Why Is Yemen Our War?

Guest Post by Patrick J. Buchanan

For a month now, the Saudi air force has been bombing Yemen to reverse a takeover of that nation of 25 million by Houthi rebels, and reinstall a president who fled his country and is residing in Riyadh.

The Saudis have hit airfields, armor and arms depots, and caused a humanitarian catastrophe. Nearly 1,000 dead, 3,500 wounded and tens of thousands homeless. The poorest nation in the Arab world is near collapse. Dependent upon imported food, Yemen faces malnutrition and starvation.

And the United States has been an accomplice in the Saudi bombing of Yemen.

Why? Why is Yemen’s civil war America’s war?

What did the Houthis ever do to us?

While they bear us no love, their Houthi rebellion was an uprising against a pair of autocrats who had been imposed upon them, and against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

The Houthis’ main enemy, AQAP, is America’s worst enemy.

Why are we then making ourselves de facto allies of al-Qaida?

For while the Saudis have been bombing the Houthis, easing the pressure on al-Qaida, AQAP effected a prison break of 270 inmates, including scores of terrorists, and seized the port of Mukalla.

The Saudis claim the Houthi rebellion is part of an Iranian Shiite scheme to overrun and dominate the Sunni Middle East.

But Pakistan is not buying it, and not sending troops. The Egyptians seem reluctant to enlist. Nor is there hard evidence Iran armed or incited the Houthis who have been fighting for years. Tehran reportedly advised the rebels not to take the city of Aden, and is calling for a ceasefire and peace talks.

Saudi propaganda portrays the Middle East as caught up in a great Muslim struggle, with a Shiite Crescent led by Iran seeking to swallow up the Sunni states.

But is this true? Or is America being dragged into fighting yet another war where we have no vital interest, against an enemy that has not attacked us and has no plans to do so?

In today’s chaotic Middle East, who are our real enemies, those attacking and killing Americans and murdering our friends?

First on the enemies list are al-Qaida and ISIS. No terrorist group has killed more Americans than al-Qaida. No terrorist group has behaved with more savagery toward U.S. citizens, Christians, and friends of ours than ISIS.

And who is most fiercely resisting these enemies of ours?

The Saudis? The Gulf Arabs? Our NATO ally Turkey?

By no means.

All, at one time or another, have abetted the al-Nusra Front or ISIS in Syria. And none has sent troops to fight the Islamic State in Iraq.

Yet the Houthis, two of whose mosques in Yemen’s capital were blown up in March by ISIS, with 135 dead and 350 wounded, have been actively battling these terrorists.

In Iraq, it is Shiite militias, admittedly no friends, Iranians, and Kurds who have been aiding Baghdad in battling the Islamic State.

It is Hezbollah and Iran who have been backing Damascus with arms and troops in Bashar Assad’s war against ISIS and the al-Qaida affiliate.

When it comes to battling our enemies, our Sunni friends have been dragging their feet, or even collaborating. But the Shiite Crescent we are supposed to fear as the new Persian Empire has been actively fighting those same enemies.

In his Wall Street Journal column on the Middle East, Yaroslav Trofimov reports that the Saudis are euphoric over their successes in bombing the Houthis, and are looking forward to new wars:

“This display of military might has already unleashed patriotic fervor in Riyadh. It has spurred talk that once the Houthis are dealt with, Saudi Arabia’s Sunni coalition should move against a more formidable Iranian ally, the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, and destroy the Syrian air force.

“‘The massacres in Syria should stop and its regime there should go,’ said Khalid al-Dakhil, a Saudi sociologist and prominent commentator. ‘The right thing to do after Yemen would be for the Gulf countries and Egypt, Jordan and Turkey to go into Syria to dislodge that regime.’”

About this coming Saudi-led blitzkrieg, several observations:

First, while the Houthis have been bloodied they are not beaten. The Saudis may have just thrown a rock into a hornets’ nest.

Second, how would Hezbollah, Iran, Iraq and Russia respond to a Saudi-led war to overthrow their allies in Syria?

Third, if Bashar Assad falls in Syria, who rises to power if not the al-Nusra Front and ISIS, the only effective forces opposing him today?

Terrible as is the war that Assad is waging in his own country, is not his regime preferable to what ISIS in Raqqa and al-Nusra in Idlib have on offer to us?

Reportedly, the Americans are trying to coax the Saudis out of their war in Yemen.

Wise move. Kings don’t tend to last in long wars, especially in wars they themselves have started.

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Anonymous
Anonymous

Why?

In a single word: Islam.

Either we contain and defeat it everywhere it exists or we are conquered by it.

The final battle on this earth will between the remnants of what was once called Christendom and Islam and only one will exist after it has finished because in the end there can be only one.

At this point, it seems that Islam has the upper hand. It has moral strength, we have moral degeneracy. Moral strength is what eventually wins no matter any other factors that may be involved. History has demonstrated this many times.

Billy
Billy

Fuck em.

The assholes who pulled off 9/11 were almost all Saudis, to a man.

So if they want to fuck with another country, pitch rocks at a hornet’s nest? Who gives two shits? Let them reap the whirlwind. Every raghead that gets offed by either side is one less we have to worry about. Let them burn themselves out killing each other off.

And Karma’s a cast-iron bitch.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Billy,

That just makes them stronger and more unified and provides a fertile training and recruiting ground in the process.

You may want to pay attention to what is going on among Islamic’s at the American universities today, and in our public life, they are becoming openly and successfully aggressive against anything non Islamic and recruiting a good number of Americans to go and fight (be trained) with Isis and return here to carry the fight on.

Look at your lawn, if you allow weeds to sprout without getting rid of them at the time they take it over and is is so very much more difficult to get rid of them after you let them do that.

There is a war on and people better wake up to that now, it’s a bit late to start fighting it after it’s been lost.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Administrator,

You strike me as a rather unpleasant and insulting ad hominem sort of non intellect that has no argument so he simply tries to go after anyone saying something that he does not want to hear, because he cannot understand it, through personal attack and insult.

Not exactly something inviting intelligent discussion, but a tactic that is highly approved of by Alinsky and his devotee’s.

If you believe I’m wrong, you might try addressing what I said without diverting to a personal attack, if you actually have anything of use to say that lends itself to discussion.

I assume you’re just another anti-Christian Islamist? Seems to me that is the side you are taking with your rather puerile attack.

Billy
Billy

Anon,

Preaching to the choir. I’ve been opposing these assholes – not on philosophical, theological or existential grounds, but with a fucking rifle in my hands – since the 1st Gulf War.

That just makes them stronger and more unified and provides a fertile training and recruiting ground in the process.

Bombing people pisses them off. It might destroy stuff, but it will unite the bomb-ees against the bomb-ers. In that, you have a point.

But making them stronger? You’re going to have to backstop that. Killing motherfuckers does not make them stronger. It unites them, and in that sense they are stronger than any one individual, but realistically? Nope.. ain’t buying it.

You may want to pay attention to what is going on among Islamic’s at the American universities today, and in our public life, they are becoming openly and successfully aggressive against anything non Islamic and recruiting a good number of Americans to go and fight (be trained) with Isis and return here to carry the fight on.

Oh, the Universities are embracing a new flavor of anti-amiericanism… whoopdie shit. What else is new? If it isn’t Marxist radicalism of some flavor, it’s Islamic radicalism…

Let them go train all they want.

Look at your lawn, if you allow weeds to sprout without getting rid of them at the time they take it over and is is so very much more difficult to get rid of them after you let them do that.

Hey Yoda? Might want to tell that shit to our Immigration service and State Department, being as they’re the ones who allow muzzie shitbags into the US and issue Passports, handing out American citizenship like toys at McDonalds to every radical bomb throwing, goat fucking stuck-in-the-7th-century raghead that shows up here…

There is a war on and people better wake up to that now, it’s a bit late to start fighting it after it’s been lost.

Dude, again, preaching to the choir.

They want to come over here and start some shit? I got a solution for that.

Kill every motherfucking one of the sons-a-bitches…

And by the way, with regards to Admin? You accuse him of ad hominem attacks and how dishonest that is, blah, blah… then do a guilt-by-association drive by on him with that Alinsky crack… as if that’s not dishonest…

Your shit stinks, same as the rest of us. Nothing worse than someone pretending their shit don’t stink around here…

Billy
Billy

Now, if y’all don’t mind, I’m gonna put in the Tannahill Weavers and go mow the lawn…

Be back in a couple 5 or 6 hours…

Stucky

“Either we contain and defeat it [Islam] everywhere it exists or we are conquered by it.”
———- Anonymous (only chicken shit cowards go by “Anonymous”)

Before I address your utterly ridicules “solution”, let me say that I think Islam is an utterly reprehensible religion. Little more than a copy of Judaism … only still mired in the 8th century … founded by a pedophile and camel fucker. Got that?

EVERYWHERE, eh? Hmmm, let’s see where “everywhere” is;

comment image

So … you want to “defeat” about half the world (geographically) and probably more than half the world (population). Brilliant!

Perhaps you should explain more by what you mean when you say “defeat”. Really, I don’t know what you mean. Defeat … militarily? If so, how … bombing the shit out of them (we’re already doing that), or toppling countries we don’t like (we’re already doing that) …. a New Crusade? …. genocide?

How do you “defeat” a billion people? Admin is correct, you certainly do sound like a neocon.

Stucky

“Please regale us with you plan to defeat Islam. Give us your specific recommendations. You strike me as a neo-con asshole. Let me guess. You think Bolton and Wolfowitz are brilliant and Dick Cheney is your god.” ———– Admin

FIVE of you people voted this down??? You people should be ashamed of yourself.

Admin! What’s happening to this place??

Sensetti
Sensetti

Administrator says: Please regale us with you plan to defeat Islam.

The plan to defeat Islam is well under way. It’s is to create chaos in and around their homelands, keeping the age old religious war Sunni vs Shia red hot, fund both sides, arm both sides, intervene when one side gets the upper hand, never let the ebb and flow of the mayhem stand still. It’s rather difficult to manage a company while the building is on fire as it is for these Islamic leaders to organize a meaningful force or put in place an organization capable of being a major player on the world stage while they are engulfed in turmoil. You don’t have to utterly defeat an enemy to win a war you simply need to wear them out, making them war weary. Dont you suppose the citizens of Iraq are just a little war weary and tired of bullshit?

If you need any proof to validate the above statement think about this. The politicians, news commentator’s never refer to anyone of the groups as Sunni or Shia. Why? If the did, even the lowliest of dolts would figure out we are simultaneously sending in players on both sides. So you give each group a label and create the appearance of many teams when in reality there are only two, Sunni and Shia.

The piece of the puzzle that is still missing is dragging Iran all the way to the center of the circle. Iran has waded into the fray but total chaos and collapse for them is still to follow. Be patient, it’s coming.

Disclaimer-> I’m NOT endorsing the Midfle East strategy, simply doing my best to describe it. It’s still about oil always has been always will be. If they did not stand on an ocean of oil the Middle East would be an obscure location that only makes an appearance as a movie backdrop from time to time.

Rise Up
Rise Up

Billy says: Fuck em. The assholes who pulled off 9/11 were almost all Saudis, to a man.
———–
Those were patsies, many of them are still alive, part of the sham. The blueprint was the Project for a New American Century (PNAC).

Look it up.

MuckAbout

It’s still embedded in religion, the killer of men. I must admit that the vast proportion of the male population now slaying each other with abandon are probably not too bright (outside the mandatory Koran brain burn) and guerrilla warfare allows an otherwise peaceful man to rape and pillage with impunity. But way down deep, buried in the sand is religion and tribalism and it has been that way thousands of years.

When the winners of WWII carved up the mid-East they did it with little, if any thoughts of either factor and merely protracted what we are now seeing.

I tend to agree with Anon in one sentence ““Either we contain and defeat it [Islam] everywhere it exists or we are conquered by it.” ———- Anonymous. Of course everything else he said is crap but give credit where it is due.

I’m sure, as a nation, the American people would just as soon leave them alone as long as they leave us alone. But they don’t because their creed does not allow it. So the best thing to do is allow them to fight and kill each other off “over there” to limit their ability to stir up trouble elsewhere. Technology has provided them to tools, however, to be a deadly pest world wide.

Truly the politics of the Middle East are so convoluted as to defeat the most intelligent thinker. The religious differences are even confusing – how many of you just learned about the Houthis just recently? The Islamic faith appears to have as many schisms and branches as an inappropriately topped oak tree and they all seem to hate each others guts. Sure we know about Shi’ites and Sunnis but Alawites and Houthis — who knows what else lurks among the sand dunes?

And they multiply like oversexed rabbits which bodes ill for the future too.

We are truly living in the ancient Chinese Curse, “May you live in interesting times!”. I hope we survive it.

MA

Westcoaster
Westcoaster

The best recruitment tool for Islamist extremists is the U.S. and what we’ve done since at least Gulf War 1.
The sad part is, that’s the plan.

Spinolator
Spinolator

“Why is Yemen our War?” For the same reason that most others are…Freedom, justice, human rights! OK. Just kidding! For power and money. WTF else is it?

Mark
Mark

Not for nothing. Yemen has 25 million people? On a piece of sand.

That’s 5 times the population of Norway and 70% the population of Canada. I’d have to agree with those posters that have been snuffed at with respect to stopping Isalam and its atomic bomb of baby making Burka wearers.

In the end genocide will be the only thing that knocks these freaks back.

Stucky

“In the end genocide will be the only thing that knocks these freaks back.” ——- Mark

OK, fine. We’ll put YOU in charge, and YOU ALONE. That’s right … YOU get to do the genocide. How many bullets do you want? 10 million? 15 million? How about 25 million … and kill every motherfucker there?

You want all that murderous blood on your hands? I doubt it … even for you. It’s so easy to call for genocide, as long as someone else is doing the killing, isn’t it? That way you can turn on the ten o’clock news, get out the Cheetos, pop open a beer, call over the family “Yeah, look at all those dead motherfuckin ragheads!! Life is good in ‘Murika!!!”

The savagery of some ‘Murikans leaves even Satan shaking his head.

TE
TE

My take on Why this is Our War.

The “rebels” whom took down the government, are mad because “their” government continues to allow unfettered access for the US, and probably Sauds, to bomb and kill them without trial, or even credible accusations?

There have been dozens and dozens and dozens of US Drone Murders in Yemen. With lots and lots of dead babies too.

Think this would piss us off? I do.

The Yemen “rebels” are also against Al Quida. Round and freaking round it goes.

Muck, I love you, but come on. WE have been picking Kings and Rulers, killing first one side, then the other, instilling bloody dictators, then after peace is partially achieved, wiping them out, since we – and Europe – divided the country and put the puppets in place for our Oil barons to continue their dominion.

Try this, pull the fuck out and quit sending money and bombs and let the freaking chips fall where they may.

When they decide, and trust me, they will, that worldwide economic viability is more important than their “own” take on the Koran, they will figure it the fuck out.

So what if oil goes through the roof? Just because we have set up an economic system based on an unsustainable in perpetuity basis, doesn’t actually mean we can keep it going.

Today, tomorrow, someday it is going to fall apart anyway. Killing brown people in the name of whatever isn’t going to change things here.

We stir the shit and kill the people and then we blame the victims for our actions. Typical.

And so supported, so believed, it won’t be stopped until the whole freaking paradigm falls to the ground.

So it freaking goes… turns out Vonnegut maybe optimistic in his beliefs, but I’m not.

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