Opinion | Iran and the Houthis Don’t Get Biden’s Message

President Biden said on the weekend that he had sent a private message to Iran to stop aiding the Houthi attacks on shipping in the Middle East. Apparently it was lost in translation. Iran’s Houthi proxy militia keeps firing missiles at U.S. ships, and two Navy SEALs are missing at sea after a mission to seize Iranian-made missile parts bound for the Houthis.

Mr. Biden’s spokesmen are at pains to say the U.S. doesn’t want war with the Houthis or Iran, but it sure looks like they’re at war with the U.S. On Monday the Houthis fired an antiship missile at a U.S.-flagged containership, and on Tuesday they launched a missile that hit a Maltese-flagged ship. The Maltese ship was able to keep sailing, but the episode shows that neither the Houthis nor Iran have been deterred by last week’s U.S. salvos against Houthi arms caches and missile launchers.