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Shi'ite coup in Yemen

dudalb said:
Hell, even if you had a decent Government, Yemen would not exactly be a wonderful country to live in. Some countries are just screwed by nature,and Yemen is one of them. Think of the Sun's Anvil from Lawrence of Arabia,and you ahve what most of Yemen is like.
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Not at all. Yemen gets the Indian Ocean monsoon in the mountains; the Sun's Anvil is over the mountains in the rain-shadow and it's a godforsaken wasteleand up there. Yemen is Sheba. It's had sophisticated water-management for four thousand years and of course was a major player in Indian Ocean trade.

This is the tragedy of it. The place could be wonderful. Instead some of the earliest TV news I can remember concerned British soldiers getting shot at in Aden in the middle of a civil war. It hasn't fared well since.
 
Yemen, Ukraine, and the Hypocrisy of ‘Aggression’

Eric Draitser said:
The military intervention in Yemen by a US-backed coalition of Arab states will undoubtedly inflame the conflict both in Yemen, and throughout the region. It is likely to be a protracted war involving many actors, each of which is interested in furthering its own political and geopolitical agenda.

However, it is the international reaction to this new regional war which is of particular interest; specifically, the way in which the United States has reacted to this undeniable aggression by its Gulf allies. While Washington has gone to great lengths to paint Russia’s reunification with Crimea and its limited support for the anti-Kiev rebels of eastern Ukraine as “aggression,” it has allowed that same loaded term to be completely left out of the narrative about the new war in Yemen.

So it seems that, according to Washington, aggression is not defined by any objective indicators: use of military hardware, initiation of hostilities, etc. Rather, the United States defines aggression by the relationship of a given conflict to its own strategic interests. In Crimea and Ukraine, Russia is the aggressor because, in defending its own interests and those of Russian people, it has acted against the perceived geopolitical interests of the US. While in Yemen, the initiation by Saudi Arabia and other US-backed countries of an unprovoked war with the expressed goal of regime change, this is not aggression as it furthers Washington’s interests. [...]
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Apparently so far 11 out of 22 provinces have been the targets of bombing by that fine "coalition" of despots to restore democracy. Targets seem to be general infrastructure which belongs to the people of Yemen, not "the Houthis". Another case of bombing a country back to the stone age. A country that was already the poorest in the Arabian peninsula to begin with.
 
Childlike Empress said:
Saudi Arabia Launches Military Operations Against Houthi Targets in Yemen

:nope:
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The move is very understandable though, given Iran's instigation and support of the unnecessary violent war there that could have easily been solved politically. Saudi Arabia and the rest of the region can't just ignore Iran's violent imperialism.

I read reports that SA has already parachuted in troops South of Aden, and are getting ready to send in heavy armor and troops in the North, with Egyptian and more SA troops entering by sea in the South. Reportedly around 100,000 in all.

The key will be what Saleh's forces do. They (along with most of the Country) have never been major fans of the Houthis, and his interests would likely be best served by letting the SA continue to pound the crap out of the Houthi forces while they pick up the pieces when it is all over.

Given the large force against them, it would be unwise to support a violent Iranian led sectarian killing spree that the majority of the Country do not support or want.
 
Darth Rotor said:
It's been doing that for about 6000 years, perhaps more.
So what?
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Nuttin'

It was just a blanked statement about war being rather unpleasant anyway.

I'm currently listening to a pod-cast series about World War I.

I honestly don't think anything will really shock me after listening to the descriptions of those battlefields.
 
A'isha said:
Is it Dan Carlin's? Because if so, I'm currently listening to that too.
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Yes it is.

I've already worked my way through Wrath of the Kahns and Prophets of Doom.

That last one is fascinating due to the parallels to the current IS situation. up to and including using new media to attract "foreign fighters" to the cause. New media being the printing press in this case.

Now I'm on WW1, and I'm feeling....battered.

Due to the Netherlands staying neutral during this conflict, it is not really part of the public conciousness here. So I'm learning a lot about how devastating that thing really was.
 
Eddie Dane said:
Yes it is.

I've already worked my way through Wrath of the Kahns and Prophets of Doom.

That last one is fascinating due to the parallels to the current IS situation. up to and including using new media to attract "foreign fighters" to the cause. New media being the printing press in this case.

Now I'm on WW1, and I'm feeling....battered.

Due to the Netherlands staying neutral during this conflict, it is not really part of the public conciousness here. So I'm learning a lot about how devastating that thing really was.
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I think of his podcasts as a primer should you be interested in learning more. There's so much information out there but he gives you a very clear picture of it and cites his sources. I was astonished at how overlooked WW1 was as the war to end all wars, due to WW2 overshadowing it in atrocities, in my history classes besides that we went to war because Britain did as a Canadian.
 
Stacko said:
I think of his podcasts as a primer should you be interested in learning more. There's so much information out there but he gives you a very clear picture of it and cites his sources. I was astonished at how overlooked WW1 was as the war to end all wars, due to WW2 overshadowing it in atrocities, in my history classes besides that we went to war because Britain did as a Canadian.
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WW1 isn't overlooked in Australia, though among the less historically educated the Western Front often is.
 
Whether you like the Saudis or not (I am not keen on them) that is in their neighborhood and they care about what happens in their neighborhood. Likewise, a lot of European nations cared about what happened in their neighborhood, in the Former Yugoslavia.

As I am sure you are aware, Iran and Saudi Arabia are rivals for influence in the region. It is no surprise that they are having a proxy fight. Someone pushed. Someone pushed back. The pushing will continue until someone is tired of it.

The average Achmeds in Yemen will, as with a lot of small countries, get the shaft.
It is nothing new.
 
So apparently the "operation" is kind of over, and the Saudis "achieved their goals". Which must mean that they were planning to devastate infrastructure, terrorize the people with a thousand or so dead civilians, and enable Al Qaeda to take over more land while the Houthis were pretty much unimpressed and not stopped in their offensive.

The latest CrossTalk episode on the topic - before the recent news - is quite interesting:

 
Apparently, not yet. But they aren't going home (yet) either.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/04/23/iran-yemen-us-navy-warships/26264393/
The Iranian ships, which had been moving slowly toward Yemen's capital of Aden, are no longer steaming in that direction, Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters Thursday. It's too soon to tell if they are reversing course and heading back toward Iran, he said.

One photo shows the main Iranian supply ship with two stacks of metal shipping containers and what appears to be two smaller boats on its deck. Separate photos show other ships included a dhow, a smaller cargo boat used in the region. The U.S. Navy intercepted an Iranian dhow off Yemen two years ago and seized weapons that included Chinese-made, anti-aircraft missiles.
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Amazing how someone so "cynical" can be so naive on the other hand. But maybe the latter is the father of the former.
 
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/US-concerned-Iranian-ships-may-carry-arms-to-Yemen-398991 (I think the original source is Reuters)
Iranian naval and cargo ships that US officials feared was carrying arms to strife-torn Yemen sailed northeast in the direction of Iran on Friday, and this should ease US concerns, a Pentagon spokesman said.

The Iranian state news agency IRNA, however, quoted Iran's top navy commander, Admiral Habibollah Sayyari as saying on Saturday that the flotilla was still carrying out its mission in the Gulf of Aden.
...
On Friday, US Defense Secretary Ash Carter told a small group of journalists traveling with him after a trip to California: "The (Iranian) ships have turned around ... Obviously what their onward plans are, we don't know."

Iranian navy chief Sayyari told IRNA: "Currently the 34th fleet is located in the Gulf of Aden at the entrance to the Bab al-Mandab strait, and is conducting patrols" - a reference to two military ships that form part of the flotilla.
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So the games continue on the high seas.

Interesting to see Egypt and Saudi on the same side, in re Yemen, considering that 50 years ago they were on opposite sides of a war in Yemen.

Note for CE: the topic isn't other posters, it is Yemen. Please have the courtesy to stay on topic.
 
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Childlike Empress said:
So apparently the "operation" is kind of over, and the Saudis "achieved their goals". Which must mean that they were planning to devastate infrastructure, terrorize the people with a thousand or so dead civilians, and enable Al Qaeda to take over more land while the Houthis were pretty much unimpressed and not stopped in their offensive.
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The dark age penguins have basically just cynically renamed their operation to something with "hope" and resumed the destruction of the country. When will the "international community" tell them to stop? Patrick Cockburn on the situation that's literally threatening millions of lives: Yemen crisis: Terrified citizens caught between Saudi Arabia and Iran as air strikes and blockade threaten humanitarian disaster for millions
 
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