Force
153. And I'd like to see much clearer rules of
engagement.
And personally, I'd like to see them at least formulate
options for some preemptive attacks to shut down this Hootie
shooting gallery in the Red Sea.
What do you, what type of message do you think
that would send?
And do you think they are actually now
planning this? Hard to say.
But I think given the concern by the international shippers
and just the volume of incoming fire that Carney and
others are handling that they've got to be thinking about
altering the rules of engagement.
Now they're going to want to do that with allies,
for instance, Egypt, Jordan, Britain,
so many other maritime allies participate in that task force.
So I think they'll take their time this week and
consider it.
One could understand, try not to escalate a military situation.
You can understand that. But what do we do?
Do we sit and wait for something like I think
it was
1988, the Samuel B Roberts was AUS frigate.
It struck an Iranian mind.
Ten of our our sailors
were severely injured, some severely
burned. And at that time,
President Ronald Reagan launched an attack that sank like 4
Iranian warships took out half of Iran's Navy.
Also, they had a special OPS attack,
Iranian oil fields as well as Iranian oil platforms.
And guess what? Iran backed down.
Why isn't that potentially happening right now?
I'd like to see that with the amount of incoming
drones,
missiles, you name it now,
the mine that hit the Roberts,
it, it broke the keel.
It was a very, very serious.
I think our ships are defending themselves better.
But the point you make is Iran has to be
stopped and they have to be stopped from egging the
Houthis on to do this.
And it worked perfectly. Iran did back down and six
months later the Iran Iraq war ended back in
1988. So they, the Houthis and Iran,
understand a military response and it's time for us to
unleash our naval forces and let them make the Red
Sea safer for international shipping,
which is their mission. And finally,
do you think this will only stop when,
as you just say, it's time to unleash our military
forces?
You know, send the hoodies a message.
Absolutely send the hoodies a message.
Let's hit some legitimate targets.
It did work when we hit those Iranian oil platforms
so many years ago.
And I think that a more forceful kinetic message is
what Task Force
153 needs to think about to keep the Red Sea
safe for the international shippers and for our U.S.
Navy sailors. Dr. Rebecca Grant,
IRIS Independent Research. Always good to have your insight and
historical knowledge,
Doctor Grant. Thank you.