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Speaker 1: I think it's important to highlight that no one wants

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Speaker 1: to see any type of escalation or increase in conflict

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Speaker 1: in this region. But it's also important that when you

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Speaker 1: have the international community being regularly attacked indiscriminately by these

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Speaker 1: hoothy rebels, that we need to take action. And last

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Speaker 1: night we did that.

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Speaker 2: Who was that? Who was that?

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Speaker 3: That was the Pentagon spokesman, Major General Patrick Ryder.

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Speaker 2: Why do we constantly say, look, the last thing we

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Speaker 2: want is for this to become a bigger fight. Why

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Speaker 2: do we constantly say that as opposed to every now

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Speaker 2: and then hinting toward you better not mess with us.

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Speaker 2: We will wipe you off the face of the earth.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we're gonna go nuts, just so you know. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: the very same thing struck me talking about the strikes

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Speaker 3: conducted by US and British forces supported by other allies

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Speaker 3: that targeted radar and air defense systems of the Huti

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Speaker 3: rebels based in Yemen. There they've been attacking shipping in

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Speaker 3: the area in the Gulf seventy three strikes, hundreds and

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Speaker 3: hundreds of missiles and bombs and that sort of thing.

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Speaker 3: To what extent did we do any damage? Will it

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Speaker 3: escalate the fight. All sorts of questions to ask and

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Speaker 3: a great guy to ask him to Doctor Jeff mccoslm

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Speaker 3: CBS News military consultant joins us, Jeff, how are you, sir?

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Speaker 4: Doing very well? But a busy day to say the least.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd say so. Was that a big punch in

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Speaker 2: the nose? Like really a no, no, We're serious? Or

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Speaker 2: not so much? Where does it rank in terms of

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Speaker 2: the amount of force it that that demonstration was yesterday?

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Speaker 4: Those significant response, There's no two ways about it. I mean,

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Speaker 4: there's nothing like, you know, a whole bunch of cruise

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Speaker 4: missiles and F eighteen strikes landing your backyard to get

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Speaker 4: your attention. And you also have to look at in

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Speaker 4: relative terms. You know, Yemen is a very very poor country.

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Speaker 4: He's been involved in a war with Saudi Arabia since

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Speaker 4: twenty fourteen. Was labeled prior to the war in Ukraine

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Speaker 4: and the war in the Gaza as the largest humanitarian

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Speaker 4: disaster on the planet Earth, with well over half of

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Speaker 4: the popular being male norrish people involved in starvation. But

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Speaker 4: why the government of Yemen once right now to pick

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Speaker 4: a fight with not only the United States? I think

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Speaker 4: it's important underscore this is a fight with the international community.

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Speaker 4: Why the government who should be looking after the population

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Speaker 4: want to do this right now is beyond me.

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Speaker 3: And I get Iran's motivation in wanting to constantly portray

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Speaker 3: themselves as the other power in the Mid East for

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Speaker 3: their own purposes, but as you point out, I can't

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Speaker 3: imagine what the Hoosies think is in it for them

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Speaker 3: unless it's purely a case of Iran said, look, if

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Speaker 3: you want continued financing, you're going to do this for us.

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Speaker 4: Well, there's that. There's a certain motivation based on the

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Speaker 4: Palestinian cause, there's no two ways about that. Yet, Palestinians,

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Speaker 4: there's the inception of Israel nineteen twenty eight apply to

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Speaker 4: the Palestinians does resonate with the Arab populations all across

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Speaker 4: the region. There's no two ways about that. But also

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Speaker 4: I have to agree with you. I think in many

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Speaker 4: ways what we're seeing is this power game. Largely the

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Speaker 4: conduct by Iran Yemen is a proxy of Iran. Doesn't

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Speaker 4: mean Iran has completely control over the Yemen So there's

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Speaker 4: really a large control over them, and the military power

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Speaker 4: they have is derived from Iran and Iran is willing

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Speaker 4: to fight to the last Yemeny, the last Palestinian, the

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Speaker 4: last Elevenese because hits the law and the Lebanons involved

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Speaker 4: the last Rocky, They're willing to fight to the last

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Speaker 4: one of them. I'm not quite so sure that Iran

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Speaker 4: itself wants to get into a direct confrontation or direct

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Speaker 4: conflict with the United States and more broadly the Western communities.

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Speaker 2: But we keep saying you better stop, you better stop,

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Speaker 2: and they don't. So what would if they if they don't,

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Speaker 2: if they continue to not stop, if they continue to

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Speaker 2: attack the shipping lanes, what would be the next step.

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Speaker 4: The next step would be a larger scale bombing attack.

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Speaker 4: And I think over time we can render their ability

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Speaker 4: to conduct these kind of attacks pretty much in non

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Speaker 4: existent because obviously, though they have a snificant military force,

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Speaker 4: it's not an overwhelming military force number one, nothing like

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Speaker 4: the United States can bring to bear. Certainly, they haven't

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Speaker 4: got the air defense networks or counter air aircraft that

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Speaker 4: can interrupt our air strikes. So we can make life

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Speaker 4: put pretty dog on visible for them and their ability

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Speaker 4: to conduct these picture strikes. I don't see at this moment,

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Speaker 4: at least a need for the United States to coming

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Speaker 4: on the ground in Yemen. So I don't think that

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Speaker 4: is a possibility, but the moment we could see ratcheting

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Speaker 4: up of escalation. Certainly, the rhetoric coming out of Yemen

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Speaker 4: right now has been not afraid of American That's pretty typical.

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Speaker 4: Whether that then translates into a subsequent military strike, that's

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Speaker 4: another question.

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Speaker 1: Jeff.

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Speaker 3: You're a very measured commentator, which we appreciate, so I'm

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Speaker 3: going to ask this in a measured way. As you

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Speaker 3: have observed the foreign policies of administrations that have come

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Speaker 3: and gone through the years, does it strike you that

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Speaker 3: this one is pretty reticent to protect to project American

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Speaker 3: power around on the globe compared with others.

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Speaker 4: I wouldn't say reticence so much. I would say measured

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Speaker 4: or came o't be the right word. There is a

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Speaker 4: very big concern in this administration about the possibility of escalation,

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Speaker 4: and we have to look at the conflict beginning with

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Speaker 4: the war in Iran in Ukraine really and I think

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Speaker 4: in this particular case, there was a concern at the

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Speaker 4: very beginning that that war could spiral very quickly into

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Speaker 4: a confrontation between the United States and Russia. Which could

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Speaker 4: then bring on the consequences of a nuclear confrontation or

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Speaker 4: a nuclear catastrophe, something you need to think about very

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Speaker 4: hard and not be very reckless about. In the case

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Speaker 4: of the war in Gaza, certainly what the administration has

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Speaker 4: been trying to do, and some might say they have

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Speaker 4: faulted too much on being less active than they should

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Speaker 4: have been, is send out a large amount of military

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Speaker 4: power and don't forget when the war in Gaza starts out,

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Speaker 4: what's the first thing that happened. We have two carrier

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Speaker 4: battle groups immediately dispatched the region. We double the number

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Speaker 4: of combat aircraft in the region. We put an awful lot

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Speaker 4: of military power out there, basically to say don't get involved,

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Speaker 4: do not get involved. Now, one can say, well, that

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Speaker 4: didn't work, because we have seen the Hooti's attack, We

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Speaker 4: have seen huts a law attack and the like. But

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Speaker 4: one can only imagine what it might have transpired if,

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Speaker 4: in fact, you hadn't put that much military power out there.

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Speaker 4: And that being said again, in the response to the

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Speaker 4: Hooti that has been very measured in terms of, first

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Speaker 4: of all, a strategy of deterrence through denial. We're going

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Speaker 4: to shoot your missiles down and show you that it's worthless.

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Speaker 4: It's a waste of time and money for you to

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Speaker 4: launch these missiles, but we're gonna shoot them all down. Well,

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Speaker 4: now de terres by denial just hasn't worked. So now

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Speaker 4: we're going to the next step, which is to turns

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Speaker 4: through punishment. You keep doing this, We're going to punish you.

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Speaker 4: So long way to perhaps response. But I think what

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Speaker 4: they've tried to do is walk that tightrope of being

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Speaker 4: responsive to the event, trying to deter expansion of violence

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Speaker 4: and escalation, while at the same time reserving the possibility

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Speaker 4: of greater effort. And finally, I think what they've also

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Speaker 4: tried to do is cloak all their efforts in international consequence.

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Speaker 4: This is an international response. United Kingdom was involved, the

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Speaker 4: Dutch were involved, Bahrain was involved, Australia was involved, Cana

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Speaker 4: was involved. This is an international response to Houthis. In

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Speaker 4: like fashion, the response to the Russians has been that

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Speaker 4: concerted ef provided administration to bring together NATO and a

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Speaker 4: whole bunch of countries in response to the Russian aggression

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Speaker 4: in Ukraine. So they've also wanted an international response these

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Speaker 4: crisis as opposed to the United States operating unilaterally.

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Speaker 2: Would you guess that this was delayed in any way

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Speaker 2: or altered any way by the Secretary of Defense being

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Speaker 2: in the hospital and all that confusion of last week.

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Speaker 4: No, I don't think that flowed. The decision to making

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Speaker 4: the tipping point was Monday, when you had this very large,

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Speaker 4: complex attack by the Houthis of over two dozen missiles,

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Speaker 4: drones and a ship missiles, one of which was fired

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Speaker 4: very close to a ux flag vessel full of jet fuel.

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Speaker 4: I think that was the tipping point. But this has

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Speaker 4: been coming for some period of time. I'm sure Pentagon

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Speaker 4: planners have been dusting off target list over Yemen. I'm

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Speaker 4: sure there's been a whole bunch of intel drone flights

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Speaker 4: and satellite imagery over Yemen. I'm sure there's been a

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Speaker 4: repositioning of aircraft and the repositioning of the Eisenhower Task

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Speaker 4: Force and preparation. There's been preparing to do this for

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Speaker 4: quite some period of time. But the Secretary of Health

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Speaker 4: challenge is it's just unfortunate that is transpiring in the

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Speaker 4: Middle List. I'm sure for the administration it's just one

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Speaker 4: more thing that they really don't need right now.

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Speaker 3: Last question, for Jeff mccauslan and CBS News military consultant, Jeff,

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Speaker 3: I'm told that the Huthis are fond like camases, of

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Speaker 3: hiding their military assets and civilian centers and civilian facilities

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Speaker 3: like hospitals and schools. Is that what you've heard as well?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, that's that's decidedly the case. That being said, the

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Speaker 4: type of things we're talking about in this case, unlike ams,

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Speaker 4: which we're talking about fighters or you know, conventional ammunition

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Speaker 4: or anti tank weapons or whatever, you can hide that,

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Speaker 4: you know, hiding a cruise missile amongst the population, move

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Speaker 4: an interet, hiding a radar, many of which are fixed

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Speaker 4: as opposed to mobile amongst the civilian population. That comes

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Speaker 4: back to that, Well I said you before. This is

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Speaker 4: a country that is backed by unbelievable humanitarian crises. People

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Speaker 4: are literally starving to death. So how can anyone imagine

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Speaker 4: a government which was looking out for its population would

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Speaker 4: decide the best thing for us to do is pick

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Speaker 4: a fight with not only the superpower of the planet,

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Speaker 4: let's pick a fight with the entire international community over

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Speaker 4: an issue which surely doesn't affect us directly at all.

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Speaker 3: Boy, Well said, Well said Jeffer Coslain, CBS News Jeff

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Speaker 3: thanks million for the time.

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Speaker 4: Take care, guys,