Yemen Has Been a Saudi Prince’s War. Now It’s His Quagmire.

The New York Times and ALL western newspapers shift responsibility to the Saudis and UAE, as if these two countries, entirely dependent on US and NATO for protection have agency. Only in Khashoggi's death did MBS have agency. It helps keep the blood on the hands of the Saudis. US and NATO hands are clean and dry. The US and NATO countries have blood on their hands of hundreds of thousands of Yemeni children. The Saudis or UAE would not have dared start this war on Yemen without US and NATO endorsement for starting it. The permission to continue waging this genocidal war has not been withdrawn by NATO, mainly the US, UK, and France.

I'm hopeful the US will supply no more weapons. This war in Yemen is really about Shiite vs. Sunni (Iran vs. Saudi Arabia). Again, about religion. Makes one sad. Again. The West has had many different factions of Christianity, and centuries ago fought similar wars. But not today, at least for the most part. Why has the Middle East remained so tied to archaic, mysogenist factions of Islam? The West will never understand this, or the Middle East culture. I don't know the answers, but any corrective action must take place by the UN

One of Osama Bin Laden’s complaints against the USA that led up to 9/11 was that we based our infidel soldiers on holy Saudi Arabian land during the first Kuwait war. Enough of this madness! We could spend our capital developing other fuel sources rather than waste one more dollar or one more soldier’s life trying to stabilize the Persian Gulf. It’s not going to work.

"Yemen Has Been a Saudi Prince’s War. Now It’s His Quagmire." And by implication and given our explicit help, it's our "quagmire," too. At least until the will of our populace, as expressed by our representatives in Congress, becomes our new policy.

If the houthis were Sunni there would be no problem in Yeman. However the Houthi (Tribe?) are Shia, so in Sunni Saudi Arabia they must be dealt with. But this draws Shia Iran into the fight on the side (barely) of the Houthis. Saudi Arabia finds itself surrounded by Shia. Iran, Shia majority Iraq, and just off the coast, Shia Bhahrain, (but rulled by a Sunni family.) Tiny Bhahrain, just close enought to SA to drop off a few guns on the beach of Tarot Island ,in 1979, for the friendly Shia of the Eastern Province. This has worried Saudi Arabia for a long time.

Yemen is not really a 1,100 mile border for Saudi Arabia. Yemen is two livable hilly areas with water at each end of the country, linked by desert. All of that in turn is pushed up against the vast Arabian Desert sands. The effective border is quite limited, which is why these are separate countries and always have been. This war like so many others started out with the idea of quick, cheap, easy victory. Like so many of those, it didn't turn out to be that way. Behind quagmire is the larger truth that they never expected any of this, and didn't have a plan for it. The Saudis have been fighting using militias. Many have been recruited in Sudanese villages by the Janjaweed network, and many of those are child soldiers (who are even cheaper in Sudan). They get no real training, and are thrown in to combat to learn on the job from the last group of Janjaweed recruits, all led by a very few older veterans of Janjaweed terror in Sudan. This is not a plan for military victory. It is a design for the cheapest possible occupation against minimal resistance. Locally recruited militia often just go home after a bit of time. The Emirates provided somewhat better forces as fire brigade backup. That is a hard position, of constantly going to the worst of it. It is no surprise that they got fed up with being used like that. Resort to terror bombing is an old idea, that almost never works. People rally against those who threaten their homes and families. Resort to that admits failure.

There are plenty of good reasons to end the U.S.-Saudi alliance: - The horrors of Saudi bombing in Yemen. - The Saudi system of subjugating women. - The Saudi imprisonment of domestic reformers. - The Saudi execution of domestic critics. - The Saudi push for dictatorships in Sudan and Libya. It is time to cut the cord and walk away. Sunjeev Bery Freedom Forward

Nowhere in this piece or any other I have read on this topic says that SA will replace the UAE ground forces with Saudi forces. We had better watch out!

Remember when North Yemen and South Yemen fought each other? That was was a generation ago. These people have been fighting for years. Let them sort it out by themselves.

MBS is looking to save face.

While we are getting out of Afghanistan maybe e we can NOT get into Yemen. And while we're at it maybe get out of Saudi Arabia.

It appears the Innocent are the victims of all these needless wars! Syria, look at their homes and deaths and injuries. What was accomplished? Was it worth all the misery? Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan on and on! The starving children! What is it accomplishing for us, for them? War appears to be a tribal thing and we are not part of those tribes. Now, correct me or inform me, I am open!

No, no, no. We need to get out of that mess today, certainly not get more involved. But the Dictator Trump will probably ignore what Congress and the Pentagon thinks and commit more support to the Murdering Prince. I hope I’m wrong, but I fear money and greed will prevail over doing the right thing.

The Saudis and Israelis are the greatest threat to peace in the region. Why we let MBS lead us by the nose is mind-boggling.

I smell another executive order in the air. Trump has used them for any- and everything that Congress has denied him to this point. He's not about to stop now. First, it will be an order for more weaponry because the Houthis are an imminent threat to American border security. Next, an executive order for more "advisers" to operate those things the Saudi's don't know how to use, using the same excuse. Trump has a bottomless barrel of executive orders, and he's not afraid to use them.

Are not the Houthis Yemeni's? should they not have participation in government? Why are the Saudis and the Americans intent on crushing them? It should be clear to all of us that the Iranian influence over the Houthis has always been overstated by the Saudis for their own political purposes, and that an incompetent and ignorant American foreign policy is being misled by the Saudis. Why are we allied with the Saudis on every issue? That the Houthis can't be defeated reflects a level of popular support on the ground that can't be ignored and needs to be acknowledged.

Both the Saudi's and UAE, have more money than they can ever spend at any given time. It's about time that they solely financed and fought their own war in Yemen, with their own forces. We have previously supplied enough of our own troops, weapons and our own expenses fighting their wars in the past. It was okay for the Saudis to grind up Khashoggi after torturing and murdering him, and they have the audacity to deny culpability for their actions. Let them handle their own casualties. Better still, let them come into the 21st century and end their fighting each other due to their religious differences. That is not our fight!

Saudi Arabia has a viable threat. The Houthis are an Iranian proxy in which they dream to rule and takeover Yemen. No Saudi be it the leadership or citizen will ever allow this. You've seen Iran's militias in Iraq, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon. Be it Hezbollah , Houthis & Hamas , Iran and it's militias must be stopped.

When Russia went into Syria, many people said they would be trapped in the endless Middle Eastern quagmire. But the Russians did the smart thing and supported the people already in power, and whom had an army, secret service, and knowledge about how to govern the country. When the USA, and the coalition of the willing, entered Iraq they ousted the current leaders, disbanded the army, and began building a nation. This sounds good on paper, but in reality it led to mass terrorism and eventually ISIS. The Saudis and UAEs (and the USA), have taken a different tactic. They have started a campaign to destroy the infrastructure, and starve the people into submission. So when the war was over, in a matter months, the Saudi appointed leaders could bring food, medicine and stability and look like heroes. This is three very different tactics on how to behave in the Middle East.

Yemen is Donald Trump’s and our quagmire as well, now that he has been manipulated into taking sides in that war. Americans should know that they are in a proxy war between Sunni and Shia, between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Our taxes and every purchase of gas contributes to buying bullets for this war. It’s not clear to me how I, as an American citizen, have an interest in this conflict, but clearly there are oil companies and arms dealers that are just delighted.

Given the huge asymmetry in weapons and resources, a stalemate is actually a loss. The UAE has realized this and is getting out. The more the Saudis extend themselves in Yemen, the more risk they run of internal destabilization as the Houthis get closer and closer to the border. Just cut a deal, and then flood them with oil money. Cheaper than paying foreign mercenaries and conscripts to fight.