Terrorists, not terrorists, absolutely not terrorists, and now, sort of terrorists-lite. Among the first things Biden’s handlers did was remove the Houthis of Yemen from the terrorist list. This was a supposedly humanitarian imperative. If the Houthis weren’t de-listed, America and others couldn’t waste untold billions on “humanitarian aid” to this Iranian terrorist proxy, without which their terrorist effectiveness might slightly diminish. Even worse, Iran might get mad and not like us anymore, which means no new Iran nuclear deal. Never mind Iran has never honored the old, dead as a dead parrot, deal.

In the interim, the Houthis have continued to do what terrorists do, and most recently, they’ve been firing Iranian weapons at shipping in the Red Sea, even helicoptering terrorists to freighters, seizing them. Tragically, Joe Biden saying “don’t” has inexplicably failed to daunt the Houthis. It hasn’t deterred any other Iranian proxy terror groups in the Middle East either. So finally, we’ve sent a few destroyers to the area, and with a very little help from other US allies, have managed to shoot down some cheap Iranian drones and missiles with very expensive, advanced interceptors.

Through it all, the Mummified Meat Puppet Administration (MMPA) has refused to admit that delisting the Houthis wasn’t the swiftest idea in the world:

[PBS] “NewsHour” Foreign Affairs and Defense Correspondent Nick Schifrin asked, “[W]as it a mistake for the Biden administration to delist the Houthis, in both respects, literally on day one of the administration?”

 [U.S. Special Envoy to Yemen] Lenderking responded, “No, I don’t think so. I think the Biden administration came in and assessed the situation, and very quickly decided that Yemen would be a priority within international foreign policy. 

And so it was, a priority of helping Iran spread Islamist terror throughout the Middle East.  And now, the MMPA is changing its mind—sort of: 

Graphic: X screenshot

The Biden White House will redesignate the Yemeni Houthis as a terrorist group on Wednesday in response to nearly three months of firing missiles at and hijacking commercial shipping in international waters. The decision will be made public on Wednesday. The Biden White House will not return the Houthis to the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) where President Trump placed them on January 11, 2021...you read that right: Trump declared them terrorists ten days before leaving office. Instead, the Houthi movement and its members will be declared Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT).

Oooooo!  They’re special terrorists.  What could that mean?

The difference between the two designations is more than semantic. 

Doing business with an FTO subjects you to sanctions, or if you are an American, to a lengthy prison term for material support of terrorism. Collaborating with an SDGT means nothing.

In other words, it’s business as usual for the MMPA.

Thanks to the strategic ineptitude in this White House, if the civil war in Yemen spreads, it will only be because we've empowered the Houthis with our timidity. Besides that, I'm not really sure there is a lot of difference in how the Horn of Africa region looks, whether it is at war or in peace. What is a fact is that over ten percent of the world's commerce used to pass through the Red Sea. That is no longer the case. The Pole Star of Pax America has been the principle of freedom of navigation in international waters. If that principle isn't enforced, then world commerce falls apart.

The argument for keeping the Houthis off the FTO list is that all the aid organizations giving food and medicine to Houthi terrorists would be subject to sanctions. That strikes me as a profoundly disingenuous reason. All it took was an Executive Order to establish the FTO and SDGT lists. It seems to me that if you are really concerned about Yemen and not just worried about making Iran angry, all it takes is a brief Executive Order creating a carve-out for providing aid to Yemen.

We’re finally doing a few airstrikes on Houthi targets. Unfortunately, the MMPA warned the Houthis about many of them in advance, so little or nothing was destroyed. As is usual with the MMPA, they’re for show, political cover, not designed to degrade Houthi capabilities, or heaven forbid, destroy Iranian weapons or kill Iranian “advisors.” More energetic strikes are supposedly underway, but the MMPA can’t bring itself to deter the very sort-of terrorists that are raising shipping and oil prices and damaging our economy and the economies of our allies. That would be wrong. It might make the seriously dead Iran nuclear deal even deader.

As with Monty Python’s outrageous Frenchman, perhaps Joe can threaten to tell the Iranians “don’t” a second time?

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.