A "small ship" would be defensive only, and may not be capable of dealing with some of the missiles used by the houthi. A great way to waste time, money, and effort for no real assurance of safety. Sort of like being willing to hire bodyguards for every time you go downtown, instead of cleaning up the city of brigands.

But what "small ship" are you thinking of? Our smallest warship is the Frigate, but all the Frigates have been decommissioned. The next up is a Destroyer of which we have 73. But at a displacement of ~9,000 tons, they are still pretty big. It's like your best defense against a thorn bush is band-aids, instead of a shovel.

Sometimes, you have to set out hunters to kill the man-eating lion.

The stakes are higher.... international trade and commerce. The take down of rogue state sponsored terrorists. Cabal sponsored mayhem "Draining the Swamp"

Maybe you didn't understand this part...

The last American Warship to go through the Red Sea, four months ago, was attacked by the Houthis over a dozen times. Funded by Iran, the Houthi thugs have fired missiles at U.S. aircraft, and targeted our Troops and Allies.

Wrong.