Yemen: The War That Isn’t Happening

[JackLuis]

July 14, 2017
Yemen: The War That Isn’t Happening Even as It’s Happening

The manipulation of news and the distortion of reality are the most powerful weapons in the hands of power. They can make a whole reality disappear.

Yemen’s, for example.

Saudi Arabia, backed by the US and Britain, began bombing Yemen, the poorest country in the region, on 23 March 2015—without a Security Council resolution, as has been the tradition for launching western wars since Bill Clinton’s 1999 Kosovo War (the bombing of Serbia).

The stated objective of the Anglo-American backing of the Saudi attack was the restoration of Yemen’s US-supported government of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi’s, which fled to Saudi Arabia under the mounting pressure of the Houthi Shia rebels, accused by the United States of being pawns of Iran, or, dismissively, plain Iran-supported.

Boggles the mind to think of the blithe moral logic that justifies the support of the United States for a (largely faked) uprising in Syria when Iran is not allowed to assist Houthis in Yemen, fighting an authentic civil war, unlike the so-called Free Syrian Army and their hordes of 80% foreign al-Qaeda and Isis allied invaders of Syria’s sovereign state in 2011.

American and her allies make money on supplying the Saudi's the means to impoverish an nation.

Out of 27 million people in Yemen, 20 million are food-insecure, famished in other words. Wael Ibrahim refers to statistics released by UN and other agencies:

“As the conflict goes on I’m seeing more and more poverty. There are 20 million people needing help in a population of 27 million people. I’ve seen famine-like conditions such as children with red streaks in their hair – a sign of malnutrition, and an alarming number of people at therapeutic feeding centres.”

America, bring freedom and liberty to the world, one bomb at a time!

 

[ChloeTzang]

I don't think too many people here know anything about Yemen, Jack, and I include myself in that. Maybe Pilot does? All I know is there's a civil war going on and that's about it. Are we involved in that one as well?

 

[JackLuis]

I don't think too many people here know anything about Yemen, Jack, and I include myself in that. Maybe Pilot does? All I know is there's a civil war going on and that's about it. Are we involved in that one as well?

Haven't you read the stories of Obama's droneing the shit out of Yemen for the last ~5 years? Didn't you read about the Trumpian raid that cost us millions of dollars and killed a Seal and yielded a few worthless hard drives?

What do you think the Saudis are doing with the $100 Millions in weapons we've sold them in the last couple of years?

Read the British or German press or even Al-Jazz, that will give you a better view of the twisted outlook we get from the American MSM.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Haven't you read the stories of Obama's droneing the shit out of Yemen for the last ~5 years? Didn't you read about the Trumpian raid that cost us millions of dollars and killed a Seal and yielded a few worthless hard drives?

What do you think the Saudis are doing with the $100 Millions in weapons we've sold them in the last couple of years?

Read the British or German press or even Al-Jazz, that will give you a better view of the twisted outlook we get from the American MSM.

No no and no. Guess I'll go looking. British press? I read the Daily Mail but I've never seen more than the odd mention of Yemen. Thx

 

[JackLuis]

No no and no. Guess I'll go looking. British press? I read the Daily Mail but I've never seen more than the odd mention of Yemen. Thx

Do read the opposition press a bit to see what the real world i like. Never get all your news from one viewpoint. Try the Guardian, it's not as slanted as the Daily Mail.

Read Matt Taibi, he's not establishment.

Read Pravda for a hoot. Try the Bangkok papers or the Manila papers some days.

For Islamic news: http://en.abna24.com/service/archive.html. Slanted as one might expect but a moderate English paper.

Read Wonkette to keep up with the leftists!

 

[DrDelirium]

This links to Colonel Pat Lang's blog which is primarily focused on the middle east. Besides Colonel Lang, there are a lot of ex-military contributors, and they are generally not fans of Trump, Obama, and the DC establishment in general. For some reality-based commentary on what's happening in the ME in general, this is a good place to start, with frequent links to a wide variety of sources.

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/

 

[DrDelirium]

For a rabidly patriotic Syrian perspective, this blog is useful. The author makes no pretense of impartiality, but his reporting is almost always accurate, and his analysis gives a good idea of how a really large number of Syrians see the conflict there.

https://syrianperspective.com/

Fars News is an Iranian outlet. Again, clearly partisan, but usually sound reporting on actual events. A helpful spot for keeping up on events in Yemen.

http://en.farsnews.com/

The 'Yemen Civil War' perspective is not particularly helpful for understanding the situation.
From Wikipedia, an outline of the current situation:
"Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi (‘Abdrabbuh Manṣūr Hādī; Arabic: عبدربه منصور هادي‎‎ Yemeni pronunciation: [ˈʕæbedˈrɑb.bu mænˈsˤuːr ˈhæːdi]; born 1 September 1945) is a Yemeni politician and former Yemen Armed Forces field marshal. He has been the President of Yemen since 27 February 2012, and was Vice President from 1994 to 2012.[1]

Between 4 June and 23 September 2011, Hadi was the acting President of Yemen while Ali Abdullah Saleh was undergoing medical treatment in Saudi Arabia following an attack on the presidential palace during the 2011 Yemeni uprising.[2] On 23 November, he became Acting President again, after Saleh moved into a non-active role pending the presidential election "in return for immunity from prosecution". Hadi was "expected to form a national unity government and also call for early presidential elections within 90 days" while Saleh continued to serve as President in name only.[3] Mansour Hadi was chosen as a president for a two-year transitional period on February 21, 2012, in an election in which he was the only candidate. In January 2014 his mandate was extended for another year.[4] However, he remained in power after the expiration of his mandate.[5]

On 22 January 2015, Hadi resigned. Subsequently, the Houthis seized the presidential palace and placed him under virtual house arrest. A month later, he escaped to his hometown of Aden, rescinded his resignation, and denounced the Houthi takeover as an unconstitutional coup d'état. The Houthis named a Revolutionary Committee to assume the powers of the presidency, as well as the General People's Congress, Hadi's own political party.[6] On 25 March 2015, Hadi reportedly fled Yemen in a boat as Houthi forces advanced on Aden.[7] He arrived in Riyadh the next day, as Saudi Arabia began a bombing campaign in support of his government.[8] In September 2015, he returned to Aden as Saudi-backed government forces recaptured the city.[9]"

Hadi's legitimacy was always extremely thin, and is now non-existent. The current war is a Saudi invasion using mostly mercenaries and IS proxies. The US has provided intelligence and targeting info to the pro-Saudi forces, and attacked the anti-Hadi forces when they made successful missile attacks on Saudi warships off the coast. In the most general terms, US involvement is mostly part of the pro-Israel, anti-Iranian posture of the neocons.

 

[Yerkiddin]

We need to overrule Citizen's United.

Too much money in politics.

 

[DeYaKen]

No no and no. Guess I'll go looking. British press? I read the Daily Mail but I've never seen more than the odd mention of Yemen. Thx

The Daily Mail is the last place to look for objective reporting, even Wikipedia do not consider it to be a verifiable source. You would be better off looking at the Times, Telegraph or Guardian. The only one of those that is not behind a pay wall is The Guardian.

 

[DeYaKen]

For a rabidly patriotic Syrian perspective, this blog is useful. The author makes no pretense of impartiality, but his reporting is almost always accurate, and his analysis gives a good idea of how a really large number of Syrians see the conflict there.

https://syrianperspective.com/

Fars News is an Iranian outlet. Again, clearly partisan, but usually sound reporting on actual events. A helpful spot for keeping up on events in Yemen.

http://en.farsnews.com/

The 'Yemen Civil War' perspective is not particularly helpful for understanding the situation.
From Wikipedia, an outline of the current situation:
"Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi (‘Abdrabbuh Manṣūr Hādī; Arabic: عبدربه منصور هادي‎‎ Yemeni pronunciation: [ˈʕæbedˈrɑb.bu mænˈsˤuːr ˈhæːdi]; born 1 September 1945) is a Yemeni politician and former Yemen Armed Forces field marshal. He has been the President of Yemen since 27 February 2012, and was Vice President from 1994 to 2012.[1]

Between 4 June and 23 September 2011, Hadi was the acting President of Yemen while Ali Abdullah Saleh was undergoing medical treatment in Saudi Arabia following an attack on the presidential palace during the 2011 Yemeni uprising.[2] On 23 November, he became Acting President again, after Saleh moved into a non-active role pending the presidential election "in return for immunity from prosecution". Hadi was "expected to form a national unity government and also call for early presidential elections within 90 days" while Saleh continued to serve as President in name only.[3] Mansour Hadi was chosen as a president for a two-year transitional period on February 21, 2012, in an election in which he was the only candidate. In January 2014 his mandate was extended for another year.[4] However, he remained in power after the expiration of his mandate.[5]

On 22 January 2015, Hadi resigned. Subsequently, the Houthis seized the presidential palace and placed him under virtual house arrest. A month later, he escaped to his hometown of Aden, rescinded his resignation, and denounced the Houthi takeover as an unconstitutional coup d'état. The Houthis named a Revolutionary Committee to assume the powers of the presidency, as well as the General People's Congress, Hadi's own political party.[6] On 25 March 2015, Hadi reportedly fled Yemen in a boat as Houthi forces advanced on Aden.[7] He arrived in Riyadh the next day, as Saudi Arabia began a bombing campaign in support of his government.[8] In September 2015, he returned to Aden as Saudi-backed government forces recaptured the city.[9]"

Hadi's legitimacy was always extremely thin, and is now non-existent. The current war is a Saudi invasion using mostly mercenaries and IS proxies. The US has provided intelligence and targeting info to the pro-Saudi forces, and attacked the anti-Hadi forces when they made successful missile attacks on Saudi warships off the coast. In the most general terms, US involvement is mostly part of the pro-Israel, anti-Iranian posture of the neocons.

But the conflict has been going on a lot longer than that and Syria is one of the countries that have been fueling it. Hadi was seen as a Syrian puppet and the civil war started again when Syria was preoccupied with it's own war. The Saudi's are now involved in arming one side but Yemen is a diverse nation there is a substantial Christian community and they are on the opposite side to the Saudis. The US and Britain are now helping to arm a group fighting to suppress Christianity. Never mind, as long as there is money to be made.

 

[handysr]

Bullshit like this always pisses me off. I've seen some of the news but not followed it closely, and by reading different slanted viewpoints one can *almost* see a glimmer of the truth.

It's hard to believe that other countries are helping out as much as they can. Sure, there are true refugees there and people getting murdered by the scores, so why aren't the first world nations bending over backwards to help? Instead they help provide bombs and logistics.

These idiot muslim-majority countries will never stop fighting each other. That's all they know how to do, and their only goals in life are to kill more infidels, then die in the process of one so they can get their 72 Virginians.

But no... these other nations won't help the underdog escape, they will turn it into a way to make cash. Then maybe they will take some refugee-ish people and use them to overrun Europe now, and the US next.

 

[DrDelirium]

But the conflict has been going on a lot longer than that and Syria is one of the countries that have been fueling it. Hadi was seen as a Syrian puppet and the civil war started again when Syria was preoccupied with it's own war. The Saudi's are now involved in arming one side but Yemen is a diverse nation there is a substantial Christian community and they are on the opposite side to the Saudis. The US and Britain are now helping to arm a group fighting to suppress Christianity. Never mind, as long as there is money to be made.

You can go back as far as you like, I just found the Saleh/Hadi transition to be the clearest starting point for the current round of military invention. I don't claim to be an expert on Yemen, but I'm under the impression that Syrian involvement is largely a legacy of the time when the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen and Syria were both Soviet clients. In any case, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have both been extremely active meddlers in Yemen since before the British gave up their protectorate.

I'm not sure where your idea that Hadi was a Syrian puppet comes from. His predecessor, Salleh, was a Saudi puppet who had Saudi military help in attacking the Shia community in Yemen, and Hadi is currently a tool of the Saudis doing the same thing. The Syrians, meanwhile, are aligned with the anti-Al Qaeda, predominantly Shia Houthi movement against the Saudis and Hadi.

 

[JackLuis]

July 19, 2017
Yemen Policy is Creating More Terrorists

by Adil E. Shamoo - Bonnie Bricker

Just as the invasion of Iraq eventually produced the Islamic State (ISIS or IS), the killing of innocent Yemenis for no moral reason at all is providing a recruitment tool for terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East and Africa. And just as the Iraq invasion was predicated on a false claim of weapons of mass destruction, the war in Yemen rests on the bogus argument that Iranians are supporting terrorism in that country. In the first two years of the conflict in Yemen, the United States was not able to point to any evidence of Iranian weapons delivery to Yemen. Yet, the United States joined with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States with weapon sales, intelligence, and a U.S.-enforced naval blockade. Trump’s recent sale of arms to the Saudis was worth $125 billion.

The results of all this has been catastrophic. Take a look at the suffering of the Yemeni people in the past few years.