What's up with Yemen?

[Dill]

(02-19-2019, 06:54 AM)Bengalzona Wrote: Now, as unlikely as it sounds, the newly combined nation actually survived and did okay (by their standards) for 21 years. I mean, if you get past the central government’s corruption, rampant poverty, unemployment, etc. Oh, and the ongoing Shia Insurgency (Yemen has a large Shi’ite population known as the Houthis). The Yemeni’s were willing to put up with those to some degree. But when their President Saleh decided he should be president for life, that was not okay. Demonstrations started. Saleh offered an alternative: his son could take over as president. Surprisingly enough, that was not received well. The government broke down. The Houthis stepped in. Saudi Arabia got mad about the Houthis stepping in because they are Shi’ites and not Sunnis and, therefore, should either be dead or slaves. So, the Saudi’s decided to put together a non-U.N. endorsed coalition of Arab buddies to support a rival Sunni group: the Hadi’s. [sunni and tribal support for president Hadi]

Now we have Shi’ite Houthi’s fighting Saudi-supported Sunni Hadi’s. Normally we in the U.S. wouldn’t care about any of this. But in 2009, an old friend of ours moved into this neighborhood: al Qaeda. The Saudi and Yemeni branches got together and decided to create Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. They moved out into the wilds of eastern Yemen. Not to be outdone, the Islamic State (ISIL) decided this would be a good place for them to move as well. Something about these areas of collective governance tends to draw extremist groups like flies to crap. Naturally, we needed to monitor this situation and fling drone attacks at them. Plus, these were our rich buddies, the Saudi’s. There was money to be made here! So, we started providing the Saudis intel and arms support.

Ha ha, good work B-zona.  I would only add you forgot one "important" player here.  Houthi=Shia=support from what Shia nation which is SA's biggest counterweight in the region?  I put "important" in quotation marks because I think their material support is rather minimal. But WHO they are blows that support up big in the Saudi perspective, and is probably one of the primary reasons why Trump/Bolton are redefining US policy goals upward in the region.

Also, AQ was "in" Yemen before 2009 (remember the U.S.S. Cole), though it didn't have territory yet.  

The coalition of buddies includes Egypt (at least for the blockade) which got a serious bloody nose in North Yemen back in 60s when they stuck in 70,000 troops to oppose a Saudi-backed coalition there. ("Nasser's Vietnam" ME historians call it.)  Not sure why Egypt would help out now. Quelling the civil war is certainly in their national interest, but not necessarily in favor of Saudi Arabia.  Maybe there is an aid quid pro quo here.

NB: I read somewhere recently that Pakistan was now sending aid to Saudi/Hadi forces too. Haven't found the link though. Going to mention it anyway!