"The power to destroy a thing is the absolute control over it."

The late-stage Globalist American Empire (GAE) finds itself beset by intractable conflicts on four fronts--Ukraine, Israel/Palestine, the Levant/Syraq, and now the shores of Yemen.

In southeastern Ukraine, Russia shows no signs of stopping its slow-grind along the entire front line with remorseless attrition of Ukrainian troops and NATO-provided equipment. Despite painful losses to their own forces, the Russians are slowly grinding forward in the Donbass, confident that they will prevail in a protracted war of attrition that Washington is willing to fight "to the last Ukrainian" soldier.

In the Holy Land, the Israeli Defense Forces backed by the U.S. and its allies push forward through the rubble of Gaza, with significant losses of IDF armor and infantry to Hamas RPG and IED ambushes. Along Israel's northern border with Lebanon, Israelis by the tens of thousands have been evacuated to avoid incoming Hezbollah rockets, with the northern front continuing to boil, even as Hezbollah holds back its most powerful troops and missiles.

In the Levant and Iraq, U.S. occupation troops find their bases under weekly and sometimes daily drone and rocket attacks. These attacks by Iranian-backed militias are said to be ineffective and U.S. casualties are reportedly low, but the legacy news media generally downplays the vulnerability of American bases taking another forever occupation as a given and definitely does not seek to interview any injured GIs. We are not in the Dubya Era back when the mainline media still pretended to care about the costs of America's wars and we have not been for several years now.

But it is in the Red Sea, along the approaches to the Gulf of Aqaba and the southern Israeli port of Eilat and the strategic Suez Canal, where the eyes of the world's shippers are turning. For here is where 10% of the world's crude oil tanker traffic passes, here is where Egypt's nationalization of the Canal under Gamal Abdel Nasser prompted one of the last gasp invasions of the British Empire under its own name, in 1956. And here is where the Houthis, a collection of hardy Shi'a Muslim tribesmen armed and trained by Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, have defied first the U.S.-backed Saudi Kingdom for eight long years, and now they're defying the entire "rules-based order". Attacking Norwegian and other Western-flagged ships they say were bound for Israeli ports, the Houthis demand the post-West force Israel to stop attacking Gaza and permit humanitarian aid flow to the Palestinian civilians there. So is this a textbook definition of terrorism? Committed by a non-state actor with more supersonic anti-ship missiles than the vast majority of countries on this planet posses? Are the Houthis cat's paws of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its Russian and Chinese Eurasian Axis allies, seeking to provoke the U.S. into further over-extending itself? We report, you decide.

What's clear is that as of this week the Biden Administration and Pentagon have announced a multinational coalition, notable for the absence of many key Arab and Muslim country allies--above all Egypt--that intends to escort ships through the Bab al Mandeb (in Arabic, "The Gate of Tears" or "Gate of Grief") route to the Suez Canal zone. How long this open-ended mission can last and draw U.S. warships to the region, is limited only by the Houthis intransigence and Iran's ability to continue smuggling anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles to its Hezbollah and Yemeni allies. The sea smuggling route from Iran past the Gulf of Oman and the Yemeni coast on the Arabian Sea is a highly porous route, trafficked by dhows and small merchant vessels alike. It is impossible for the US even with extensive support from its allies to stop this traffic, especially when the missiles are coming in pieces placed among ordinary containers.

Empires by definition are about control over strategic trade routes. Whether by land or by sea, all great empires since the Axial Age and perhaps even before recorded history have risen and fallen when control has been lost. In Frank Herbert's 1965 masterpiece novel Dune the Galactic Empire that rules the known Universe is fueled by a single vital commodity, the Spice Mélange. The Spice is found on only one desolate desert planet, Arrakis--also known as Dune. The heroes of the story House Atreides led by Duke Leto and later his son Paul are ordered by the Padishah Emperor to take control over Arrakis from their mortal enemies, the Harkonnens. But the Harkonnens in conspiracy with the Emperor have laid the immense wealth of the Spice out as a trap for the Atreides.

Paul's father Leto is murdered and Paul is forced to flee into the Arrakis deep desert with his mother Jessica, a Bene Gesserit-trained superwoman. Together they find refuge with the Fremen, a tough and war-like desert people who have been oppressed by Arrakis' rulers for centuries. Paul and Jessica take advantage of a centuries-old Bene Gesserit-planted prophecy about the Voice from the Outer World leading the Fremen to true freedom. They lead the Fremen to revolt against the Harkonnens, waging ruthless guerrilla warfare against the Harkonnen and their Spice mining. As depicted above in the scenes from David Lynch 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert's novel, all Spice production under Harkonnen rule comes to a grinding halt. The Emperor is forced to re-send his dreaded Sardaukar legions to Arrakis to suppress the Fremen and assassinate Paul. But the young Atreides shakes the entire Universe by leading his Fremen to defeat the Sardaukar and force the captured Emperor to capitulate.

The Houthis, whose IRGC-inspired slogan is "Death to America, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews, victory for Islam!" are clearly not the Fremen. Nor can Egyptian Muslims, however much they may sympathize with the Palestinians, be happy with the added hardships the disruption of the Suez route is imposing on their country, which relies on the Canal for its economic lifeblood. That being said, the cycles of Great Empires weakening then being toppled by Barbarian invasions flooding their frontiers and pillaging their merchant ships are so well-established, Islamic, Chinese and Western historians have all noticed the pattern in the preceding centuries. So take note North Americans, the opportunist attacks of the Houthis and the consequent greater expense and weakening of global maritime trade are signals that we are much closer to the fall of the Globalist American Empire (GAE) than previously anticipated. Another signal that it's time to start planning your ExitStrategy.