1.
And then there is Yemen where a ragtag coalition – hardly worth the name – of Saudi-paid mercenaries is trying unsuccessfully to crush a rebellion and democratic movement (inaccurately referred to as a Houthi-ethnic revolt) in order to restore “their man,” Abd-Rabbuh orted against that country, this despite the fact that a major U.S.-supported war continues to devastate the country.1 Unless using Democracy Now!, Truthdig, or Foreign Policy In Focus as main news sources, it is unlikely that people within the United States even know there is a war going on, to say nothing of the whys and hows, or where Yemen is even located.
Peace talks between warring factions in Yemen that collapsed a month ago, are scheduled to resume in a couple of days in Switzerland. They will coincide with a week’s ceasefire between the warring parties more than likely to be put in place at the same time. As a part of the ceasefire, Saudi Arabia has agreed to temporarily suspend its bombing campaign. While statistics vary as to casualty rates (with sources friendly to the Saudis claiming 2,500 dead, an Australian source gives a much larger, 6,000 figure) often missing from the picture is that war has already created 200,000 refugees, people who have fled the fighting which has engulfed essentially the whole nation. In the political vacuum created by the war, Al Qaeda has strengthened its position in the country’s southern regions.
While some sources say that the Obama Administration is less than enthusiastic about this Saudi-led war, essentially to return former Yemeni president and Saudi ally Abd-Rabbuh Mansour Hadi to power, Washington’s actions suggest that they are very much involved, as a part of the Obama Doctrine, first articulated in a May, 2014 West Point speech, to give its local allies more military responsibilities so that the United States can concentrate its security efforts more substantially on Asia. Beyond giving more military responsibility to Washington’s U.S. allies – Turkey, Israel and Saudi Arabia – the Obama Doctrine appears to have as a long-range plan the continued pulverization of Middle East states formed as a result of the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement, the destruction of Iraq and Libya being the first steps of a broader process. The vision is to break up what had been stronger (if authoritarian) Arab states into smaller post Sykes-Picot ethnic units. In the pre-Obama Doctrine phase the United States played a more dominant military role, in the current period, more of that responsibility is pawned off to the regional allies.
If Yemen is any indication, the plan is not working very well.
http://fpif.org/yemen-saudi-arabias-vietnam/
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