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"The Houthis are starting to get better at naval warfare and it's making Imperialists nervous."
(hexbear.net)
US officials have warned that the conflict has no signs of slowing down, and the growing financial toll has raised questions about the long-term sustainability of the counter-Houthi mission.
it must be instructive to grow up and live in places like the Gate of Grief/Gulf of Aden, the Dardanelles/Hellespont, etc and see the material flows and forces of the great powers parade and display their ships of war.
massive gunships and their support ships and helicopters perennially stirring off your coastline with flags from places half a world away, while bloated cargo ships slowly file along under the watchful eyes of 24 hour crews and the massive guns they control.
it probably makes the nature of western political economy very obvious.
Not as much as you might think. It's 300km wide.
The thinnest point is 30km off a very specific bit of Yemen. But the rest is so wide it's unpolicable. The warships have at best a 20-50km reliable range that they can cover around their ships. Their "watchful eyes" are less watchful than people realise and rely much more on being big and intimidating shows of force to deter action than their actual ability to prevent action by force.
Unless you're from that one specific point where it's thinnest, and spend a lot of time on the shore, you probably don't end up thinking about this much at all. Well, except if you're from Yemen and have been bombed to bits for decades.
well, that's what i mean... being around for one of the big, intimidating shows.
and people go to the shore and watch ships. its a thing everywhere ive been, even isolated places where there isn't much human activity to see out there. living near a coast is a constant invitation to go to the coastline and stare out at the horizon. more so if there's a shipping lane or fishing boats or weather or some kind of activity, biological or artificial.
if you live for 30 years in a coastal community where there has been significant foreign naval activity for hundreds or thousands of years, chances are high you've seen a foreign naval ship and considered the context.