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US prepares for war in Yemen
WASHINGTON — In the midst of two unfinished major wars, the United States has quietly opened a third, largely covert front against Al Qaeda in Yemen.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/wo...t/28yemen.html
http://trueslant.com/nealungerleider...-war-in-yemen/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...n-terror-yemen
+ YouTube Video
Last edited by Muzk; 30th December 2009 at 14:06.
Does that guy go out in public dressed like that?
war against Yemen or war with Yemen? War against yemen would mean against the government but if he is for their government then it would be war with Yemen kind of like USSR and Afghanistan.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...827278,00.html
answers my question. its in collaboration with the Yemeni government. i doubt it will be an actual invasion.
so much for a Nobel Peace prize huh? retaliatory strikes?
Last edited by Rusty Shackleford; 30th December 2009 at 14:17.
FKA Vacant
"snook up behind him and took his koran, he said sumthin about burnin the koran. i was like DUDE YOU HAVE NO KORAN and ran off." - Jacob Isom, Amarillo Resident.
Woo-hoo!
Impoverished Yemen wracked by conflict
Monday, November 30, 2009
By: Jane Cutter Saudi, U.S. governments look to preserve the status quo
The conflict in Yemen has heated up in recent days, with a fresh round of Saudi air strikes targeting Yemeni villages Nov. 27 and battles between Houthi rebel forces and Yemen’s military Nov. 28.
Buildings burn in Sa'ada, Yemen, following an
airstrike carried out by Saudi Arabian forces. Yemen, the poorest nation in the Arab world, is experiencing two different conflicts in the north and in the south of the country, only recently unified in 1990.
Starting Nov. 5, Saudi Arabia's military launched air and artillery attacks on Yemen’s Sa’ada province against Houthi rebels. This action by a U.S. client state in the region represents a major development in the civil conflict, ongoing since 2005.
The Houthis are members of the Zaydi branch of Shi’ite Islam. The majority of the population in the North identify with Zaydism, which is only found in Yemen.
The Zaydi Imamate ruled northern Yemen in a feudal theocracy from the eighth century until it was overthrown by the Republican Revolution in 1962. The revolution ushered in the beginning of capitalist development in the impoverished and underdeveloped nation.
The Yemeni government accuses the Houthi rebels of wishing to bring back theocratic rule; the Houthi leaders claim they oppose the corruption of the central government and only seek more autonomy for their region.
The Saudi government is weighing in on the side of the Yemeni government. Interestingly, during the eight-year civil war that followed the assassination of the imam, Saudi Arabia supported the very royalists that today the Houthis are accused of wanting to restore. In that civil war, Britain and Saudi Arabia, both backed by the United States, provided material aid to the royalists while Egypt sent troops with Soviet material aid to back the republicans.
The conflict with the Houthis has been ongoing since 2005, leading to a major humanitarian crisis with an estimated 175,000 displaced people, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. U.N. agencies have charged the Yemeni government forces with torture against people in the north. The government has also been accused of using phosphorus bombs against the population in Sa’ada.
The Yemeni government claims the Iranian government is supporting the Houthi rebels. For its part, Iranian officials have insisted that foreign governments refrain from interfering in the conflict, in an obvious rebuke to the cross-border Saudi attack on Houthi forces.
The allegations against Iran—regardless of whether there is any truth to them—could become a pretext to turn Yemen into an arena for a wider war of U.S.-backed Yemeni and Saudi forces targeting Iran via the Houthi rebellion.
Upheaval in the south
In the south, the Peaceful Southern Mobilization Movement has been leading demonstrations against the central government and calling for southern secession from the north since 2007, raising the flag of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen.
Massive demonstrations in southern cities over the summer were brutally attacked by government forces, with many demonstrators jailed. Most recently, armed forces associated with the Southern Movement have attacked Yemeni government security forces, leading to at least one death.
In contrast to the north, southern Yemen was colonized by Britain. The British were eventually forced to withdraw in 1967 by socialist revolutionaries, who founded the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen. The two Yemens united in 1990, but civil war broke out in 1994 as the south attempted to secede due to dissatisfaction with the domination of the more socially backward, pro-capitalist north. The southern forces were defeated in 1994, and the unification project continued.
Yemen’s President Ali Abdallah Saleh has been in power since 1978. His central government depends on the cooperation of traditional and tribal elements, especially in remote, mountainous regions.
Ever since the end of the 1994 civil war, the Saleh government has pursued economic development through integration into the capitalist globalization process. This has resulted in the destruction of traditional Yemeni economic and social structures, and has led to an increasing gap between the tiny few who have profited from this process and the impoverished majority. Despite widespread poverty, Yemen has natural resources, including oil, and a rich history and culture with potential for tourism.
The Saleh government has allied itself with U.S. interests in the region, cooperating with the United States in fighting Somali “pirates” and collaborating with Washington in the “war on terror.” Al-Qaeda does have roots in Yemen—Osama bin Laden’s family is from the disputed region between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, and a number of Yemenis fought with his organization in Afghanistan.
U.S. imperialists fear that if the Saleh government loses all authority in the remote, undeveloped regions of the nation, those regions might become a base for forces that are not aligned with U.S. interests. They are willing to faintly support Saleh—to the tune of $34 million last year—in order to hold Yemen together and maintain stability in the region, which includes Saudi Arabia as Yemen’s neighbor to the north and east.
Should the Saleh government fail to prevent a socialist-led state from seceding from the south or stop rebel forces from gaining the upper hand in the north, would the United States refrain from more forceful intervention? Anti-imperialists need to be on the alert for developments in this region and steadfastly oppose U.S. intervention, be it through direct military action or traditional proxy forces.
I'm not a big fan of that "news report" however. Full of absolutism (there WILL be a war) and conspiracy theories.
It will be interesting to see how the South of Yemen responds to this increased activity in their own country considering their history of socialist organizing.
I have enough of the iraq and afghanstan tv show, and now they are going to make another show where their main characters always died.
Hes an Imperialist puppet just like Bush was. They gave him the peace prize for no reason... I mean he hadnt even done anything yet.
What interests does the US seek in Yemen?
Also, why are the Yemen officials in support of US intervention?
Who?
Last edited by Drace; 30th December 2009 at 22:58.
"America is ready for another revolution" - Sarah Palin
[FONT=Verdana]Mr Obama the Capitalist Bastard.[/FONT]
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They'd have to enact the draft to have enough men to invade Yemen. It's more likely that they will just have a quiet covert ops war and give lots of money and material support to the current Yemeni government.
For those who question US motives for the war as if none were given-
Sounds like a second 9/11 to me. Potentially this could be a perfectly legitimate assisted war against the (fascist and theistic let me remind you) Jihadists. Or it could be another Iraq. To be fair, as its not a full scale invasion (yet) and Yemen is a fairly small nation I can't see a huge amount of profit being made from ANOTHER unpopular war.
Think we may be jumping the gun here, seems like less of another unjust imperialistic attack and more of the US playing international police (which is also bad).
Bit of Deja Vu here, it reminds me of the Vietnam war- except against the islamists not the communists. I can live with that, just about.
Yemen? Wow, random!
All this bullshit Al-Qaeda talk too. I doubt Al-Qaeda has a real presence in Yemen. The article above talked about Shi'ite Houthi rebels.
Yemen is actually quite a large nation. Its larger in geography than Germany and has 23 million people... Canada has somewhere around 30 million. I suppose they will be withdrawing from Iraq to fight this? If they dont I dont see how they could even dream of fighting a third war. They have their hands more than full with Afghanistan and Iraq. Even with a draft that would be difficult... remember they arnt fighting a government they're fighting a "civilian organization" of sorts. This is going nowhere FAST.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...ver-Yemen.html
International crisis meeting about action to take regarding Yemmen...
They reckon there's 300 Al-Queda in Yemmen. Wonder how many will be left afterwards? 10,000? 100,000?
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If the U.S. administration isn't going to say that this war is for *geostrategic positioning* (at the Strait of Hormuz, Red Sea), then *I will*.
In case anyone's wodnering why war is profitable to the bourgois then take a look at how many North American and European contractors are working in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not just PMC's, but constuction firms and the like too. By destroying the infrastructure and killing skilled workers, they can charge whatever they like to repair it.
On top of that you have market forces to take into account. The forcable introduction of free trade means that supply rises, costs are driven down and proffits go up. Also, with the ending of the illegal drug trade means that depressed workers will seek legitmitate drugs like alchohol to try fill the void of losing illegal drugs.
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There's no way in hell there's gonna be an invasion. The fighting is in the north and that is really dangerously clost to Saudi Arabia, that could turn into a major shitfest. The US doesn't like invasions anyway, it's not any good at them, what it's good at is high tech bombing, which'll probably happen.
What it WILL be is an excuse to build up bases in Saudi and on the other side of the sea in probably Ethiopia, the whole Africom thing. I've been worried that Obama is going to go hard for Africom for a long time, and this is a great opportunity.
I read somewhere that there was about 250-300 Al-Qaeda members, hidden in a population of 23 million!
The US's bombings have already killed a few dozen civilians.
"America is ready for another revolution" - Sarah Palin
You watch Maoist Rebel News too? Awesome!
Oh, Bama...
"As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents." - George Orwell
“Being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead.” - Kurt Vonnegut
"I am confident that, in the end, common sense and justice will prevail. I'm an optimist, brought up on the belief that if you wait to the end of the story, you get to see the good people live happily ever after." - Cat Stevens
I just heard on the news that the US accuse Yemen of working and supporting terrorist groups.
No doubt Yemen will be talked about. Something is gonna happen there
Hasta la victoria, siempre!
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