Foreword:
The US Navy F-18 carrier-based aircraft crashed into the sea due to attacks by the Houthis, and airports in Israel's hinterland were attacked by Houthi supersonic missiles. The missile defense systems of both the United States and Israel have completely failed. Repeatedly being humiliated by the weaker Houthi forces has hurt the US and Israel more than their equipment and facilities; it is their fragile psyche that suffers the most. The Houthi forces have set an example for resisting the US and Israel worldwide, causing not only panic but also a great deal of unknown concerns for the US and Israel.
Enraged by the Houthis, the US and Israel have launched round after round of intense bombings. However, the effect of these bombings has been like using a cannon to kill mosquitoes; besides boasting about their achievements, they have caused harm to local civilians, triggering severe humanitarian crises. On the morning of May 6th, the US and Israel once again conducted the most intense bombings on Houthi-controlled Hodeidah Port and other locations. It is reported that this time, Israel deployed over 20 types of fighter jets, while the US dispatched nearly 10 fighter jets, with approximately 30 aircraft participating in the bombing. Despite the US and Israel's announcement of successful bombings, the results have been less than satisfactory.
1
The expensive "iron fist" and inefficient consumption: 50 bombs dropped by the US and Israel killed only two civilians. Behind the high-profile declaration of victory lies the bitterness of failing to achieve the expected outcomes. According to Global Network reports, the Houthi-controlled Masira TV station reported that at midnight on May 6th, the US and Israel jointly launched at least 48 airstrikes on Hodeidah Province, focusing on bombing the local airport, cement factory, cranes at Hodeidah Port, goods, warehouse buildings, fuel tanks, and a power plant. In order to achieve their bombing objectives, Israel dispatched a powerful formation consisting of over 20 aircraft to conduct long-range strikes covering more than 2000 kilometers.
American-made F-15I heavy fighters, fully loaded with bombs and missiles, served as the main attack force. The US also dispatched F-16 fighters, F-35 fighters, and B-2 bombers to participate in the air strikes. Netanyahu personally oversaw the command center to direct this joint air strike operation with the US. It was reported that during the attack on Hodeidah, the US and Israel dropped 50 precision-guided bombs. Israel announced that the bombing was a complete success and warned that this operation was just the beginning, with further bombing actions to continue.
However, according to information released by the Houthi forces, this high-specification bombing has resulted in at least 2 deaths and 42 injuries among civilians and residents near a cement factory in the eastern Baghail district of Hodeidah Province. This means that the Houthi forces' bombing efforts, which are extremely costly, have only targeted civilians and civilian targets, without posing any substantial threat to the Houthi forces. The US and Israel's strikes against the Houthi forces have been centered around high-precision, high-cost weapons, but the actual effectiveness is severely disproportionate to the investment.
The GBU-53/B "Storm Breaker" used in the US-Israeli air strikes cost $480,000 each and features a multi-mode guidance head capable of penetrating complex environments to strike targets. However, in practice, due to intelligence delays, it frequently misfires on civilian targets, and even due to technical failures, it has been captured by the Houthi forces for reverse engineering. The AGM-158 stealth cruise missile costs over $3 million each, with its stealth design evading radar detection. However, facing the dispersed and concealed military facilities of the Houthi forces, its strike efficiency is less than 20%, and it has had to be diverted from the Asia-Pacific theater due to inventory shortages, weakening its deterrent capability against China.
The deployment of 20 Israeli aircraft for long-distance strikes and 10 US aircraft for combat operations represents a massive expenditure. The F/A-18 fighter jet, equipped with AIM-9X missiles, costs $470,000 each. The Standard series missiles—SM-2 ($2.1 to $2.53 million per unit), SM-6 ($4.27 million per unit), and SM-3 ($12.51 to $28.7 million per unit). The B-2 stealth bomber, stationed at Diego Garcia Base, costs over $1 million per mission. The US and Israel's reliance on "technological superiority" weapons has placed them in the predicament of using a high-caliber anti-aircraft gun against mosquitoes, creating a structural contradiction between high costs and low lethality, exposing the fatal flaw of the "weapon determines everything" theory.
2
Satellite discovery of Houthi missile launch sites reveals intelligence flaws and the flexible tactical advantage of the Houthis as the Achilles' heel of US-Israeli hegemony. Reuters reported that shortly after the large-scale air strikes by the US and Israel on the Houthi forces, American satellites discovered Houthi missiles being prepared for another round of attacks on US-Israeli military targets. Through camouflage, decentralized deployment, and underground facilities, the Houthis have dragged the US and Israel into a "whack-a-mole" game, making it impossible to find high-value targets to bomb. In this round of bombings, the US and Israel ultimately found that apart from civilian targets, there were basically no high-value military targets of the Houthis destroyed.
The multiple air strike targets of the US and Israel were actually ruins previously destroyed by Saudi Arabia. Satellite reconnaissance struggled to distinguish authenticity, with commanders frankly stating they were "bombing air." The "hardware advantage" of the US-Israeli military machinery has been comprehensively offset by the "software tactics" (intelligence warfare, psychological warfare, and attrition warfare) of the Houthis, exposing systemic defects in the hegemonic system in asymmetric warfare. The Houthis have redefined war rules through the "poor man's missile warfare," proving that the weak can drag the hegemon into the vortex of "unbearable lightness" through geographical depth, tactical innovation, and narrative games. The Houthi forces fight a people's war and hold absolute advantages in intelligence warfare.
The Houthis consume $5000 drones to intercept missiles costing $14 million. The Houthis form a "get richer by fighting" cycle through "protection fees" (averaging $30 million per month), with funds recycling into military upgrades. The Houthis shape their image as "anti-hegemonic heroes" by attacking US-Israeli targets, attracting global anti-American forces' support, and weakening the moral legitimacy of the US and Israel. The Houthis have mastered the "reversal password" of the wisdom of the weak, backing themselves against Yemen's mountains and the Red Sea shipping lanes to resist the US and Israel without fear of aerial bombardment suppression.
3
The bankruptcy of the "hegemonic logic" in the era: the US and Israel realize they are stuck in the mud, losing all hope of victory. The US is simultaneously dealing with three fronts—Ukraine, the Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East—with ammunition stocks running low, forcing it to "rob Peter to pay Paul," exposing the fundamental conflict between "infinite expansion" and "limited resources." Blind reliance on stealth aircraft and smart munitions by the US and Israel fails to counteract the Houthis' crude camouflage and mobile tactics, highlighting the collapse of the "high-tech weapon omnipotence theory."
The US and Israel are deeply conflicted about the current situation, recognizing their difficulty in achieving victory against the Houthi forces. The essence of their failure lies in the irreconcilable conflict between the unipolar hegemonic order and the multipolar reality, where their military advantages are gradually eroded by geopolitical complexity, technological diffusion, and a moral deficit. As the absurd outcome of 50 bombs killing only two civilians spreads globally, the world is witnessing a historic turning point: hegemony is no longer synonymous with invincibility, and technological superiority does not necessarily translate into battlefield supremacy. The wisdom and resilience of the weak are rewriting the rules of war. If the US and Israel fail to awaken from their "hegemonic delusion," their defeat in the Red Sea may become the prelude to the reconstruction of the global order.
Original Source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7501160406686155316/
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