James Clapper on U.S. Strikes in Yemen: The Objective Here Is to ‘Change the Behavior of the Houthis’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
BURNETT: “And director Clapper, the U.S. is threatening more strikes. Obviously, they’ve already used as reporting more than 150 munitions and struck more than 30 targets. Look, you’ve been there to make these sorts of major decisions. What’s going on behind the scenes right now?”
Clapper: “Well, I think right now they’re assessing the administration, and the National Security Council specifically is assessing the impacts of this first round of strikes. And, you know, the objective here, obviously, is to restore deterrence. That is to change the behavior of the Houthis, so they stop their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. Now, I doubt that this one round is going to do that, and they’re probably going to have to do some more of this, you know. And I don’t know what the threshold of pain is for the Houthis to stop. But this endears the Houthis to Yemenis witnessed the demonstrations in the street. There’s a domestic implication here for them they’re also paying attention to.”