The Houthi seizure of Perim Island and the port of Mokha has created an urgent national-security threat that Washington can no longer treat as a remote Yemeni conflict. By controlling the entire western Red Sea coastline around Bab al-Mandab, an Iranian-backed militia now holds leverage over a critical artery for global commerce and energy transit. That territorial gain must be reversed, not merely monitored.
The Houthis' assurance that navigation remains safe except for Saudi vessels deserves no confidence. Their record includes missiles and drones launched into Saudi territory, direct targeting of Saudi oil infrastructure, and recent drone attacks originating from Iraq. A force that promises selective safety while attacking regional energy assets is not protecting maritime order; it is converting geography into coercion.
Individual liberty and free markets require secure routes for lawful commerce. When militants can decide which ships may pass, they gain power to disrupt energy supplies, raise costs and punish sovereign states. Higher global oil prices and thousands of displaced civilians show that the threat is already producing real consequences. Deterrence is not an abstract military concept when the price is felt in the marketplace.
Sovereignty means Saudi territory cannot be subjected to missile and drone attacks without a serious response. Law and order mean an armed proxy cannot acquire territory, announce exceptions to safe navigation and expect the international system to accommodate its threats. Limited government is not passive government: defending citizens, allies and essential commerce is among the first duties of national authority, not an invitation to permanent bureaucratic expansion.
The current administration's policy of passive intelligence support fails that test. Intelligence can clarify a threat, but it cannot by itself undo a seizure of strategic terrain or restore deterrence. Accountable government must define what action follows defined red lines; otherwise, adversaries are invited to probe the gap between warnings and consequences. Refusing direct engagement while the Houthis consolidate their hold on Yemen is not restraint. It is an absence of strategy.
Israel's destruction of Hezbollah's underground complex beneath the Ali Taher Ridge shows the strategic logic that has been missing. The IDF used more than 1,000 tonnes of explosives to dismantle two kilometers of tunnels serving as a command center for Hezbollah's Badr unit, a facility stocked with rockets, missiles, drones and anti-tank weapons funded and planned by Iran over two decades. Allowing such infrastructure to mature creates a harder threat later; confronting it denies terrorists a protected launchpad.
Washington should shift from passive support to a limited, explicit strategy: deny the Houthis the benefits of their seizure, restore secure passage through Bab al-Mandab, defend Saudi territory and impose concrete costs on continued aggression. The objective is not endless war but accountable deterrence grounded in national sovereignty and the free flow of commerce. A global chokepoint cannot be left to an Iranian-backed force that has attacked energy infrastructure, helped drive up oil prices and displaced thousands of civilians.
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