Former Undersecretary of Defense Robert Wilkie told Newsmax on Monday that the airstrikes on the Houthi rebels that President Donald Trump ordered over the weekend were "long overdue."
"[Former President Joe] Biden gave the impression to the world that America was a paper tiger," Wilkie said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "If you remember, Mark, you and I used to discuss in the office that the Biden people were telling the Houthis we were coming.
"We targeted facilities in the early morning hours when we were guaranteed not to hit anybody. But the only way that this works is if there is a sustained air campaign, an air campaign that not only includes the aircraft of the United States Navy ... but this will require the interdiction of the United States Air Force in large numbers, because those are the aircraft that can deliver the ground-pounding ordnance that will destroy these people.
"Israelis have shown us how to do it. But remember, that was a sustained air campaign both in the north against Hezbollah and also against Hamas."
On Saturday, Trump ordered a series of airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen, promising that "overwhelming lethal force" would be used until they halted their attacks on vessels using international shipping lanes. Houthi attacks on a vital maritime corridor have wreaked havoc on worldwide shipping and contributed to consumer price hikes as shipping companies faced increased costs of rerouting their containers away from the targeted waterways.
Wilkie said that protecting commerce through military action "goes back to the earliest days of the American republic."
"Thomas Jefferson was the one who said our mission was to protect what he called the global commons, which at that time was just shipping," he said. "But you're absolutely right. The cost of this has percolated throughout the globe. And for those of us who worry about modern Arab regimes, the cost in Egypt has been prohibitive.
"I spoke with Egyptian officials, including the former secretary general of the Arab League. The revenue Egypt gets from the Suez Canal has stopped. This threat, if it does not go away, emboldens Iran, emboldens China, emboldens Russia."
The former Defense official called Russian President Vladimir Putin "a global gangster" and said he's "up to his eyeballs in supporting the Houthis."
"He's been giving them money," Wilkie said. "He's been giving them high tech. He wants to fulfill the dream of the czars and get a warm water port close to the Indian Ocean. So, he's involved in this as well. But I think the president is on the right track.
"The ayatollahs have to know that if they cause any problems other than the Houthis, say their lone wolves launch an attack in this country, that the Iranian regime will be short-lived."
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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