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Yemen, Beautiful People, Tortured Country
By lindamuralidharan on 2015-06-19 22:36:44
[caption id="attachment_7145" align="aligncenter" width="513"]
Yemen|[/caption] What do I know about
Yemen? So very, very little indeed. To my recollection, I first met Yemeni immigrants 6 or 7 years ago when some of my
neighborhood convenience stores were owned and staffed by individuals of Yemeni descent. I found them good to do
business with and we chatted from time to time. Although I had basically superficial conversations....occasionally we did go
into the politics of their home country. Since the US was trying to kill supposed Al Qaeda personnel located in Yemen, and
various other aspects of Yemeni life were in the news the last several years, I did read reports and articles. I understood the
central government was not particularly democratic or useful to the citizens and that there were separate attempts...one in the
north and one in the south...to dislodge the ruling group and set up some better people in power. I didn't gather too much
about these groups, and now I know that the one in the north represented the germ of what we today refer to as the Houthi
rebels. I spent some time this week attempting to understand the origins of the current situation in Yemen. I don't want to
say I understand it all but many of my suspicions about the US and its involvement there seem to be borne out the deeper I
! : Certainly the history going back thousands of years involves the
establishment of government by force in that region. Few areas of the world...until recently...have been able to maintain
peace with neighbors for long or to manage the transfer of power from one group or leader to another without warfare and/or
exploitation. In that regard, Yemen is not unique. And competing religions and alliances also played a part. In early phases
there were pagans and Jews. The Christians came along proselytizing, and sometimes the Arabs and the Jews worked
together to resist the Christians. As time wore on, Christians and Jews took turns holding the upper hand and each side
committed brutal atrocities on the other. Eventually, the majority of people in the area that is present day Yemen converted
to Islam. Over the centuries, various versions of ancient civilization there
developed sophisticated cities and engineering accomplishments especially with regard to water distribution in the desert
and to lovely buildings. Even in this century, there has been instability sometimes abetted by foreign powers...certainly the
US and Saudi Arabia are two of them (in the previous two centuries British colonialism had also played a role). In recent
decades there have been international efforts to establish a stable parliamentary form of government. There has been, in
fact, a parliament, but the president tends to come and go ....sometimes forced into exile and so forth and there was little
ruling from the capital of Sanaa for the well being of the people. The Houthi rebels themselves began as a nonviolent, mildly
religious student led group. They wanted local reforms, better local governing and services and to some extent less corrupt
and more "moral" social behaviors. They only really became more religiously strict and anti-American after the US
invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. There is little sign, though, that they are like ISIS or Al Qaeda in goals or methods. I
think they are of a different tradition, and because the other two entities are Sunni there is no natural tendency to form an
alliance. | An enlightened American policy might even make common cause
with the Houthis. Although Houthis identify a as Shia, there is little evidence that in modern Yemen the Sunni vs. Shia
paradigm is at the heart of the matter. It is more a question of traditional factions and interference from foreigners too often
supporting the oppressive central government vis a vis the "insurgents". (If you like the dictator/incompetent, you hate the
"insurgents". If you are opposed to the leadership, you support the courageous "rebels"... in general.) I tried to think back
to why I felt nervous and distressed when I learned about the rebellions north and south in relation to the stance the US was
taking at the time. I think I thought that we ought to cut the central government loose; I think I concluded that the US liked
leaders like Ali Abdullah Saleh (recently driven from the capital by the Houthis) and his some time rival and some time ally,
Abdu Rabbu Mansoor Hadi because they enabled to differing degrees the drone and other attacks on Al Qaeda affiliates
pretty much hiding in the mountains. So, here we have the classic case of the double whammy that accompanies
dysfunctional policies as well as dysfunctional families. We are against the well being of the people by virtue of supporting
an unpopular and corrupt government and yet we neither support nor get out of the way of an alternative group.....all for
our own ends. We pick the wrong side, one more time, and for faulty reasoning at that. [caption id="attachment_7151"
align="alignright" width="600"]
—
: : ahs at —— bl | drone strike[/caption] At the
same time we are pursuing a drone policy that as an extrajudicial enterprise I think is wrong in the context of our belief in
democracy and the rule of law and furthermore has proven to be ineffective. Research is now in that shows that when we
assassinate a major leader of one of the vicious jihadi entities, the new, replacement leader is actually more effective than the
one we eliminated. It has been proposed that this occurs for one of two reasons, depending. Either the dead one was getting
fatigued from the struggle and the new guy is more energized or the new guy is just plain more competent as well as
energized. And probably any number of leaders are newly angered at the US for killing their main man and even more
motivated than before to damage the US. The use of my tax dollars to kill...however inadvertently...innocent civilians who
are not taking up arms or any cause against us......well, you can imagine how good an idea that is.
5) Now we have what amounts
to all out civil war that is in part a proxy war. The Houthis have, in fact, taken over the area of Sanaa and driven the
official government to the port city of Aden. [caption id="attachment_7152" align="alignright" width="300"]
Yemeni food[/caption] The US has partnered with the Saleh (and Hadi
sometimes)and official government forces and with Saudi Arabia against the Houthis. Our argument is that Iran supports the
Houthis vis a vis Sunni elements, especially Saudi Arabia. We then supposedly are doing good by limiting Iran's influence
and keeping in the good graces of the Saudis. I was already horrified that we are one more time interfering in another
country that needs to sort out its own destiny and that we fight along side Saudi Arabia which is under a cruel and
oppressive regime as it is. Now we we began to learn that Saudi Arabia's indiscriminate bombing is taking out wonderful
historical buildings and killing too many civilians. Many are now refugees and there are increasing shortages of food, water,
and safe havens. The United Nations has become seriously alarmed about the World Heritage Sites and the humanitarian
crisis. (Are we numb to that latter term? Do we know or care about the human suffering we enable?) [caption
id="attachment_7153" align="alignleft" width="600"]
Yemeni families shelter in a
temporary building after fleeing violence i in Yemen, at the port town Bosasso in Somalia's Puntland April 17, 2015. U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday called for an immediate halt to the fighting in Yemen, the first time he has
made such an appeal since Saudi-led air strikes against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels began three weeks ago.
REUTERS /Feisal Omar[/caption] There is much more I would like to know, but even my limited research has unearthed
significant documentation of why the US needs to stop our involvement, why it needs to push for diplomatic solutions
(ceasefires have been agreed to and then been undone and the international community is working on this), and why it needs
to encourage its so-called ally to pull in its horns. I guess Saudi Arabia is against the Houthis largely because it is afraid that
Houthi operations along the border with Saudi Arabia will cause more unrest among disgruntled Saudi Arabian citizens.
Certainly it can't expect Yemen to invade! And....then there is the proxy rivalry with Iran. [caption id="attachment_7154"
align="alignright" width="600"]
‘A Yemeni family fleeing
violence in Yemen arrive by ship at the port of Bosasso in Somalia’ s Puntland region April 16, 2015. Saudi Arabia and Arab
allies have been bombing Yemen for over three weeks to stem the Iran-allied Houthis' progress and have called for
defections in Yemen's military. REUTERS/Feisal Omar[/caption] The new information can be explained in more detail by
following this link: To summarize what I learned, there is a tremendous...I really mean tremendous.... amount of oil as yet
untapped under Yemeni soil. US and other factions want access. Iran's support is actually minor with regard to the Houthi's
although the factions who want the Houthi's to be defeated spread propaganda to the contrary because they don't believe
they can control the Houthi's (and thus the oil) to the extent they can control the more corrupt elements that have been in the
official government. [caption
id="attachment_7156" align="aligncenter" width="322" |S “ typical Yemeni
building[/caption] I know of no good reason for the US to keep ¢ on supporting violence i in Yemen. Tc can think of many
reasons to stop the violence, at least on our end.
