Commentary: US bombing of Houthis is the latest example of how Congress gets sidelined for military action

President Joe Biden’s decision on Thursday to order a wave of strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen was inevitable the moment the Yemeni militia disregarded Washington’s warnings a week earlier and sent a swarm of 18 drones and three anti-ship ballistic missiles in the direction of U.S. warships.

Last week’s strikes, which took place with the cooperation of the United Kingdom and were aimed at 60 locations, were designed to degrade the Houthis’ capabilities and hopefully deter additional attacks on shipping lanes in the Red Sea.

As one would expect, the U.S. after the joint U.S.-U.K. strikes were over: “We hit them pretty hard, pretty good.”