Trump's inaction lets Houthis choke the Red Sea and our pumps
By Grant Colby · Reporting from Amarillo ·
When I was balancing the books for my father’s hardware store back in Amarillo, we lived and died by the ledger.
# The Red Sea Chokehold
When I managed the ledger for my father’s hardware store in Amarillo, we lived by the numbers. You cannot keep the lights on by hoping the math shifts in your favor; you deal with the reality on the page. Today, that reality for every trucker and farmer in this country is a diesel pump hitting a national average of $6 a gallon, WKTV said.
That price is not a market accident. It is the cost of hesitating. While the administration speaks of "empowering regional partners," the Iran-backed Houthis have seized Yemen's entire Red Sea coast. From the port of Mokha to Perim Island—a scrap of land sitting in the throat of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait—the Houthis now hold the keys to one of the world's narrowest oil passages.
Partners Can't Fight While They're Drowning
The White House is playing a game of semantics. A senior administration official told CNBC that the U.S. is "empowering our regional partners to take the lead." That sounds polished in a press briefing, but it is a fantasy in the sand. According to RTÉ, two thousand government soldiers are currently trapped on the Hanish islands, staring at empty crates of rations and dry water tanks while they plead for air support.
Critics of intervention argue that we must avoid another "forever war" by forcing the Saudis to secure their own backyard. They claim that by refusing to act as the world's policeman, we prevent the U.S. from sliding into a quagmire. But there is a difference between avoiding a swamp and abandoning a fortress.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called President Donald Trump twice on September 10, urging immediate strikes against the Houthis. Trump rejected the request. The President believes the conflict with Iran will simply vanish after the November election. But the Houthis do not follow a U.S. election calendar. They follow the logic of the Yemeni Civil War, a fight they have used since 2011 to expand their territory through sheer persistence and Iranian drones.
When the Houthis seized the airport in Mokha, they did not just take a strip of pavement; they took a vantage point. By refusing to act, we are not avoiding war—we are simply choosing to fight it at the diesel pump instead of on the flight line.
The Choke Point Playbook
The world saw this strategy during the 1973 oil crisis, when states weaponized energy supplies to trigger a global price shock. The goal is not to win a conventional war with tanks and infantry. Instead, the goal is to starve the adversary's economy until the political will to resist evaporates.
The Houthis are the latest to use this asymmetric leverage. The pattern emerged in 2019 when Iranian-backed drones hit the Abqaiq–Khurais facilities, proving they could spike global prices in a single afternoon. The Houthis followed suit by attacking shipping lanes that same year, a tactic later mirrored by Russia's seizure of Ukrainian ports to create energy swings.
When a hostile actor controls a choke point, they control the price of everything. With Iran blockading the Strait of Hormuz and the Houthis holding Perim Island, the world's energy arteries are pinched from both ends. Brent crude now trades above one hundred dollars a barrel. Hamish Kinnear told CNBC that a tighter grip on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait means prices will only climb.
Will the Ledger Balance?
The administration bets that Iran cannot hold out much longer and that a diplomatic exit is near. But in my experience—from the Corps of Cadets to the logistics business—you never negotiate when you look weak. By declining to support the Saudis and letting the Houthis consolidate the coast, we have handed Tehran a massive chip for the upcoming meeting in Oman.
We are trading immediate military risk for a long-term economic bleed. We loosened Iran's grip on Hormuz only to let the Houthis lock the back door. According to ING strategists, if the Houthi offensive expands to strike Saudi energy plants inside the Kingdom, the current cost of diesel will look like a bargain.
Strength is not about starting wars; it is about making aggression so expensive that the enemy dares not try. By treating the Red Sea as a local dispute rather than a vital shipping lane, we have signaled that the U.S. is willing to let its allies fail and its citizens pay the bill. You cannot lead the free world by ignoring the map.