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Poor Choices
By lindamuralidharan on 2019-09-27 05:26:52
It comes round again, that I repeat another topic that I have covered in the past. I am specifically talking about the Houthis
and our US intervention in the Yemeni Civil War. [caption id="attachment_ 13066" align="alignleft" width="255"]
President Hadi, current and second president of Yemen|[/caption] It seems to me that
the US makes the wrong choice in each of our "foolish" wars, as some have now come to call our various quagmires. We
either pick the wrong side to back or we don't have any business intervening or both. The Vietnam War (Ho Chi Min would
actually been our friend if we had not broken our promise to him when he was in exile, our promise to sponsor a fair and
open plebiscite. We cancelled when we learn he would likely win. Yeah, that had polls back then also.) The Koreans
needed to decide for themselves which cruel and oppressive type of dictatorship they preferred We had no business in
certain Central American countries and more recently Haiti and Honduras. Iran and Iraq. We supported the contras against
the people and ended up with a CIA supported crack epidemic in LA. Current TV series, "Snowfall" gives vivid review.
Yemen is one of the most pitiful of these since we can see the blood on our hands as famine and other extreme hardships
curse the country with the help of Saudi Arabia, the US, and the United Arab Emirates. We have no business in this war. It
is an extremely complex situation and, as usual in the Middle East, the roots go back to European colonialism and the spoils
of the ending of the Ottoman Empire. England and Saudi Arabia had a heavy hand in unifying the country in 1990. Little
was done as usual to consult with or consider the varying regions or the concerns of a multitude of tribes. Yemen had a
history of an organized but not centralized society, and the Northern vs. the Southern parts had heretofore been governed as
totally separate entities. It may not have been wrong to unite them. the method is in question. [caption
id="attachment_ 13068" align="aligncenter" width="600"]
Us drone strike[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_ 13072" align="alignleft" width="300"] Saudi
bombing of Yemen.[/caption] Unification was a good idea and a constitution was drawn up that actually provided for the
hope of freedom and democracy. And it did mimic a democracy in a lot of functions but only one party ever had a chance of
winning elections. Meanwhile Saleh, the first President, often ruled oppressively. He and the next and present president,
Abdrabduh Mansur Hadi, ruled ineffectively if you consider that they didn't take kindly to dissent, provided little in the way
of employment and services for those who did not receive their blessings. Meanwhile, contrary to American myth making,
an influential religious family, the Houthis chafed mightily under their perceived injustice and began revolutionary
preaching and organizing with no involvement from Iran at that point. In fact, this community practiced Shia Zaidi , a form
of Shia Islam that is not theologically aligned with either the prevailing Sunnis of Saudi Arabia or the prevailing Shia of
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US refueling Saudi
plane[/caption] As they moved to take over the capital, Sana'a, they aroused the paranoia of the Saudis, who were afraid that
revolt on their borders would be infectious. There are always groups inside Saudi Arabia looking for a chance to confront
the House of Saud. So a hot war ensued with Saudi Arabia bombing and invading Yemen and the US giving support. The
country contained factions both supporting the Houthis and opposing them. President Hadi, meanwhile, is in exile in the
port city of Aden. From afar Iran now does give some logistical aid. Much as they do with Hamas and Hezbollah on the
basis of the Palestinians having been robbed of their country and now oppressed in numerous ways. Yemen is not
specifically a proxy for Iran but Iran is always on guard against encroachment by the Sunni Arabs and Saudi Arabia in
particular which would not mind dominating most of the Middle East. Sadly, when the Houthis took and kept Sana'a they
set up a government that is repressive like the one replaced. Happens with violent revolutions so many times in history, you
will recall. We Americans have blood on our hands. We chose the wrong side. We have refueled the Saudi's bombers and
often supported the exiled government of Hadi. Some of this is because Hadi looked the other way while we used drones in
a mountainous region of Yemen in pursuit of Al Qaeda. We even killed two American citizens in the process as well as
many Yemeni citizens with no ties to terrorism. When we did manage to hit a terrorist target, we usually killed mainly low
level operatives, few of the key leadership. Of course we have long had our own love affair with Saudi Arabia and its oil,
long before our current Commander in Chief began entertaining us with Arabian dances and clanking swords. Recently, the
public in the US has been partly turning against the Saudis, especially since the horrors and fiasco of their murdering Jamal
Kashoggi. Recently we stopped refueling the Saudi bombers in mid air but, of course, behind the scenes we continue to
provide aid and training on the ground. The Houthis never wished to attack the US although they had objections to many of
our policies abroad. But we picked the wrong side anyway. It is common these days to hear talk of the good old days when
foreign policy was bipartisan. What was so good about the Vietnam War? Lying our way into Iraq? Only one single
person, Barbara Lee, voted against the foolish Afghan war. I know we need to stop interfering in Yemen and contributing to
the abuses of both sides....famine, killing, destruction of much of civil society, poverty. There is much blood on our hands
already. I don't have a good solution going forward on many fronts. Bipartisanship alone is no answer. Probably we need a
new crop of leaders with sharp minds, back bones, and not so much infatuation with staying in elected office for the sake of
being in elected office. [caption id="attachment_ 13067" align="alignright" width="328"]
Former President Saleh, second Yemeni president[/caption]
