[gazpacho]

Surely this should have been a risk accounted for and the shipment should have been diverted or cancelled? It’s not like the payload was unknown or the possibility of an attack was new?

I really don’t understand why we keep shipping through there. Yes, it will cause 2% (the number I found) inflation. We (US) have had worse. Many places survive (albeit with damage) 100% YoY inflation. Let’s just stop escalating conflicts for money, people’s lives and global peace are worth more than that.

[pfannkuchen]

Inflation is a misleading term here IMO. It would cause a shortage in shipping capacity, which would produce a price increase. There is no reason to believe that this would be persistent enough to consider it a change in the value of the currency itself (since the alternative routes may be improved etc). If this is inflation, then everything is inflation.

[gruez]

The US might only feel 2% inflation, but that doesn't mean other countries (ie. developing ones) are going to get off as easily. Food spending makes up more of their budget there, so the impact will be much higher, not to mention they're poorer to start with and are already feeling the effects from the inflation caused by the pandemic/Ukraine war .

[nradov]

Why are you trying to make this about the US? We have very little trade through that route. Other countries that do rely on that route obviously can't give in to terrorists regardless of environmental risks.

[enterprise_cog]

Ansar Allah is targeting the US, Israel, and their allies who support Israel.

China can sail the route just fine, for example.

[tptacek]

Ansar Allah has targeted random ships, including Russian tankers, and, most notably, was conducting these attacks before the October 7th attacks; their advocacy for Israel is a retcon. It's worth pointing out that if Ansar Allah succeeded in liberating Palestine, their next action would be to burn down all the mosques --- Palestinians are overwhelmingly Sunni (and Hamas is an explicitly Sunni organization), and Ansar Allah is at war with Sunnis in Yemen, where it has been destroying mosques for the last year.

[enterprise_cog]

Which Russian tanker? One was hit carrying Russian naphtha, the Marlin Luanda, but it was not owned by Russia. AA claims it was British[0].

What ship attacks happened prior to the 7th?

> "It's worth pointing out that if Ansar Allah succeeded in liberating Palestine, their next action would be to burn down all the mosques"

No, it wouldn't. This is pure conjecture. The Sunni and Shia conflict in Yemen is far more complex than you are trying to make it sound. The Sunni Saudis have been inflicting a famine on Yemen for years. The Sunni Emiratis have been assassinating and conducting terrorism within Yemen. This is important context to leave out.

[0]https://web.archive.org/web/20240127202900/https://www.bbc.c...

[kasey_junk]

The Houthis have been attacking shipping since at least 2015: https://acleddata.com/2024/01/05/qa-why-are-yemens-houthis-a...

[enterprise_cog]

That was part of their war with the Saudi coalition. The parent was saying they were attacking random targets and only used the genocide as cover for more random attacks, when it is clear they are targeted attacks and for specific purposes. Appreciate the link.

[tptacek]

All you're saying here is that you think Ansar Allah has good reason to attack native Yemeni Sunnis, who make up the majority of the population. I don't think defending or even mitigating the Houthi cult is an especially useful rhetorical hill to die on. Note that I didn't refer to "Sunni Emiratis". They're not blowing up mosques in the Emirates, are they?

[nradov]

Don't be naive. Regardless of the propaganda they might try to push, the Houthis are engaged in indiscriminate terrorism as Iranian proxies and have attacked vessels owned and operated by multiple nations regardless of links to Israel. They hit the Chinese / Panamanian tanker MV Huang Pu.

https://news.usni.org/2024/03/24/chinese-tanker-hit-with-hou...