It's Wednesday, May 21st, 2025.

I'm Albert Moller, and this is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.

Sometimes you look at the headlines that come at us in the news, and you say, that's new.

But in so many cases, it's a continuation of something that's not new at all.

It's very old. So consider the headlines in recent days having to do with American and

allied efforts to confront the challenge of the Houthi rebels in Yemen. This is an Islamic

terrorist group that has largely taken control of much of Yemen and otherwise terrified the rest of the population.

It is also creating a great deal of havoc, particularly in interrupting shipping, and in particular tying up the Suez Canal, which is one of the most vital waterways in terms of world commerce.

But it represents a direct threat to commerce, but it represents a direct

threat to Israel, and it is a devoted enemy of Israel, and it follows the lead of its patron

Iran in considering the United States to be the great Satan, to be opposed.

Now, Nicholas Christoph, a liberal colonist for the New York Times, has written a very interesting piece.

The piece was published this past Sunday in the New York Times edition, the headline $7 billion on useless bombing.

Nicholas Christoph has a deep, deep interest in humanitarianism.

He has pled the case for so many beleaguered peoples all over the world.

He is himself a pretty formidable intellectual. And so when he writes something like this,

he presents an argument that we're going to find very interesting. He begins, and I quote,

the signal scandal drew howls of outrage for the way Trump administration officials

insecurely exchanged texts about military strikes

on Yemen, but dig a little deeper and there's a much larger scandal. He says this is a scandal

about a failed policy that empowers an enemy of the United States, weakens its security, and will

cost thousands of lives. It's one that also tarnishes President Joe Biden, but

...