An "easy" response against the houthis would not be particularly effective -- lob a bunch of cruise missiles at them, which would be more annoying than anything

An "easy" response against the houthis would not be particularly effective -- lob a bunch of cruise missiles at them, which would be more annoying than anything else. An "effective" response would be the full shock-and-awe treatment -- wiping out their air defense, followed by a massive bombing campaign that destroys their ability to fight. Then -- what next? Yemen's in the middle of a civil war as it is... does the US then have a responsibility to stabilize it to prevent a humanitarian crisis? And then how does Iran react? Do we have to get into war with Iran, too? And then presumably hezbollah would launch a war against Israel.