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Yemen government routed by Iranian-backed group, Saudi attacks; clueless Obama humiliated

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by bigtexxx, Mar 25, 2015.

  1. bigtexxx

    bigtexxx Contributing Member

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    Yet another example of our clueless bozo-in-chief Obama. Just a few short months ago Obama hailed Yemen as "a counterterrorism success story".

    It might just be time to push reset, Barack. Just like how it worked in Russia. Or maybe call them the JV team like you did ISIS.

    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-03-25-19-49-42

    Mar 25, 10:21 PM EDT

    SAUDI ARABIA BEGIN AIRSTRIKES AGAINST HOUTHI REBELS IN YEMEN
    BY KEN DILANIAN
    AP INTELLIGENCE WRITER

    WASHINGTON (AP) -- Saudi Arabia began airstrikes Wednesday against Houthi rebel positions in Yemen, vowing that the Sunni kingdom will do "anything necessary" to restore a deposed government that has been routed by the Iranian-backed group.

    In an unusual tableau, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States announced the rare military operation by his country at a Washington news conference about a half-hour after the bombing began. The strikes started at 7 p.m. EDT, he said.

    Loud, house-shaking explosions could be heard in the Yemen capital of Sanaa and fire and smoke could be seen in the night sky, according to an Associated Press correspondent whose home is near the military airbase in the capital.

    The Houthis said in a statement to reporters that Saudi jets are hitting the military base, known as al-Duleimi, in Sanaa. They said they fired anti-aircraft missiles in response.

    Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir said his government had consulted closely with the U.S. and other allies, but said the U.S. military was not directly involved in the operations.

    The White House said Wednesday night that President Barack Obama has authorized logistical and intelligence support to the military operations.

    "While U.S. forces are not taking direct military action in Yemen in support of this effort, we are establishing a joint planning cell with Saudi Arabia to coordinate U.S. military and intelligence support," National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in a statement.

    Al-Jubeir, speaking from a podium at the Saudi embassy, said nine other countries have joined the military coalition, but he declined to name them.

    Five members of the Gulf Cooperation Council - Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain - issued a statement saying they are answering the demands to intervene in Yemen militarily. Oman, the sixth member of the council, didn't sign on. In a separate statement, Egypt announced its political and military support.

    "Having Yemen fail cannot be an option for us or our coalition partners," al-Jubeir said.

    The Saudi strikes were the latest in a series of fast moving developments in Yemen - a rugged, poor, isolated country that is home to an al-Qaida affiliate that has been the target of repeated American drone strikes.

    Driven weeks ago from the capital by the Houthis, U.S.- and Saudi-backed Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi abandoned the country Wednesday, leaving on a boat from the southern port of Aden, Yemeni security officials said. His departure came after Houthi air strikes rained down on his troops, a sign that rebels held air superiority and that Hadi's calls for an international no-fly zone had been disregarded. On the ground, the rebels were advancing toward his position.

    Al-Jubeir said the Saudi airstrikes were designed "to prevent Yemen from falling into the hands of the Houthis," but the reality is that the capital and some of the country's main cities already have fallen to the group, and ground troops will be required to take them back. The ambassador said he didn't want to discuss military details.

    It was unacceptable, Al-Jubeir said, that a "militia," as he called the Houthis, should have air power, along with "ballistic missiles, heavy weapons as well as military bases and ports."

    Al-Jubeir recounted a series of diplomatic efforts to dissuade the Houthi from continuing their offensive. But, he said, they "have always chosen the path of violence."

    He says the Saudis "will do anything necessary" to protect the people of Yemen and "the legitimate government of Yemen."

    Hadi's departure illustrated how one of the most important American counterterrorism efforts has disintegrated. It also raised the specter of what could be a deeply destabilizing proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Saudi announcement only reinforced that notion.

    Three years ago, American officials hailed Hadi's ascension to power in a U.S.-brokered deal that ended the longtime rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh during the political upheaval of the Arab Spring. And just a few months ago, President Barack Obama was still calling Yemen a counterterrorism success story, even as the CIA warned that Iranian-backed Houthi rebels were growing restive in the north of the country.

    Now, U.S. officials acknowledge their efforts against Yemen's dangerous al-Qaida affiliate are seriously hampered, with the American embassy closed and the last U.S. troops evacuated from the country over the weekend. Although the Houthis have seized control of much of the country and are avowed enemies of al-Qaida, they can't project power against the militants the way the Hadi government could with American support, officials say. And now they will be fighting the Saudis and their allies.
     
  2. Buck Turgidson

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    Which faction in Yemen are our friends, again? The ones backed by Iran or the ones back by Saudi? Shiites or Sunnis?
     
  3. bingsha10

    bingsha10 Member

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  4. False

    False Member

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    Who cares about all that noise. We need to bomb both Iran and Saudi Arabia and put boots on the ground and bring Freedom to the whole region.
     
  5. robbie380

    robbie380 ლ(▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿ლ)
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    Iran is Shia and anti-Al Queda....just sayin....
     
  6. Exiled

    Exiled Member

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    both Iran & Al Qaida ultimate goal =

    rule the Arabian peninsula and defeat the Saudi.
     
  7. Buck Turgidson

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    I would ****ing hope that everyone in this forum knows this already.
     
  8. robbie380

    robbie380 ლ(▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿ლ)
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    Not sure where you get that idea for Iran
     
  9. CometsWin

    CometsWin Breaker Breaker One Nine

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    I'm not clear on which side bigtexxx is backing, the Iranian terrorists or the Saudi terrorists. Please clarify.
     
  10. glynch

    glynch Contributing Member

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    He's not sure but it is Obama's fault.
     
  11. Sweet Lou 4 2

    Sweet Lou 4 2 Contributing Member
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    I think he's rooting for the Iranians and the Saudis - to embarrass Obama!

    I bet when Benghazi happened he nearly creamed and could hardly get to the BBS fast enough to gleefully write an anti-Obama thread. It's clear that his number one love and what he cares most for - even more than America - is his hate for Obama, the "half-black" prez from kenya.
     
  12. Northside Storm

    Northside Storm Contributing Member

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    those who have been following and talking about this from the very beginning have documented this bulls**t very closely--all of the s**t being committed in the misbegotten War on Terror is starting to stick.

    I thank you for acknowledging the true heroes that Jeremy Scahill, Laura Poitras, and Glenn Greenwald are for risking it all to unearth these stories long before you started caring. You are standing on the shoulders of giants and I believe you should acknowledge that texxx.

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/01/ibrahim-mothana-yemen-drones-obama

    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31497.htm

    http://www.theatlantic.com/politics...oks-like-laura-poitras-on-citizenfour/381749/

    Friedersdorf: Yes. And you were harassed at airports—harassed, in fact, by a government that has tortured, a government that kills people, even American citizens, in drone strikes. Yet sitting here for this interview we both have the expectation that black helicopters won't suddenly emerge on the horizon and gun us down. How do you make sense of the U.S. government? What's your notion of how far it would go? How safe do you ultimately feel as a dissident journalist?

    Poitras: Being put on a watch list, I think there are things that it isn't and things that it is. I don't think that there are police watching movies and saying, we're going to put these people on a list because we don't like their movies. I don't think it's that. I don't think we've got to that level. But I do think there's a vast expansion of an intelligence-gathering apparatus, and there's a system in which people sit and nominate people to put on watch lists. I somehow became one of those people. The impact hasn't stopped me from working. But it has created huge hurdles to do the work. Being interrogated or detained every time I returned to the United States. Having my computer taken. Having agents say to me things like, "If you don't answer our questions we'll find the answers on your electronics."
     
  13. AroundTheWorld

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    Obama's foreign policy is a total mess (but previous governments have made mistakes as well, like supporting the Saudi regime). The only country in this whole region he should support, but threatens not to anymore is Israel.
     
    1 person likes this.
  14. Northside Storm

    Northside Storm Contributing Member

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    Reagan f**king sold arms to Iran illegally, may have conspired with the ayatollahs to win the election against Carter, then he helped Saddam chemically poison thousands of Iranian troops (boy I wonder why Iran is so hell-bent on flipping s**t against America even though they hate the Sunnis so much), while helping fund and develop the jihadist network that would become A-Q. Everything he did in the Middle East basically led to giant clusterf**ks and an entire region that hates America.

    If Obama's foreign policy is a total mess, it's only come after 20 years of utter incompetence when it comes to the Middle East by most if not all American politicians. Hell, might as well say since 1933 when diplomatic relations were first established with Saudi Arabia, and the devil's deal for oil began.
     
  15. Exiled

    Exiled Member

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    You should blame the British for giving Persia a 4x land than what they did deserve and giving the Palestinian's land to Jews &blame the French too for creating Khomeini's revaluation and offsetting the former Shah
     
  16. robbie380

    robbie380 ლ(▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿ლ)
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    This was an editorial from 2010

    http://yemenpost.net/Detail123456789.aspx?ID=3&SubID=1749&MainCat=2

    Thousands Expected to die in 2010 in Fight against Al-Qaeda

    Hakim Almasmari

    It seems that the government of Yemen is addictive to war. This week, the government has been trying to stop the ongoing war in Sa’ada and start peace negotiations with Houthis. Houthis agreed to the conditions the government put on the table.

    With the Houthi war maybe nearing to an end, the government is finding other ways to keep Yemeni blood dripping. The open war it announced against Al-Qaeda was hailed internationally but angered many in Yemen.
    The anger does not come because Yemenis support Al-Qaeda, but rather because Yemenis feel that hundreds of innocent civilians will be killed by Yemeni and U.S. airstrikes on Al-Qaeda targets under the slogan of hunting Al-Qaeda members.

    The last attacks on Al-Qaeda in Abyan and Shabwa killed 102 civilians and two Al-Qaeda members. Do you expect families of innocent civilians who were killed in the raids against Al-Qaeda to stay quiet after the death of their loved ones? I personally expect them to join hands with Al-Qaeda just to try to get revenge from the government or the U.S. for killings their brothers, sisters, parents or even friends.

    If we go back in history just five years ago, we will see that Houthis were only 2000 in number. However, after the government imprisoned thousands, air raided over 20,000 homes and killed more than 2300 innocent civilians, Houthi followers gradually increased. Today Houthis number over 100,000 fighters.

    We expect the current small number of Al-Qaeda followers to reach tens of thousands in the next couple of years if the attacks against them start harming innocent children and women. Al-Qaeda followers in Yemen do not exceed 400 in total. This might change if Yemen fights Al-Qaeda in the same way the U.S. forces have fought them in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
     
  17. Northside Storm

    Northside Storm Contributing Member

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    I think it's a generally agreed-upon preposition that colonialism and supporting ideologues for oil is utter bulls**t so sure, they can have some blame too.
     
  18. peleincubus

    peleincubus Member

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    sometimes i think that whole region is warped and evil. including Israel and the U.S.

    maybe the canadians, swiss, and scandinavia are the only truly good countries out there. :confused::confused::confused::confused:
     
  19. Dubious

    Dubious Contributing Member

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    The US is clearing out to make way for Saudi's first use of it's acquired military power in a regional conflict. This is going to be a hugely interesting (if ever more tragic) turn of world events. The Saudi's are saying they will not tolerate a Shia government on their borders.

    Sure Big Puffery always wants everything to be a humiliation of Obama but there is an all out world war brewing between Shia and Sunni's that the US has little rooting interest in. Our position has been that of world police, just trying to keep a lid on the pressure cooker, but it's becoming ever more obvious it's going to blow and the best strategy is to get out of the way.

    The primary strategic point for the US will be whether the Iranians and Saudis can limit the conflict to their proxies or will at some point engage each other more directly. That has implications for the Persian Gulf and the world dependence on oil transportation through it.
    The US can best manage this threat by being more disengaged from the sides in the conflict so they can be seen as a more impartial arbitrator of the sea lanes. Again, Obama is playing chess and the long game.

    I'd tell US drillers to keep those idle rigs in good repair and keep as many roughnecks on the payroll as you can.
     
    #19 Dubious, Mar 26, 2015
    Last edited: Mar 26, 2015
  20. MiddleMan

    MiddleMan Contributing Member

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    Well, this will bring the Iran nuclear talks to a halt. Remember that Saudi Arabia was upset that Obama did not attack Syria the same way they did Libya. Nothing good will come out of this.
     

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