Shortly after America had achieved its independence from Great Britain, the new nation confronted a threat from the Ottoman provinces of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli. Beginning in 1784, raiders from these statelets along the Barbary coast, known as the Barbary Pirates, would attack American merchant shipping, capturing sailors for whom they initially extorted ransom and subsequently protection money in the form of tribute from the U.S.
For 15 years, American merchant ships were victims of unceasing harassment. American attempts to negotiate a ransom arrangement that would put an end to what was effectively state-sponsored terrorism met with no success. As a result, in 1801, President Thomas Jefferson, elected the previous year, determined to no longer coddle the Barbary rulers.
Backed by manpower and materiel from the Kingdom of Naples, America went to war against the Barbary states. By 1805, a series of American naval victories culminated in the Battle of Derna — fought by a combined force of newly commissioned American ships, marines and foreign mercenaries — and led to a peace treaty with the ruler of Tripoli.
Algiers, on the other hand, continued to harass American shipping until the U.S. went to war against that Barbary state and defeated its forces in 1815. Nevertheless, although the Dey (ruler) of Algiers signed a peace treaty with Washington, he soon renounced it. Algerian pirates continued to attack American and European shipping until a joint Anglo-Dutch force bombarded Algiers in 1816. Once again, the Dey signed a treaty with the U.S. — one he did not renounce. His capitulation finally brought an end to the conflict.
Two centuries after the Barbary Wars, America is once again fighting a war overseas to protect its shipping, as well as that of its allies and friends. The Houthis are today’s Barbary Pirates.
The Houthis only differ from their predecessors in that they have not yet attempted to seize American captives for ransom. Their attacks have forced the vast majority of shipping that normally transits the Red Sea instead to sail around Africa, lengthening shipping timetables and increasing costs.
The Biden administration’s halting and intermittent efforts to attack Houthi targets proved to be no more successful than the various American attempts to negotiate a ransom arrangement with the Barbary states. Moreover, just as the pirates were essentially an extension of their North African rulers, so too are the Houthis deeply beholden to Iran for training and materiel support. Yet in contrast to Jefferson’s determination not only to defend shipping against the pirates but to attack their sponsors, Washington until this week avoided even threatening Iran.
The Houthis had halted their attacks on naval forces and commercial shipping in the Red Sea while the Israeli-Hamas truce held. But the Yemeni group resumed its attacks once Israel again launched air strikes on Gaza.
The American response has been swift and wide-ranging. On March 15, American carrier-based aircraft struck more than 30 targets that, according to the Pentagon, included “terrorist training sites … weapons manufacturing capabilities and weapons storage facilities … [and] a number of command and control centers, including a terrorist compound” where “several senior Houthi unmanned aerial vehicle experts were located.”
The following day, a second series of strikes hit headquarters locations, more weapons storage facilities and Houthi detection capabilities that targeted shipping. Moreover, U.S. Central Command made it clear that these attacks would be intense and continuous rather than intermittent.
Finally, President Trump explicitly identified Iran as a potential American target should Tehran continue to support the Houthis. He stated that Iran would “suffer the consequences” if Houthi attacks continued and, in his inimitable style, emphasized that “America will hold you fully accountable and we won’t be nice about it.”
The Houthis have asserted that they will not be cowed by the U.S. strikes and will continue to attack Red Sea shipping. And Tehran has rejected Trump’s threats. It seems likely that American maritime forces will have to maintain the tempo of their attacks for quite some time if the Houthis are to show any signs of backing down.
It should be noted that Saudi and Emirati efforts to help defeat the Houthis lasted seven years and ultimately did not succeed. Hopefully, the American operation will not last that long or, for that matter, as long as it took the Jefferson and Madison administrations to defeat the Barbary Pirates.
At some point, however, Trump may find that just as his predecessors were only able to defeat the pirates when they finally chose to attack their state sponsors, he too will only be able to defeat the Houthis if he goes beyond merely threatening the state that has long supported them.
Dov S. Zakheim is a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and vice chairman of the board for the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He was undersecretary of Defense (comptroller) and chief financial officer for the Department of Defense from 2001 to 2004 and a deputy undersecretary of Defense from 1985 to 1987.
