Shaffer and Fleitz Criticize Newsmax for Delayed Attack on Houthis

Tony Shaffer and Fred Fleitz told Newsmax on Friday that recent strikes against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen resulted from a failure in policy from the Biden administration and likely won’t deter rising instability in the Middle East.

“There has been no deterrence,” Shaffer, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, told “Carl Higbie FRONTLINE” and guest host Lidia Curanaj. “It took 26 separate [Houthi] attacks, the last one capped off by 21 drones being shot down three days ago before we finally acted to do something to deter.

“Simply put, you’re going to see the Houthis return to the offensive within 48 hours. …  This is a [policy] failure because we held back the Saudis from actually doing counterinsurgency operations against the Houthis, which they were doing before the Biden administration came in and defunded them.

“And then there’s the $30 billion that we allowed Iran to make off going around sanctions, so the policy is to fail. You can’t deter a policy that’s designed to fail.”

Although Fleitz, a former chief of staff of the National Security Council, said he supported the attack on the Houthis that President Joe Biden ordered, he agreed with Shaffer that it came too late.

“It was too late, and I believe that the region is becoming more unstable because Biden didn’t act,” Fleitz said. “He allowed the Houthis to increase the scope of their attacks. I would like to think that this is going to stabilize the region. The problem is, I don’t think there’s going to be much follow-up. Biden is going to return to his tentative gun-shy approach to stability in the region, and tensions will rise.”

The Biden administration took the Houthis off the list of foreign terrorist organizations after they were placed on there by the Trump administration. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said during a briefing Friday the administration is reviewing that decision and “no decisions have been made yet.”

Fleitz said they deserve to go back on the list.

“This is an easy call,” he said. “They have fired missiles at civilian vessels. They fired missiles at a Red Cross facility. They’re obviously terrorists.”

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