• Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    My dude this war in Yemen has been going on for like 10 years. If the idea of bombing Yemen sounds out of left field to you, then you are woefully uninformed.

    • confusedpuppy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      9 days ago

      I had the opportunity to live in Berlin for a year. I made friends with a group of Yemen students. All of these people had friends, family or relatives bombed to death. Over the course of 2 weeks, one person lost 3 relatives to the bombings…

      These people were sent to Germany to study and be as far away as possible from the horrors at home. Away from friends, family, everyone.

      I was told that after flying to somewhere near Yemen, it would have taken another 16 hours to travel by road to get home. Their parents refused them coming to visit because it was just too dangerous.

      I don’t know how they managed to hold their shit together and carry on even as their families were getting bombed back home.

      It broke my heart and I felt powerless to even attempt to comfort them. I’m sure they felt a sense of powerlessness that’s beyond anything I could understand at that time.

      • ivanafterall ☑️@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        It’s crazy when you realize, “oh, shit, they’re just people.” I don’t mean it in an insulting way. I had that experience, too. Travel certainly helps. It’s not even necessarily that you don’t believe that before, just maybe that you didn’t know or hadn’t even thought about it, because who can know everything. But then what was previously vague/unfamiliar words in sporadic headlines in the background is suddenly very real and personal, standing in front of you. It’s a gut punch.

    • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Sounds par for the course in the USA.

      People are literally surprised when somebody reads out actual policy which was signed into law and who voted for it.

      • RedditRefugee69@lemmynsfw.com
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        9 days ago

        Because our entire election cycle isn’t spent on policy, but character attacks.

        To be fair, there’s plenty of material to attack, so I guess they get distracted.

        • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          Yeah I blame the citizens over the candidates at this point. Everybody should be educated on what they’re voting for, not whom.

          • jaaake@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            Agreed that everybody SHOULD be educated. It’s definitely POSSIBLE to become informed, but holy fuck man, it shouldn’t take this much effort.

            Blaming the citizens is insane. If you think that a large enough percentage of the voting population is capable of even FINDING digestible unbiased information… I don’t know what to tell you. I’m more informed than the general public and I didn’t even have a reliable source. I want something that doesn’t just explain the contents of every piece of legislation, but also the impact, knock-on effects, and true underlying motivation. Getting a full picture that I trust involves cobbling together multiple sources and attempting to filter out biases and conspiracy theories.

            Who has that kind of time? Most of us out here are trying to keep our head above water and not spiral into unrecoverable debt. There are centuries of people in power molding their constituents into complacency through systemic oppression to ensure this is the case. The average person has a government sponsored education and is religious. They’ve been indoctrinated with a pledge of allegiance and a set of values that everyone around them seems to follow. Few folks have the disposable income or the desire to travel outside their bubble of comfort and develop empathy for someone unlike them. People who are informed know that the root cause is capitalism, which has been peaking in the last few decades with lobbyists and citizens united. The average person wants to ignore politics, if they do vote, they vote like the people in their community. For them, a vote isn’t something that’s done to better the country, it’s something that prevents them from being ostracized.

            • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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              9 days ago

              Congress has every bill ever introduced and its current status, every roll call, all of the contents of it all, etc listed online for all to see.

              Wikipedia has summaries of every major political event in the last 3 centuries in great detail and citations to their sources documented.

              Finding information is as easy as taking a simple look. Literally everybody can be educated about medical care, citizens united, immigration statistics, election fraud statistics, etc. They’re not trying.

              • frostysauce@lemmy.world
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                8 days ago

                Oh, yeah, let me just read entire fucking hundreds or thousands of pages long pieces of legislation in my free time so that I may be an informed voter… smh

                • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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                  8 days ago

                  You just need to look at a few important ones. Hypothetically, a rural american might be incredibly distressed by Republican economic and healthcare policy. An urban third party voter might be flabbergasted that the things they fight for all these years were actually core DNC platforms constantly called to vote and filibustered by the GOP. Etc.

          • RedditRefugee69@lemmynsfw.com
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            8 days ago

            It’s a problem that was fixable 40 years ago. I think it’s too late. We’re too stupid and too drama thirsty to care about boring things such as public policy.

            Anyway, I hear Jane Kardashian has a new bracelet! Did you see it?

      • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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        8 days ago

        Because they “didn’t vote for that”. They voted for lesser evil, which includes bombing Yemen for a decade. The spoiler effect is obvious to fellow voters, but incomprehensively arcane to lawyers.

        • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          God I fucking wish we voted for the lesser evil.

          For the record, in 2014 Yemen began a civil war and the Obama administration backed the GCC intervention into Yemen, fighting against the Houthi revolutionaries, in 2015 alongside the UN Security Council issuing an Arms Embargo on the Houthis. The US support was logistical and intelligence. This has unfortunately continued to this day, although the previous Biden Administration did publicly announce a withdrawal of that support, but continues sale of armaments to Saudi Arabia who leads the GCC due to condemnation of their strikes on civilians. (The Houthis also strike civilians, mind you).

          TBH I think maybe a more forceful approach, a direct intervention to establish a governance complete with minimal casualties and to provide welfare, to the situation at the end of Obama’s term or the start of the Trump term might have been better than just pussyfooting around and letting Saudi’s commit the warcrimes instead. Either that or doing nothing at all and allowing them to kill each other all on their lonesome so as to keep our own hands clean.

          Another thing I’m not taking into account with this retelling is the whole proxy-war angle wherein Houthis and Saudis gaining support from various outside influences impacts their own allegiances in economic policy and that by not participating it would leave a gap for another world power to establish a different governance in the region that explicitly supports said world power. The whole region is an important economic position for oil and gas as well as shipping between Europe and Asia.

          • RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works
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            8 days ago

            Specifically the war stats when The Houthi Militia pulls out of a coalition government and attacks the capital.

            The Houthi Militia are not the innocents in this war. They started it.

            • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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              7 days ago

              Also, the Houthis are being armed by Iran who is financially supported by China in exchange for oil, and I hate China so that’s another negative in my book.

  • CodeInvasion@sh.itjust.works
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    9 days ago

    Are you actually asking?

    The Houthi’s are an Iranian controlled terrorist organization that have been attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea since November 2023.

    The Houthis have sunk two vessels and killed four crew members, forcing a lot of shipping to Europe to be diverted around the South of Africa.

    The US and allies have been fighting the Iranian-backed Houthis for over a decade, this is just a recent resurgence following the war in Israel.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67614911.amp

    • Taiatari@lemmynsfw.com
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      9 days ago

      You know, I don’t question what you have said; however, this group chat has put many asterisks on this whole situation. I believe one person in that chat has said something to the effect of: “remember the narrative, Biden’s fault and Iran backed.” Makes me less sure about the whole story and motivations.

    • DragonTypeWyvern
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      9 days ago

      Sure bro.

      That justified blowing up the apartment building the target’s girlfriend lived in.

      Because it doesn’t just make more Houthis every time.

      • CodeInvasion@sh.itjust.works
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        9 days ago

        I never said the attack itself was justified. I only answered the question.

        A more targeted strike was possible, and it’s reprehensible that one was not chosen.

        The target himself was a legal target even by the most strict interpretation of armed conflict international law.

      • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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        9 days ago

        That may be true, but there is one consistent lesson we can learn from US history.

        Don’t. Touch. The. Boats.

    • FMT99@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Yep and it’s much easier and cheaper just to send in a bunch of drones that end up killing a few hundred innocents than to send in special forces that find the target with precision. And that in turn would be a lot easier than to stop actively funding regional genocide and try to calm the situation down diplomatically.

    • Iceman@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Claiming that the Houtis are Iranian controlled is sheer missinformation.

    • Valmond@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      It’s to make us forget about the “group chat” (see how familiar and nice it sounds too, group chat). Damage control.

      Someone else can probably explain better than me why the “group chat” is not just a group chat but a massive abuse and illegal thing to do.

      • Wildfire0Straggler3@lemm.ee
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        8 days ago

        The Federal Records Act was violated several times due to the disappearing messages feature of Signal they were utilizing for their plans. Jeff Goldberg took screenshots of the messages before they were automatically deleted when all Federal Records are legally required to be preserved for archiving and may not be destroyed except under specific parameters that they obviously did not follow.

        https://www.ed.gov/about/ed-overview/required-notices/federal-records-act

        Also, by using Signal, which is a secure end to end encrypted messenger, the vulnerability that is built into the desktop sync feature where messages aren’t locally encrypted can result in enemy and adversarial nation states collecting these messages due to them being stored on an infected device which can compromise the mission and risk lives.

        They could also have their accounts and subsequently their messages hacked with their information widely publicly available to hackers.

        https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/hegseth-waltz-gabbard-private-data-and-passwords-of-senior-u-s-security-officials-found-online-a-14221f90-e5c2-48e5-bc63-10b705521fb7

        • wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          9 days ago

          Firendly reminder that this was the real issue with buttery males/but her emails: that Hillary Clinton was using a private email server to circumvent these laws.

          And every other US government employee that knowingly emailed to or from that server is also complicit.

          Yet another legitimate problem tossed out with the bathwater because it got associated with the maga crowd. Very handy, that.

          • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            Point of order. These laws were written because of Mrs. Clinton’s server. She wasn’t circumventing shit, because the law hadn’t caught up to technology, technically it still hasn’t, but that’s a whole other kettle of fish.

            The reason it got “forgotten” is that after they wasted years and tons of money trying to find something to charge her with, they came up empty handed, since it really was just a mistake.

            • Count042@lemmy.ml
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              8 days ago

              This is bullshit. I’m old enough to remember when the Bush administration setting up their own email servers to avoid these very same exact laws was a big issue for the Democratic Party.

              • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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                8 days ago

                They updated the laws since then. The Clinton administration was the one that passed the laws that W Bush was flirting with breaking. As far as I remember, they also didn’t actually break the established law, they just got close enough that the Dems started screaming about their precious rules and norms.

                HWBush didn’t actually have much in the way of laws binding him, but his administration didn’t bother with the Internet. Whitehouse.com was a porn site until '97-'98

    • Sop@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      9 days ago

      The Houthi’s are enforcing their ban on ships headed to or from Israel to enter Yemen’s water territory. They did this as a sanction on Israel because Israel is committing genocide on the Palestinian people. When the US and European countries started bombing Yemen for enforcing their law, they also banned US and some European ships from entering their waters. During the ceasefire they lifted the blockade, and since Israel ended the ceasefire they started banning ships again.

      • CodeInvasion@sh.itjust.works
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        9 days ago

        This is simply false.

        The Houthis are not a state. There are a rebel faction in a civil war in Yemen.

        Even if it were the Yemen government banning ships from it’s waters it’s can’t do that by international law. They don’t own the whole strait.

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bab-el-Mandeb

        Lastly, a UN resolution passed that outlaws this behavior.

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_2722

        • Count042@lemmy.ml
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          8 days ago

          This is like calling the US now a rebel faction in the civil war in the British Empire.

          We won.

          America is its own country.

          Ansarallah won. The conquered basically all of the territory except for a few towns held by another faction with whom Ansarrallah made peace with.

          All of this while under continuous air attacks from Saudi Arabia w/ US intelligence, refueling and weapons. Meanwhile the US supported a complete blockade, including food, into a country that at that time imported 90% of its food.

          • superkret@feddit.org
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            8 days ago

            Once they are recognized by the UN, they can legally act as the legitimate government of Yemen.

              • superkret@feddit.org
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                8 days ago

                No, they are the world legislative body.
                Of course no country can be forced to follow the UN’s laws, but they are what we call “international law”.
                If the UN don’t recognize you, you may be the only government in your country, and you may even be the legitimate one, nationally speaking.
                But you won’t be internationally recognized as legally in charge of things like shipping lanes.

                • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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                  7 days ago

                  So that means that for a country to be legitimate, it has to be accepted by every member of the security council? You’re not a legitimate country unless Russia, China, and the US all like you enough? That’s BS.

      • gregs_gumption@lemm.ee
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        9 days ago

        If the Houthi’s are going to enact a shipping ban then I assume they’re willing to accept the consequences of enforcing the ban.

        • lorty@lemmy.ml
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          8 days ago

          If the US and UK are going to support genocide, then I assume they are willing to accept the consequences

    • Count042@lemmy.ml
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      8 days ago

      The Houthis are a tribe. The majority (though not all) represented tribe within the government of Ansarrallah, a government that formed during and won the civil war when Saudi Arabia tried to steal Yemen.

      Calling them Houthis is racist and makes as much sense as calling Americans ‘Kennedys’

      They have not been attacking shipping. They have been enforcing a naval blockade of a country committing genocide, something that is a legal requirement under international law. When Israel was “abiding” (or abiding as much as Israel ever abides) during the peace treaty, Ansarrallah dropped their blockade. If this is about shipping, the easiest way to stop this would be to stop applying arms to a state engaged in ethnic cleansing.

      America has never been at war with Yemen. We got sucked into supplying Intel and support and weapons to Saudi Arabia under Obama because of all three weapons purchases from Saudi Arabia.

      Finally, Iran has done very little in support of Ansarallah, in comparison to other countries that are majority Shia.

      Calling Ansarrallah Iranian controlled is about as accurate as calling Israel American-Controlled. It’s just another racist way to try to justify the murder of civilians. You know, the unjustifiable except to fascists like the person I’m responding to.

      • TheFonz@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        How do we feel about the Houthis killing civilians on trade vessels not bound for Israel?

        • Count042@lemmy.ml
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          8 days ago

          I wouldn’t know, since a single tribe (a good amount whom aren’t members of the government) hasn’t done that.

          • TheFonz@lemmy.world
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            8 days ago

            Oh cool. OK, how do we feel about the armed combatants from Yemen repeatedly attacking civilian trade ships not connected to Israel?

  • FauxLiving@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    Yeah, just to be clear. One of the targets hit was a residential high rise building. Local authorities are reporting over 50 people killed.

    The target was one, alleged, terrorist and the building, according to the Houthi PC small group message log, was the building of the target’s girlfriend.

    So, the US just killed at least 50 civilians in order to kill a single target. Just to give you a rough idea of the kind of ‘collateral damage’ that is acceptable.

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    9 days ago

    The amount of times Republicans said “we killed terrorists” during the congressional hearing, without even once considering that the 53 fatalities from an indiscriminate air strike likely included innocent civilians, is revolting.

    • MTK@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      If you kill 1 terrorist and 52 civilians, um no you didn’t, they were all terrorists. Problem solved.

      #murder #justkillin

      • dmention7@lemm.ee
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        9 days ago

        You’ve also just cemented the idea that the West is evil in the families and friends of those 52 innocent people, thereby ensuring a steady supply of fresh new “terrorists”.

        • frostysauce@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          And the global war on terror continues forever, and “defense” budgets increase forever. All as planned.

          • skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de
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            9 days ago

            yeah that’s because that’s not what happened, there were multiple targets, not just one. that signal chat directly mentions “mutliple targets”, it could be 5 it could be 15. if goldberg stayed in this chat maybe we’d know how many exactly

            weapons mix suggests that at least some of these were chosen to limit collateral damage (two F18 sorties, Tomahawks launched - these could be used against hardened targets, like bunkers or caves, and targeting shifted from weapons to leadership, but probably not completely - but also drones, and drones can’t carry heavy weapons like F18 can)

      • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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        8 days ago

        In the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US labeled any “military aged male” casualty as an “enemy combatant” even if there was absolutely zero evidence they were.

      • Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 days ago

        As proven by the fact that the young men related to those 52 people all joined terrorist organizations after the fact.

    • Doorbook@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Anything to keep israel happy is bipartisan.

      Then you wonder why that the case? If they are right now publicly intervening in US politics, what have they done in the past and what leverage do they have over these public figure?

  • archonet@lemy.lol
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    This guy says that like “bombing Yemen” isn’t a de facto tradition for U.S. presidents. I’m pretty sure every president since Clinton has bombed Yemen at some point during their term. It’s old hat. It’s not news. It was Tuesday.

    Like, sure, it’s terrible and no one will deny that, but we’ve been doing it for 20+ years. This? This clownfuckery? This was new.

  • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz
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    8 days ago

    No one is surprised by America indiscriminately bombing and leaving 150 casualties.

  • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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    8 days ago

    For me at this point it’s just a matter of surprise.

    I expect the US to bomb everywhere that isn’t Japan, North America, European Union, or Israel

    Hell I’m shocked they aren’t throwing bombs at Australia because Elon Musk sent a vaguely worded email that implied it.

    The reason why I SEEM to care more about the phones than the bombs, is because “US bombing innocent people? Sounds like a Tuesday… but damn how did we elect someone so incompetent that I find out about the specifics?”

  • answersplease77@lemmy.world
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    Kids were killed but the chat leak was funny and that’s what has been the people talk about instead.

    Imagine being the poor family, who is stuck living in Yemen because they cannot afford to relocate, whose kid has died by Trump’s bombing. Then all you see in the news about how they joked with emojis in chat killing your kid. “Oh your kid was killed in that emoji airstrike.” Tell me why the fuck you would grow up anything but radicalized.

  • rumba@lemmy.zip
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    8 days ago

    Bush and Obama did it too. Historically, it’s been a targeted killing thing against Al-Qaeda (or so they have said), with whatever government they have, giving their blessing. If other sites are correct, Trump did it more, but it’s kinda hard to pick nits there.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_strikes_in_Yemen

    That’s why a lot people are more upset over the lack of operational security than the action itself. They’re not conducting themselves in a way that keeps our country safe, They skirting monitoring and can’t even get that right.

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    7 days ago

    Political context courtesy of the Arab Center in Washington DC:


    TL;DR: The Houthis are backed by Iran, in direct regional competition to Saudi Arabian (and subsequently US) interests, and the war in Yemen is a direct result of 10 years worth of failed intervention by the Saudis.


    Excerpt:

    Exactly a decade ago, Saudi Arabia announced the launch of a military intervention in Yemen, promising to lead a coalition of more than 10 nations—although some would later end their participation—against the Houthi armed group, officially known as Ansar Allah, that had taken over power from President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. Backed by the United States, Britain, and other Western states with arms and shared intelligence, on March 26, 2015, the Saudi coalition commenced airstrikes on Houthi-controlled areas, initiating a conflict that would drag on for years. Riyadh’s initial expectation of a swift, six-week military operation to defeat the Houthis became a prolonged and costly entanglement that has tested Saudi Arabia’s ability to impose its will on its neighbor and to force the Houthis to give up their control over a large part of Yemen. Intervention Inception

    Saudi Arabia’s rationale for intervention shifted over time as the conflict unfolded. At the outset, it cast the intervention as a direct response to President Hadi’s urgent appeal to the Gulf states and their international allies that he conveyed in a letter to the UN Security Council in March 2015. Hadi called for states “to provide immediate support in every form and take the necessary measures, including military intervention, to protect Yemen and its people from the ongoing Houthi aggression.” The Saudis initially conceived of the intervention as a decisive effort to reinstate Yemen’s legitimate government in the capital Sanaa. As the situation progressed, Saudi Arabia reframed its objective as restoring Yemen’s political process within the framework of the Gulf Cooperation Council Initiative, which in 2011-2012 facilitated the transfer of power from former President Ali Abdullah Saleh to Hadi.

    The core rationale behind Saudi Arabia’s intervention, however, stemmed from its perception of the Houthis as an Iranian proxy on the kingdom’s border. Riyadh feared that Iran’s influence through the Houthis posed a direct threat to the kingdom’s regional dominance and interests. The kingdom saw the Houthi takeover of Sanaa not just as a challenge to Yemen’s stability but as a potential game changer in the broader Middle East power dynamics. In this context, Saudi Arabia framed its military intervention as a necessary response to protect its own security and regional influence.

    Riyadh feared that the Houthis posed a direct threat to the kingdom’s regional dominance and interests.

    But while Saudi Arabia believed Iran to be the principal force behind the Houthi takeover, the extent of Iranian influence over the group at the time was, in fact, relatively limited. Although the Houthis depended on Iranian military and logistical support, particularly for weaponry and strategic advice, they were not fully under Iran’s control. Iran, while capable of advising the Houthis on strategic and policy matters, lacked the leverage to dictate their actions. Rather, local factors such as longstanding tribal rivalries in Yemen, the Houthis’ longtime opposition to the central government, and their pursuit of greater political power, were more influential in shaping the Houthis’ behavior. The Houthi alliances with former President Saleh and certain factions of the Yemeni military also played a crucial role in the group’s rise. In other words, Iran’s influence was significant, but it was not all-encompassing, as the Houthis had their own political and strategic goals. Nonetheless, Riyadh persisted in portraying the Houthis as a tool of Iranian expansionism. Paradoxically, Saudi Arabia’s prolonged antagonism may have ultimately strengthened Iran’s influence, as it pushed the Houthi armed group to deepen its reliance on Iranian military and logistical support.


  • HighFructoseLowStand@lemm.ee
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    9 days ago

    Because it is controlled by the Houthis, Islamist terrorists threatening global trade, overthrowing a quasi-friendly government and REINSTITUTING SLAVERY.

    • WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works
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      8 days ago

      The United States government just sold over 200 people, without trial, into slavery in El Salvador. And the US explicitly allows slavery as part of its own prison system. The US has a large number of legal slaves.

      • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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        8 days ago

        I don’t think people understand just how fucking MASSIVE that bullshit is. Any credibility that the US had in human rights is long gone.

        What turn is doing is what the original filibusters did prior to the civil war. Basically considering chattel slavery such an important part of their ‘liberty’ ideal that they wanted to spread it to places where slavery had been abolished. Like the carribbean and Central America.

      • ultranaut@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        Yes, and how does that justify anything? I don’t understand this logic at all, the US being bad doesn’t make the Houthi slavers good. Slavery is wrong regardless of who does it.

        • WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works
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          7 days ago

          It doesn’t justify anything. What it does do is point out the absurdity of arguing that the Huthis deserved to be bombed due to slavery. If they deserve to be bombed, so do we.

    • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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      8 days ago

      They overthrew Gaddafi when he was the only thing preventing slavery from returning, and the allies of the West now have open slave markets in Libya.

    • smol_beans@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Houthis did not reinstate slavery. The “legitimate” Yemeni government that the Houthis are rebelling against reinstituted slavery

            • smol_beans@lemmy.world
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              8 days ago

              Why do you assume that the US gov is more trustworthy than the Houthis? After all the horrible shit the US gov has done what will it take for you to stop believing it when it tells you that it’s the good guy and the people it’s fighting are the bad guys.

              • HighFructoseLowStand@lemm.ee
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                8 days ago

                First of all, the State Department document is just one of a variety of reports detailing the Houthi reintroduction of slavery.

                Second of all, the fact you can’t actually attack the contents of the report and solely argue I shouldn’t believe it because you, personally, hate America undermines your argument.

                Third, rape and slavery are not pasttimes in America, as they are in Houthi controlled Yemen.

                • smol_beans@lemmy.world
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                  8 days ago

                  It’s not because I personally hate America, the US has been helping israel commit a genocide for over a year, apparently that isn’t enough for you to question their statements but it is more than enough for me

        • Keeponstalin@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          From the US State Department report:

          Media reports referencing muhamasheen activists noted that while social castes and slavery were abolished in the 1960s, tribal justice systems reinforced historical patterns of discrimination. The most recent estimated number of victims of modern slavery in country remained the 2018 report by Walk Free, an NGO focused on ending modern slavery. Walk Free estimated there were 85,000 victims of modern slavery in the country, or 3.1 percent of the population, but that due to the impossibility of conducting surveys under conflict, data likely underestimated the problem. This broad category included forced labor and debt bondage, human trafficking, and forced and early marriage.

          This is the Walk Free report mentioned, it’s referencing modern-day slavery and how vulnerable the population of Yemen is, the main being political instability. That same article shows Saudi Arabia as having over 4 times per capita more modern day slaves.

          The only other article that mentions Slavery under the Houthis is Al-Awsat which is a state propaganda newspaper working at the behest of the Saudi Royal Family.

          There is no mention of slavery in the 2024 HRW Report Or 2023 Amnesty Report

          The Saudi puppet government that did institute slavery are what the Houthis fought and won against, and continue to face a US-Saudi genocide because of it. It’d certainly help to reduce modern day slavery if the entire population of Yemen wasn’t facing a genocide.

          Quotes

          Guterres put the crisis in stark perspective, emphasizing the near complete lack of security for the Yemeni people. More than 22 million people out of a total population of 28 million are in need of humanitarian aid and protection. Eighteen million people lack reliable access to food; 8.4 million people “do not know how they will obtain their next meal.”

          Besides Saudi Arabia, the coalition attacking Yemen includes the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, Kuwait and Bahrain. Qatar was part of the coalition but is no longer.

          Based on the information available to it using open sources, YDP reports that two-thirds of the coalition’s bombing attacks have been against non-military and unknown targets. The coalition isn’t accidentally attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure – it’s doing it deliberately.

          The air and naval blockade, in effect since March 2015, “is essentially using the threat of starvation as a bargaining tool and an instrument of war,” according to the UN panel of experts on Yemen.

          The coalition’s genocide in Yemen would not be possible without the complicity of the U.S. This has been a bipartisan presidential effort, covering both the Obama and Trump administrations.

          U.S. arms are being used to kill Yemenis and destroy their country. In 2016, well after the coalition began its genocidal assault on Yemen, four of the top five recipients of U.S. arms sales were members of the coalition.

          The U.S. has also provided the coalition with logistical support, including mid-air refueling, targeting advice and support, intelligence, expedited munitions resupply and maintenance.

          As of February 2018, according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the coalition had killed 6,000 people in airstrikes and wounded nearly 10,000 more.

          Yet, according to the OHCHR report, these counts are conservative. Tens of thousands of Yemenis have also died from causes related to the war. According to Save the Children, an estimated 85,000 children under five may have died since 2015, with more than 50,000 child deaths in 2017 alone from hunger and related causes.

          US complicity in the Saudi-led genocide in Yemen spans Obama, Trump administrations

    • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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      8 days ago

      They’re not threatening global trade, they’re fulfilling their obligation under international law to prevent genocide by blocking ships of countries that are aiding genocide.

    • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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      8 days ago

      What lead them to be on position to be able to do such a thing?

      Who helped to stabilise the previous gov & infrastructure (hospitals) … and stopped overnight destabilising the country early pre-covid?

      • 0xD@infosec.pub
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        8 days ago

        That is a different topic not relevant for the current discission.

      • HighFructoseLowStand@lemm.ee
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        8 days ago

        I don’t know, but I presume the answer is us.

        But that doesn’t mean it is at all reasonable to just let them shoot at our boats and, I reiterate, REINSTITUTE SLAVERY.

          • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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            8 days ago

            Not everyone’s boats, just the ones of countries facilitating genocide, as they are obligated to under international law. They’re not touching Chinese boats, Iranian boats, Turkish boats, etc.

            • HalfSalesman@lemm.ee
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              8 days ago

              Boats marked with a specific country are not strictly captained, crewed, or even owned by individuals from that country.

              • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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                8 days ago

                They aren’t targeting boats based on their flags, nor their captain, nor their crew, nor their ownership, but based on their connection to Israel.

            • TheFonz@lemmy.world
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              They are targeting indiscriminately. You might hear otherwise from their statements, but the reality is they don’t seem to have capacity to distinguish

              Edit: this has happened numerous times and there is plenty of evidence. Sorry it’s your heroes commiting atrocities

    • Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      8 days ago

      The houthis aren’t exactly the best representatives of the movement but still, this issue would be better solved by stopping arms shipments to israel and pushing them to a ceasefire towards a permanent peace. The houthis have shown that they will stop there attacks when the bombs stop dropping on gaza with this last ceasefire.

      These strikes don’t do shit besides hardening the antagonism against the west in Yemen. Ask Saudi Arabia, you can’t take out the houthis with bombs. This is just a way for trump to flex his arms and act like a tough guy.

      • HighFructoseLowStand@lemm.ee
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        8 days ago

        I do not trust murderous terrorist slavers to keep their word. And even if I did, the mere fact that there are attacking our people is more than justification enough to blow them to Hell.

        • Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          8 days ago

          That doesn’t solve the issue, you blow up one terrorist and five civilians then the brothers/fathers of those five civilians become terrorists. The only thing blowing them up does, besides making the leaders and the people of the u.s. feel tough, is enrich the weapons industry.

          We bombed Afghanistan for more then a decade and the taliban still control Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia bombed the houthis for years and they now control Yemen, Israel has leveled gaza and hamas is still in control.

          YOU CANT BOMB AWAY TERRORISTS.

            • Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              8 days ago

              No, I’m proposing that we push our client state Israel to stop bombing gaza so the attacks will stop. That’s the only way to stop them from attacking us, because again, bombing them won’t stop them, it’ll just fuel further conflict.

              Also we arent being attacked, no one in u.s. territory has been harmed, ships in a war zone are being attacked. Are you proposing that we blow the hell out of anyone that killed an american in a war zone? Because Israel has killed American citizens in its war on gaza, so has hamas, should we just carpet bomb the whole area to show we mean business?

              • HighFructoseLowStand@lemm.ee
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                8 days ago

                First of all, that comparison is bullshit and you know it. The Houthis are purposefully attacking American citizens abroad.

                Second of all, I disagree that destroying their capabilities to attack would accomplish nothing and I have no sympathy for genocidal, rape happy slaver terrorists, so you aren’t tugging on my heartstrings by talking about carpet bombings.

                Thirdly, as I mentioned, they’re genocidal slaver terrorists. So I do not trust them.

                Fourth, this is why any politician supported by Lemmy is obviously going to fail. You have no conception of what normal people think is acceptable. For example: the average American does not hear about Americans being attacked abroad by terrorists who commit rape en mass, support genocide and have reintroduced slavery and think, “We should give these people what they want.”

                • Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  8 days ago

                  Explain to me how Israel blowing up a food aid convoy is different then the houthis attacking merchant ships.

                  oh but that was an accident, they didn’t know the truck with there logo that reported there location to the idf was an aid truck. That’s not there stated policy to blow up aid trucks.

                  Israel has implemented a full blockade of Gaza since the ceasefire ended. So if an American tried to drive an aid truck across the Gaza border, Israel would blow it up. That’s currently just a threat, and they haven’t done that, but the houthis haven’t attacked a ship since the ceasefire, they only threatened to which is what prompted this strike.

                  Are all Yemeni rape happy slavery terrorists? Because these bombings are pretty indiscriminate, a majority of the people are civilians. This latest strike was on an apartment building, not some secret houthi military base. They killed a couple terrorist leaders that will be easily replaced, while killing substantially more civilians.

                  the average American does not hear about Americans being attacked abroad by terrorists who commit rape en mass, support genocide and have reintroduced slavery and think “we should give these people what they want”

                  All of those descriptors except for the slavery one apply to israel and half of Americans give them unequivocal support.

                  This isn’t just giving them what they want, the large majority of the world wants a ceasefire in gaza, look at the UN votes. If everyone in the world supports reducing pollution you don’t turn that around and say north Korea and the taliban want to reduce pollution, and we can’t let them get anything they want so we should pollute more. That’s the height of reactionary, oppositional politics that destroys any progress and solidarity.

  • kerrigan778@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    That’s because anyone who has been paying attention to geopolitics over the last two years knows why the US is bombing Yemen…