GWOT-II: The New War on Yemen
With the reported deaths of more than 50 civilians last week (read: people just going about surviving under a chaos of someone else’s making), the growing un/manned air-assault on Yemeni city blocks, we have officially entered the next phase of the new “War on Terror”.
GWOT-II: Electric Boogaloo.
Overnight and without much ado, we have moved solidly into escalated-American engagement in Israeli expansionism; on the heels of the humiliating, bipartisan defeat and withdrawal from Afghanistan, the revamped Trump-regime seeking to ignite a sequel to the $8T boondoggle still etched across the Middle East and North Africa.
A Yemeni man inspects the damage in the Al-Rasul Al-Aazam cancer and oncology hospital's unfinished building, a day after it was hit in a US strike in Yemen's northern Saada province on March 25, 2025. (AFP)
In a political contest which should have been a layup for Liberal-wing Democratic incumbents, Trump ran (and won) as a peaceful dove. MAGA-led Republicans positioned themselves as the party of ending wars with ease, using a mirror as a hammer to shatter to any remaining misconception that the Democrats had any interest in humanist, pro-peace policy at home or abroad.
The hypocrisy of it was too much. When tested, the Biden-regime failed hurdle after hurdle; pursuing reactionary policy in Ukraine and Palestine, along the US-Mexico Border, and on college/university campuses across the nation, ignoring the escalating outcry from the general public all the while. When the reins were shifted to the Harris campaign, the dressings were changed on the wagon but the load stayed the same. There was “no daylight” between that which came before and that which they proposed next.
All Trump had to do was point and say “I’m not doing all that. I wouldn’t do that.”
What we are left with is the same war machine, just without guardrails; a vastly powerful empire which has completely abandoned the institutional dressings which gave it legitimacy – imagined or otherwise – now committed to widening its nets to encompass the majority of trade and military allies.
That is the least discussed angle of “SignalGate” / “WhiskeyLeaks” controversy pulsing across the various airwaves. It is not the callous incompetence, the blatant attempts to usurp government transparency and accountability laws or the inclusion of a well-known journalist to the conversation (intentionally or incidentally), but the move to dramatically escalate US exposure in Israel’s open conquest of Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and (historically) Egypt. It is the flexing of hard-power in the midst of escalating trade-wars with life-long regional allies under threat of annexation.
In striking Yemen, we are not only committing US lives to an unjust conflict and illegal bombardment of civilian targets, we are threatening to further unleash the last restraints on the executive-branch of the one of the most powerful militaries in the world. To those we are squeezing economically, who we are positioning to subsume, there can be no mistaking the show of force à la Shock & Awe doctrine from our unraveling administration.
Indeed, Canada is positioning itself as if for wartime – massively reining in travel/tourism to the US, making moves to rapidly advance industrial capability within Canadian borders, and a unified wave of anti-US consumption both commercial and personal. They are opening markets outside of the tattered remnants of NAFTA II (USMCA/CUSMA/T-MEC), seeking to re-source what was formerly seen as irreplaceable abroad while firmly closing doors behind them.
Trump, unhappy with first forced renegotiation in 2018, is positioning to attempt to do so again on a wider scale. (Image)
Today should be remembered as the beginning of Operation Desert [Aggressive Noun]. For while we have been content for more than a decade to utilize drones to flex on our occupied territories, we have been wary of risking the lives of our servicemembers to prosecute war aims such as those across Yemeni towns and cities. It is only a matter of time before we find ourselves enmired in a controversy much like that of Francis Powers, a catastrophe such as befall Scott Speicher.
President Trump is searching for routes to further empower himself and cement his rule, being roadblocked by the institutional checks-and-balances built for that purpose. He is nitpicking his domestic battles with the courts until he has the political capital to ignore them wholesale, instituting “wars" against gangs and cartels to justify further power-grabbing. An open, armed war makes all that moot, offers an avenue of least resistance with an excuse to target domestic actors with equal prejudice to those labeled “terrorist" abroad.
As far as Yemenis are concerned, we are no longer at war with their government and leadership, but with the very Peoples themselves. This will do nothing to stop aggression against US, Israel, and allies in the Red Sea region. So, what happens when we lose a plane or warship in this unfolding war there? What position will we find ourselves when US lives are lost and certain defense obligations called to collection?
The recent escalation in Yemen marks the beginning of a new phase in global conflict, driven by the Trump administration's efforts to assert power and expand US involvement in the Middle East. This shift follows the withdrawal from Afghanistan and aims to strengthen ties with Israel amid rising regional tensions. Domestically, the administration seeks to consolidate power by targeting gangs and cartels, while using the conflict to justify broader actions. Canada, in response, is distancing itself economically and diplomatically from the US, signaling a potential shift in North American alliances.
Prior US incursions in Yemen have been largely led by regional proxies such as Saudi Arabia. Will direct US intervention make any difference where a decade of famine and bombing has not already? (Image: Fahd Sadi, CC3.0)
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