At the final hour, the Trump administration withdrew from a planned military operation against Houthi forces in Yemen — a decision that speaks to the enduring tension between intervention and restraint that has defined American foreign policy for generations. The Houthis, sensing the vacuum, have moved swiftly to claim strategic ground, while the Pentagon finds itself without consensus or clear direction. What unfolds in Yemen now is not merely a regional conflict but a test of whether American commitments in the Middle East carry the weight they once did.