Pentagon Press Secretary Parnell Asked If Troops Will Be Sent To Yemen After Houthi Strikes

2 days ago

At a Pentagon Press briefing on Monday, Pentagon Press Secretary Sean Parnell spoke about US strikes against the Houthis and was asked if US troops would be sent to Yemen.

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Transcript

00:00I just want to follow up on what you just said.

00:03Sure.

00:04You said that there needs to be a clear end state.

00:06And I know the goal is to have the Houthis stop their attacks, but what is the end state?

00:10What happens if the Houthis don't stop their attacks or don't agree to say they'll stop

00:14their attacks?

00:15It doesn't seem like there is a clear end state, that this could just go on and on.

00:19Well, in fairness, I mean, it's a great question, but in fairness, the operation's only been

00:23going on for 48 hours.

00:25And the President and Secretary have been very clear on this, that the Houthis can determine

00:30when this ends.

00:31And until then, the campaign will be unrelenting until we, one, protect our homeland, and two,

00:40open up the shipping lanes there, so make sure that we have freedom of maneuver in that

00:43area.

00:44But, General, you have something to add?

00:47I mean, what I might add is, while we won't talk about it publicly, just know that there

00:51is a design to the operation.

00:53There are specific effects that we're trying to achieve, and there are specific targets

00:56that have been selected and approaches that we're taking in order to achieve the President's

01:00end state.

01:01So it isn't that we're just striking capabilities.

01:03There's an intent behind every strike and every target that we go after.

01:06To that point, what is – you mentioned that this is not like it was before.

01:09So what is different about the targeting that you're doing this time that wasn't true

01:13under the Biden administration?

01:14Yeah, I'll give the short answer to that, and again, without going into too many operational

01:19details for security reasons.

01:21But it's a much broader set of targets that we've been able to action in this case.

01:25And the other key difference is the delegation of authorities from the President through

01:29Secretary Hegseth down to the operational commander.

01:31So that allows us to achieve a tempo of operations where we can react to opportunities that we

01:35see on the battlefield in order to continue to put pressure on the Houthis.

01:39Thank you very much.

01:41Will this operation include sending ground troops into Yemen?

01:45If so, how do you achieve your objective of making them say enough without sending

01:51ground troops?

01:52Well, I'll tell you, it's very difficult, if not impossible, for us to talk about forced

01:57posture from this podium, because as a commander who's been on the battlefield, it's very,

02:02very important to keep the enemy guessing, keep your adversaries guessing.

02:07Now, that's not to say that we've got ground troops in Yemen.

02:11And that's not to say that we're sending ground troops in, but it's difficult to talk about

02:16that stuff for operational security reasons from the podium, but generally, you have anything

02:20to add?

02:21No, nothing to add to that.

02:22I think that's exactly right.

02:23John, can I follow up on that?

02:24You said that one of the things that you were waiting to do for the BDA was sensitive site

02:27exploitation.

02:28Does that include U.S. boots on the ground or any kind of American personnel on the ground

02:32to do that?

02:33I can't talk about that stuff from the podium, but we have ways of conducting sensitive site

02:39exploitations without ground troops on the ground.

02:43Yeah, it does not always require boots on the ground, and I'll just leave it at that.

02:47General, could I also ask you also about if there's any U.S. military assessment?

02:51I know that BDA is ongoing, but is there any military assessment about how much of the

02:55Houthis' capabilities were degraded by these first couple of rounds?

02:59And can you say anything, the President's truth social mentioned going after leaders,

03:03which seems to be one of the things that's different here.

03:05Can you say anything about any of the leaders that were targeted here?

03:08Yeah, on the second part of the question, I'll just go to my opening statement where

03:12I mentioned that there was an unmanned aerial vehicle facility that was struck with several

03:16key leaders.

03:17Those were key individuals who led their unmanned aerial vehicle enterprise and were some of

03:21the technical experts in there.

03:22So think those types of individuals that we might be targeting as part of the command

03:26and control.

03:27And so we have destroyed command and control facilities, weapons manufacturing facilities,

03:34and advanced weapons storage locations.

03:37But again, this campaign is ongoing, it's difficult to talk about all this stuff from

03:40the podium, and we're not going to say anything from the podium until we're 100 percent sure

03:44that we have it right.

03:45I've got time for one more question.

Pentagon Press Secretary Parnell Asked If Troops Will Be Sent To Yemen After Houthi Strikes

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