According to the full texts published by The Atlantic between U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, their main concern in targeting the Houthis in Yemen to relieve the blockade on the Red Sea was that it would benefit Europe. By bailing out Europe, Vance and Hegseth were implying that Europe benefited for free from US protection.
The previous attacks against the Houthis took place in January of last year, and were conducted in collaboration with the British, who launched their fighter-jets from Cyprus to target the Houthis along with US jets. The feature image shows a British fighter-jet leaving Cyprus for Yemen in January last year.
Recently, Vice-President JD Vance also echoed similar sentiments in an interview saying that Europe would never come to the defense of the US in case of a war. Europeans fought alongside US soldiers in the war in Afghanistan, with hundreds of European soldiers, mainly British, killed in action. British and Spanish soldiers also fought alongside US troops in Iraq.
Europe also hosts many US bases which are occasionally used specifically and exclusively for US interests such as Ramstein Air Base in Germany which was crucial to transport US forces to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Most NATO-members, which are European, have purchased most of their arms from the US with US weapons exports to Europe more than doubling since 2015, but this is about to change as Europe redirects its expenditure to its own defence industries.
The Defense Secretary launched a tirade of insults at The Atlantic and its editor for leaking his chats.
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