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The U.S. Navy commander who oversaw much of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group’s eight-month deployment in the Red Sea said his officers had proposed more aggressive attacks against the Houthis but that Navy leaders had rejected the idea.
“There is a clear strategy that has been proposed, but the national military command has decided that it does not want to challenge what it calls a more aggressive posture or a more aggressive attack,” Miguez said in an interview published Monday.
“Everybody knows that Iranian-backed groups like the Houthis are the source of that threat,” he said. “That’s the calculation that’s being addressed at the high command, at national command, at the National Security Agency and all the other organizations.”
“That’s something I don’t get involved in,” he added.
Miguez told Carroll that the carrier strike group conducted seven concentrated strikes against Houthi targets during two extended deployments from October 2023 to June 2024.
The group, which includes the aircraft carrier USS Ike, was previously reported to have intercepted rebel drones and missiles attacking commercial ships in the Yemeni Strait and fired more than 500 rounds of ammunition directly at Yemeni rebels.
Since the withdrawal of the Eisenhower group, the Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln carrier strike groups have been moved to the Middle East amid rising tensions in the region.
Miguez said he thought the United States should take a more aggressive stance against the Houthis.
“Going forward, we’re going to have to continue to address this issue,” he said. “It’s going to be up to our national command authorities to perhaps be more aggressive, using not just the Navy, but our strike groups and all of our assets.”
The Houthis claim that they are only targeting ships with ties to Israel in the Gaza war, but they have also attacked ships of other countries that have no apparent ties to Tel Aviv.
Recently, the rebels Greek oil tanker caught on fire And drifted into the Red Sea.
Miguez said the United States needed to be more aggressive in mobilizing all of its resources, including diplomatic and economic policy, to thwart attacks.
“If we can get that focus across government, I think we will see freedom of navigation in this critical strait that affects about 20 percent of the world’s commerce,” he said.
Miguez was appointed chief of the Navy’s legislative affairs department in July.
Since retiring as commander of the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, he has been vocal about the need for the U.S. to step up counter-drone training, after seeing widespread use of drones by the Houthis in the Red Sea.
The Pentagon’s public affairs office did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside of regular business hours.