Message to Senator Schumer and his Prog-Dems : Iran, not Trump's Cabinet, Is America's Enemy

The Progressive Democrats are busy "boycotting" President Trump's Cabinet appointees from beign confirmed -- even as they accusing him of not governing, which he could do a whole lot better if he had a Cabinet. But, as usual, the Prog-Dems are missing the real threat. It is not President Trump. It is Iran. Iran is still terrorizing in the Middle East, and right now the Yemen is at the epicenter of Iran's terrorist war against Saudi Arabia and its sunni allies -- and America. • US Commando Operation in Yemen. The New York Times on January 29 gave a full report of the op"ration in which "one American commando was killed and three others were wounded in a fierce firefight early Sunday with Qaeda militants in central Yemen, the military said on Sunday. It was the first counterterrorism operation authorized by President Trump since he took office, and the commando was the first United States service member to die in the yearslong shadow war against al Qaida’s Yemen affiliate." The Navy’s SEAL Team 6 carried out the surprise dawn attack, and the military said that about 14 al Qaida fighters were killed during a nearly hourlong battle. The NYT reported that an al Qaida leader -- "a brother-in-law of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born cleric and top al Qaida leader in Yemen, who died in a drone strike in 2011 -- was believed to have been killed." American officials said they are assessing reports that women and children had died in the attack, but military sources say that women were in active combat roles on the enemy side. According tothe NYT, the military’s Joint Special Operations Command had been planning the mission for months, but Obama administration aides had deliberated extensively over the proposed operation, weighing the value of any information that might be recovered against the risk to the Special Operations forces plunging into hostile territory, and the Obama administration officials ultimately opted to hand the decision on the mission to their successors. President Trump, who has vowed to increase pressure on militant groups worldwide, was saw that the rewards were worth the risk, and he authorized the mission last week, military officials said. Commandos waited for a moonless evening on Saturday to exploit their advantage of fighting at night. Helicopter gunships and armed Reaper drones provided cover for the commandos as they attacked the home of the al Qaida leader in the rugged mountainous region of Bayda Province, a part of Yemen that has been a focal point of US military operations over the past month. The main target was computer materials inside the house that could contain clues about future terrorist plots. In a statement on Sunday, President Trump called the raid “successful” and said that it had captured “important intelligence that will assist the US in preventing terrorism against its citizens and people around the world.” He also lamented the loss of the American service member “in our fight against the evil of radical Islamic terrorism.” The NYT said that "because Mr. Trump had been explicit about his intention to ask for the review to accelerate the fight against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, American military planners had begun drafting classified options to present to the new commander in chief. Some of those options, like pushing more authority to conduct strikes to commanders in the field or loosening restrictions designed to limit the risk to civilians, could also be applied to attacks against Qaeda fighters and Islamic State insurgents. There were no immediate indications that the rules of engagement had been loosened for the mission in Yemen, military officials said. The Central Command’s statement did not elaborate on details of the raid..." • President Trump also released a statement after the raid that said : “Americans are saddened this morning with news that a life of a heroic service member has been taken in our fight against the evil of radical Islamic terrorism.” Later, Secretary of Defense James Mattis released a statement confirming the death of the SEAL -- Chief Petty Officer William "Ryan" Owens. Mattis said : "Ryan gave his full measure for our nation, and in performing his duty, he upheld the noblest standard of military service." • • • IRAN AND THE YEMEN WAR. Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the group’s branch in Yemen, has long been seen by American intelligence and counterterrorism officials as among the most dangerous branches of the global terrorist network, and the one posing the most immediate threat to US territory. The group’s leaders have sought in at least three cases to detonate bombs hidden aboard American commercial jetliners. All of those plots were thwarted. The armed Houthi movement supported by Iran and affiliated with al Qaida, has engaged in a war against the elected government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi for several years. Saudi Arabi formed a coalition to drive the Houthis out of Yemen, but their efforts have been met with stiff resistance from the Houthis and their Iranian backers. On Monday, the Houthis attacked a Saudi warship off the western coast of Yemen, causing an explosion that killed two Saudi crew members and injured three others, Saudi state news agency SPA reported. Separately, the Houthis said they launched a ballistic missile at a Saudi-led coalition military base on the Red Sea island of Zuqar between Yemen and Eritrea on Tuesday morning, according to the group's official news channel al-Masira. The attacks are an escalation after weeks of combat on Yemen's western coast between the Iran-allied Houthis and the Squdi-led coalition, supported by the US, backing Yemen's internationally recognized government, and trying to prevent the Houthis from securing Red Sea ports. The SPA statement said : "A Saudi frigate on patrol west of Hodeidah port came under attack from three suicide boats belonging to the Houthi militias." One of the boats collided with the rear of the Saudi vessel, causing an explosion and a fire that killed two crew members and wounded three others. But, the Houthi movement's al-Masira channel quoted a military source saying the explosion was caused by a guided missile. It was at least the second attack by the Houthis on ships off the coast of Yemen in the last six months. • • • IRAN MAY HAVE WANTED TO HIT A US SHIP. Fox News reported Tuesday that two defense sources told it the Iranian-backed suicide attack targeting the Saudi frigate off the coast of Yemen on Monday may have been meant for an American warship. At first the ship was thought to have been struck by a missile. But, based on new analysis of a video showing the attack, American intelligence officials now believe this was, in fact, a suicide bomber whose small boat rammed the side of the Saudi vessel. In the audio heard on the video, a voice narrating the attack shouts in Arabic : "Allahu akbar (God is greatest), death to America, death to Israel, a curse on the Jews and victory for Islam.” US defense analysts believe those behind the attack either thought the bomber was striking an American warship or that this was a “dress rehearsal” similar to the attack on the USS Cole. The attack, near the Bab al Mandab Strait connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, was in the same area where US Navy warships came under missile attack last October. This latest incident came a day after President Trump spoke by phone with the Saudi King to discuss setting up safe zones for refugees in Syria and Yemen. Senior US defense officials who spoke with Fox News say they're concerned by this latest incident, but are confident American warships can defend themselves. In the October attack, an American destroyer shot down the incoming missiles -- the first successful engagement in combat using an American SM-2 missile. Then, USS Nitze, an American destroyer, retaliated, launching Tomahawk missiles on October 13 at multiple Houthi radar sites in Yemen. • • • IRAN DRONE SMUGGLED INTO YEMEN DESTROYED. The Gulf News reported on Tuesday that an Iranian military drone was destroyed in Yemen’s Mocha port city. Senior officials told Gulf News that they believe Teheran is making every effort to halt the political process that might lead ot a Yemen ceasefire. It was an Arab coalition force in Yemen, with the help of the UAE Air Force, that destroyed the Iranian military drone positioned on a mobile launching platform and intended to target Yemeni forces participating in the liberation of Mocha and the city’s port when it was hit. General Ahmad Saif Al Yafei, deputy chief of general staff of the Yemeni armed forces, said Yemeni forces detected the aircraft during surveillance to areas north of Mocha, adding that the aircraft was about to take off for its mission when it was destroyed by an air-to-surface missile in coordination with the UAE Air Force operating in Yemen. He said cornered rebel militias have resorted to using weapons smuggled from Iran to Yemen and that the unmanned aircraft was part of such clandestine weapons shipments. The General also stressed that the presence of such Iranian weapons in Yemen clearly show the blatant Iranian interference in Yemen’s crisis and attempts made by Tehran to destabilize the region and threaten peace in Yemen. The continual supply of sophisticated weapons and equipment to rebel militias by Iran is a desperate attempt to undermine the successive victories of forces that support the legitimate government of Yemen backed by the Arab coalition. General Al Yafei called on the international community to take on its shoulders the responsibility of stopping Iranian attempts to exacerbate the worsening internal security situation in Yemen. He added that Iran is trying to eliminate any chance for the success of the political process in Yemen and continues to stoke the crisis in the country in an attempt to impose its "sinister agenda" and create a model similar to the Lebanese Hezbollah militia in Yemen. • • • IRAN LAUNCHES ILLEGAL ICBM TEST. US officials told the Jerusalem Post that Iran has conducted a ballistic missile test in violation of the UN resolution put in place after the Iran nuclear deal. Officials told Fox News on Monday that the test occurred outside Semnan, about 140 miles east of Teheran, on Sunday. The missile was a Khorramshahr medium-range ballistic missile, which the officials said flew 600 miles before exploding, in a failed test of a reentry vehicle. The test was in direct violation of UN resolution 2231, which stated that Iran could not conduct such acts. The missile tested is 'capable of reaching Israel.' In an October address to supporters in Jerusalem, then candidate Trump vowed that he would stand up to Iran : “My administration will stand side by side with Israel and Jewish leaders,” Trump said in the recorded video address. “Together, we will stand up to enemies like Iran bent on destroying Israel and your people. Together, we will make America and Israel safe again.” • The Canadian Press reported Tuesday, citing the Associated Press, that the UN Security Council has scheduled urgent consultations Tuesday on an Iranian ballistic missile test at the request of the United States. The US Mission to the United Nations said it wanted the UNSC to discuss Iran's Sunday’s launch of a medium-range missile. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said earlier that he did not know the “exact nature” of the test and expected to have more information later. Iran is the subject of a UNSC resolution prohibiting tests of ballistic missiles designed to deliver a nuclear warhead. As part of the 2015 nuclear deal, the UN ban was prolonged by eight years, although Iran has flaunted the restriction. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. was looking into whether the ballistic missile test violates the US Security Council resolution : “When actions are taken that violate or are inconsistent with the resolution, we will act to hold Iran accountable and urge other countries to do so as well." Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, condemned Iran for the missile test : “No longer will Iran be given a pass for its repeated ballistic missile violations, continued support of terrorism, human rights abuses and other hostile activities that threaten international peace and security." • Both Iranand Russia say the missile tests do not violate UN resolutions because they do not carry nuclear warheads. • • • UNSC SIDES WITH IRAN AND AGAINST SAUDI ARABIA AGAIN. The Kremlin-backed RT news outlet reported Monday that : "An expert UN panel investigating ten separate airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen -- in which at least 292 civilians died -- has found that most were the result of an ‘ineffective targeting process’ or deliberate attacks on peaceful targets." The report presented to the UNSC last Friday states, according ot Reuters : "In eight of the 10 investigations, the panel found no evidence that the airstrikes had targeted legitimate military objectives. For all 10 investigations, the panel considers it almost certain that the coalition did not meet international humanitarian law requirements of proportionality and precautions in attack. The panel considers that some of the attacks may amount to war crimes." Saudi Arabia’s UN Ambassador, Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, flatly denied responsibility, saying the coalition -- which includes Gulf states such as Qatar and Kuwait -- was "exercising maximum restraint and rigorous rules of engagement." The report said : "In some cases errors were acknowledged and responsibility accepted. Corrective measures including compensation to victims were taken." The UN panel said that although it was unable to travel to the bombing sites, it still "maintained the highest achievable standard of proof," and insisted the specific cases studied were part of a wider trend. • In a conclusion supporting Iran, the report stated : "The panel has not seen sufficient evidence to confirm any direct large-scale supply of arms from the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, although there are indicators that anti-tank guided weapons being supplied to the Houthi or Saleh forces are of Iranian manufacture," said the report, which said 2,064 weapons seized on boats off the coast, had possible “direct” links with Iran. • • • DEAR READERS, The cold war between Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran did not alone cause the sweeping disorder in which the Middle East finds itself, but there is no arguing that it has widened and deepened it. Whether in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Lebanon or elsewhere, the sunni-shiite feud for control of the Middle East and its petroleum and the strategic Red Sea and Suez Canal, that goes on between Riyadh and Teheran has heightened cultural divides and inflamed sectarian tensions, harming efforts to defeat ISIS, end the civil war in Syria, stabilize Iraq, stop the fighting in Yemen, and solve the political crisis in Lebanon. After centuries of bickering, today, the Saudis and the Iranians are locked in a much more dangerous struggle in Syria and Yemen. In Syria, Saudi Arabia is committed to the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a close ally of Iran, and has repeatedly threatened to increase its military involvement there, possibly by sending its own troops. Should that happen, it is inevitable that Saudi troops would face Iranian troops on the ground, where Iranian forces and the Lebanese Hezbollah are battling every group trying to oust al-Assad. In Yemen, the conflict pits Iran's proxy Houthis against the Gulf Arab coalition led by the Saudis in a battle for Persian Gulf strategic naval routes. Add to this, Russia's seizing the opportunity to again become a major military and political player in the Middle East. The Iranians benefit tremendously from Russia's security partnership to achieve strategic objectives common ot Iran and Russia. As the partnership between Iran and Russia expands, and as President Trump's resolve is tested, the likelihood grows of Iran engaging in more aggressive and provocative acts that could lead to war with Saudi Arabia. Finally, Iran’s missile capabilities have improved drastically, giving it new and powerful means to engage in offensive action. Iran cannot ignore Washington’s enormous military presence in the region. But more precise missiles provide Iran with a set of military options and greater operational flexibility that would challenge the US in the Persian Gulf -- we are seeing the beginning of this currently. The risk of an Iran-Saudi Arabia conflict in the Middle East is higher today than ever. Averting such a war will be President Trump’s most important and urgent priority in the Middle East. The raid on Anwar al-Awlaki militants on Sunday is justthe start of the renewed US Middle East offensive after years of Obama neglect and favoritism toward Iran, America's sworn enemy. Instead of throwing temper tantrums and boycotting Trump Cabinet appointee confirmations, the Prog-Dems and Senator Chuck Schumer ought to think about the real problems President Trump faces -- problems they could help resolve in a united American stance if they were acting like adults instead of spoiled children.