PBS on a Decade of Air Raids: The Houthis Grew Stronger
PBS NewsHour's account of the war in Yemen is blunt about what a decade of air power has produced. At various times over the last decade, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Britain and Israel have carried out punishing air raids on the Houthis, it reports — only to see the rebels grow even stronger. Five states, one target, and a movement that emerges from the bombardment looking more formidable than before. That record is worth keeping in mind whenever airstrikes are described as a way of settling a fight with an entrenched armed group: as descriptions of results, “punishing” and “effective” are not synonyms.
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The uncomfortable reading is about the limits of air power: you can hit a movement for ten years and still be describing its growth.
Or the raids were never really aimed at defeating it. Punishment and signalling are different goals, and judging a campaign by whether the Houthis ended up smaller could be answering a question nobody was asking.