Politico: Pentagon unhappy with Biden’s response to attacks on ships in the Red Sea
US military officials are disappointed with the reaction of President Joe Biden’s administration to the attacks against commercial vessels in the Red Sea, believing that the head of state underestimates the seriousness of the threat to US military forces in the region, Politico newspaper reported, citing unnamed sources in the government.
On Monday, the US military’s Central Command said commercial vessels in the Red Sea had been attacked four times overnight, with a US destroyer responding to their alert reports and shooting down three drones.
Pentagon officials and top administration officials, including Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan, said it could not be said with certainty that a U.S. warship was the target of the attacks. But four officials interviewed by the publication on condition of anonymity said US naval forces are “clearly under threat” in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf.
“If our ships see something coming towards them, they will see it as a threat and engage the target. It’s hard to imagine that ever happening to U.S. ships in the region,” an unnamed Pentagon official said.
Another official said the Biden administration is deliberately downplaying the seriousness of the threat in the Red Sea to avoid escalation in a “region on the brink of conflict” over the situation surrounding Israel and Palestine. Meanwhile, interlocutors agree that the increase in attacks on commercial vessels is already an escalation in itself.