Social Matter

Once again, Yemen is in the news. This time it isn’t to glorify the Yemenese president for allowing the use of American drones against Shia rebels. This time it isn’t the subsequent riots ensuing as a result of the leaking of that information. This time it’s a full blown rebellion that has, so far, culminated in the seizure of the capitol at Sanaa.

On the 27th of March Saudi Arabia launched its first overt unilateral attack on Yemen with a bombing campaign against the Houthi Shia rebels. The Saudis fear the Houthis for a variety of reasons. For one, they fear them because they are Fiver Shia, which is reason enough for puritanical Wahhabis. Saudi Arabia has a large twelver Shia population in its oil producing eastern areas which has proven to be a source of repeated unrest, so they take their fight against heretics very seriously.

Second, they fear them because they fear encroaching Iranian influence. Although such influence is nowhere to be found at present it would undoubtedly coalesce if the Houthis consolidated power. After all, the Saudis fear the Houthis and will take deadly measures to destroy them, for which Iran is a useful counterweight. It is not a matter of Iranian guilt or the like, it is simply the situation. The Houthis must be dismantled before they gain strength to be those natural allies the Iranians so desperately need.

But here’s the strange thing about this situation; The point at which Houthi strength, with their allies, might be stopped has long been passed. After all they virtually control the country now in fact. And this isn’t because of a sudden explosion of deadly Houthi rebellions. This rebellion has been going on for years! And by and large, the Houthis have won it. They are more than 100,000 soldiers strong and are allied with the Yemeni military which we saw in action last year when they bombed the Presidential Palace.

And that strange President is at the center of this drama. President Hadi is a power mongering, corruption affirmed puppet of the Saudis. After being defeated last year by the Houthi forces he was forced to come to a power sharing agreement. A major cause of the current crisis is his failure to uphold his end of the bargain, in any way shape or form. Instead of doing so, he chose to flee to Aden, that critical southern city and from there flee again to Saudi Arabia. He could not be a better servant.

And that’s the trick here. The Houthis and Yemeni factions of note are fairly sick of Saudi and other Western influence in their little country. Yemen of course has all the geopolitical attributes of a blessed nation, with a key strategic chokepoint on its doorstep and potentially immense oil reserves that have yet to be fully explored. But foreigner domination of the country for the last century has made them, and kept them, as a third world hell hole that produces nothing but oil and stays poor.

The response of the various parties is telling. The Arab states aligned with Saudi Arabia, and therefore America, have been explicit in their support, nay, their demands for a negotiation with the twice-ousted President Hadi. Obviously that’s a sick joke, since the man is a liar in every way and constantly acts contrary to the interests of Yemen’s sovereignty. He is nothing but a puppet in the opulence of Riyadh, demanding a throne with the guns of another. And a lot of guns at that. More than a hundred thousand Saudi troops wait near the border as the airforce bomb Yemeni Houthi positions near Sanaa, the Yemeni capitol. Meanwhile the American separatist machine is into work, with media sources already mulling a (re)split between north and south Yemen.

Key to this drama is the response of Russia and Iran which is also critical. Both nations have been unusually vehement in demanding Saudi restraint and in rhetorical support of the Houthis. This is to be the new normal, I think. With the nuclear deal no guarantee for Iran and America’s overt hostility to Russia, there is no need to pull diplomatic punches. The Saudis act as a puppet of the Americans and an enemy to both countries and their interests are being treated accordingly. Meanwhile an anti-Saudi Yemen, regardless of who runs it, would be an immensely useful asset to the Eurasianist forces.

For the West itself, this whole situation is a disaster although the state department does not yet know it. Lines are being drawn in the sand, and motioned to with greater and greater vigor. All the while the legitimacy of the West leaks slowly like blood from a stabbing. The patient doesn’t always notice the numbness and the shock furthers the fatality of the act. By supporting the extremely overt Saudi intervention and the de facto uprising of Al Qaeda factions in the east of Yemen, America is acting as the ultimate hypocrite. Interventions are too be damned, except when America approves. By the same token revolutions in Syria, Libya, and Tunisia are to be glorified, except when they threaten American interests like in Yemen. Then they must be crushed with the mighty Wahhabi jackboot and the tacit support of their masters in Washington.

Every time the West engages in act of such diplomatic retardation it butchers its standing and prestige in the political world, for the rest of the world does not care for the solipsism the West so embraces. It is as if America is inviting diplomatic insult and scorn. Such is the degeneracy of our elites.

Geopolitics Houthi Yemen