I'm John Batsu. This is CBSI on the World with Jonathan Shanzer, the executive director of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

The Houthis are a Shia-affiliated religious cult, Zadis.

They're led by a family, the Houthi family.

Their understanding is that they're impregnable in northern Yemen.

The Yemenis have had a condescending attitude towards much of the world for a long time.

And they have reason for that.

Any invasion have ever tried in Yemen for such as the Egyptians back in the

20th century fail. The Yemenis see themselves as tough desert mountain fighters. And yet,

Jonathan, the news yesterday was from a man that I refer to as Baghdad Bob 2, the spokesperson for the Houthis, about they were

launching immediately strikes on the Harry S. Truman with drones and missiles. Big boast saying,

we're not afraid of you. What are you going to do? What is, what is their thinking daring the U.S.

Navy and the Harry Truman? Why? Well, I mean, this is the

extension of a strategy that existed before the Trump administration came in. The Biden administration

had effectively acquies to the Houthis controlling the Red Sea corridor. This is a remarkable

thing to seed on the part of an American president,

that this is an area where 12% of the world's maritime travels every year, and Biden effectively

gave up on it, despite launching Operation Prosperity Guardian back in December of 2023,

a coalition of countries that had come together to purportedly liberate the Red Sea from Houthi aggression.

That never happened.

And what's happened instead is that the Iranians have naval ships off the coast of Yemen.

They have been providing intelligence to the Houthis.

The Houthis have been striking vessels with impunity.

...