Saudi Arabia and the other Arab states that form the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have been brutally bombing Yemen for more than a year, hoping to drive Houthi rebels out of the capital they overran in 2014 and restore Saudi-backed President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
The United States has forcefully backed the Saudi-led war. In addition to sharing intelligence, the U.S. has sold tens of billions of dollars in munitions to the Saudis since the war began. The kingdom has used U.S.-produced aircraft, laser-guided bombs, and internationally-banned cluster bombs to target and destroy schools, markets, power plants, and a hospital, resulting in thousands of civilian deaths.
Despite all that, U.S. officials have done little to explain this support, have failed to explain the U.S. interests in the campaign, and have made scant mention of the humanitarian toll. In the absence of an official response, The Intercept raised those concerns with half a dozen former senior diplomatic officials, including U.S. ambassadors to Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
But rather than defend or explain the U.S. involvement, most of the former diplomats we interviewed said that the war harms U.S. interests.
Chas Freeman was the U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1989 and 1992
Photo: ChasFreeman.net
“I don’t think you can restore a government, especially an unpopular one, from the air, and I don’t think the use of force in this matter does anything but create long-term enmity,” said Chas Freeman, who served as the ambassador to Saudi Arabia between 1989 and 1992. He noted that former President Hadi’s unpopularity was partly due to his deep ties to Saudi Arabia and the United States. Freeman is currently a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University.
Barbara Bodine, who served as ambassador to Yemen between 1997 and 2001, directed us to recent remarks she made on the Zogby Show about the impact of the bombings on Yemen’s social fabric.
“It’s just been pushed over the edge,” she told host James Zogby. “It’s been declared a level 3 humanitarian crisis, there’s only four of those in the world. … The devastation of the physical damage, infrastructure damage, … the water system to the extent it has existed has been completely destroyed.” Bodine is currently a professor of diplomacy at Georgetown University.
Bill Rugh served as the U.S. Ambassador to Yemen from 1984 to 1987
Photo: Middle East Institute
“The humanitarian situation is as bad as it is in Syria,” said Bill Rugh, who was ambassador to Yemen between 1984 and 1987. “The American press hasn’t paid that much attention to it. But it’s been a disaster particularly as a result of the bombing and … the lack of outside humanitarian assistance as a result of the fighting. It’s really been tragic for the Yemeni people. The country’s always been very poor but to have your hospitals and your schools and your civilian population bombed and killed and injured on a large scale has added to their tragedy.” Rugh is currently a visiting professor at Tufts University Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
Helping al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
All of the diplomats pointed out that, contrary to administration statements that the Saudi war is serving counterterrorism objectives, the war has actually undermined U.S. national security interests. In particular, they noted that the campaign against the Houthis has allowed one of its enemies – al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) – to seize more territory.
Gary Grappo was the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 2003 to 2005
Photo: Emile Wamsteker/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“No question about that, no question whatsoever, that the war has turned everyone’s attention away from what concerns us most, and that’s violent extremism and terrorist groups,” said Gary Grappo, a former deputy chief of mission to Saudi Arabia. “Al Qaeda has grown in strength, and in numbers, and in resources, and that’s directly related to the turning of attention to the internal instability and ultimately the war in Yemen.” Grappo is currently CEO & founder of Equilibrium International Consulting.
Saudi Arabia has largely refrained from engaging AQAP, which is also fighting the Houthis. Last April, several weeks after the start of the Saudi-led campaign, AQAP seized the major port city of Mukalla, along with $100 million in bank assets. They held the city for over a year, making $2 million to $5 million a day from port taxes.
Barbara Bodine was the U.S. Ambassador to Yemen from 1997 to 2001
Photo: Georgetown University
“As long as this conflict goes on, AQAP has been able to take territory,” Bodine told Zogby. “And this has allowed what we consider one of the most dangerous elements of al Qaeda to get a territorial position far in excess what they’ve ever had. So I can’t tell you on any level why this war makes sense.”
“It certainly has harmed U.S. interests,” Rugh said of the war. “Particularly the expansion of AQAP and even ISIS in Yemen.”
Stephen Seche was the U.S. Ambassador to Yemen between 2007 and 2010
Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
“My sense has been and continues to be that the Saudis never seem to prioritize the threat posed by AQAP as high as we do,” Stephen Seche, who was the U.S. ambassador to Yemen between 2007 and 2010, told The Intercept. “The Saudis believe that when the time comes, they can manage the AQAP threat effectively. Whether they can or they can’t, that remains to be seen. In their mind, they see the threat of the Houthis and Iran as the much greater threat to their longevity and stability.” Seche is currently the executive vice president of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.
Dubious Connection to Iran
“The Saudis were almost obsessed with destroying the Houthis,” Nabeel Khoury, who served as the deputy chief of mission in Yemen between 2004 and 2007, told The Intercept. “And with that preoccupation with the Houthis … the Saudis were simply not motivated to go against [AQAP.]” Khoury is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East.
Defenders of the Saudi-led war have claimed that the Houthis are Iranian proxies, and that the Saudis are defending a neighboring country against that country’s influence, as Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said when the war began.
But all of the former diplomats we interviewed questioned that premise.
“I would argue that the Houthis were not in the Iranian camp until they were driven into it by necessity,” Freeman said. “When they were attacked by the Saudis – or counter-attacked, depending on how you see it – they needed support from somewhere, and they got it from Tehran. So the Saudi effort to punish the Iranians [for the nuclear deal] by punishing the Houthis ironically cemented the relationship between Iran and the Houthis that otherwise probably would not have existed.”
Nabeel Khoury was the Deputy Chief of Mission in Yemen between 2004 and 2007
Photo: Atlantic Council
Khoury also described the Houthi-Iranian relationship as having been advanced by the Saudi-led bombing campaign. “Once the Houthis got there, they thought … they are [also] against the Saudis so they must be good friends to Iran, so they started [cooperating],” he said.
The war has worked out to Iran’s benefit, Rugh said. “The Houthi uprising has been generated by local factors and not by the Iranians. The Iranians are taking advantage of it, in the sense that in their rivalry with Saudi Arabia they don’t mind the Saudis panicking over what’s going on in Yemen.” Plus, Rugh said, “the Yemen intervention by Saudi Arabia has diverted Saudi attention away from Syria and that’s to Iran’s advantage.”
“In many ways the IRGC [Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s elite fighting force] did increase their role in Yemen in direct response to the Saudi-led invasion,” Seche said. “When they saw the Saudis come in, it was like an invitation to come in and choose sides.”
Several of the former diplomats said that the administration should end its role as silent partner. “A friend would counsel the Saudis that this is really not in their interest — there is not in fact a Persian under every bush in Yemen — and that the Houthis historically were allies to the kingdom rather than opponents, despite the fact that they possess a kind of Shia faith. I would argue and I have argued with the Saudis that it’s a mistake to define your opponents in sectarian terms,” Freeman said.
“I think at this point there is an opportunity for the U.S. to push a full court press on the peace effort to get the Yemenis back to the negotiating table and to work something out for the future of Yemen that they can all live with,” Khoury said. Specifically, he said, that “requires not just advice, which I think we have been giving for the past few months — we’ve been giving advice to the Saudis to ease up on the bombardments, and go to the negotiating table — but I think if this doesn’t happen quickly enough, then we ought to ease up on [militarily] supporting the Saudi war effort.”
Breaking the Silence
“The Saudis have been implicated, according to U.N. special panels, in war crimes,” Khoury noted. “Given what we in the United States have been doing to support the war effort, we are implicated as well. I think it’s really urgent that we pull back on the support to put pressure on the Saudis to come to terms with the Houthis and to facilitate a Yemeni-Yemeni agreement. I think that would be the best course.”
Last month, Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced a bill blocking all weapons sales to Saudi Arabia unless the State Department certifies the country is taking “precautions to reduce the risk of harm to civilians” in Yemen.
“Our participation in the war is only silent in the United States Congress and in Washington, D.C.,” Murphy said at an event on Saudi relations at the Brookings Institute on April 21. “In the region, it’s not silent at all. Yemenis will tell you that this isn’t a Saudi-led bombing campaign, this is a U.S.-Saudi bombing campaign.”
Freeman offered an explanation for the silence on Capitol Hill. “Congress is amazingly responsive to the military-industrial complex, and it’s making a bunch of money by providing munitions, ordinance, as it’s expended,” Freeman said.
Many of the diplomats questioned whether there was any good reason to be involved at all.
“I just cannot see a U.S. interest that is served by the war in Yemen,” Grappo said. “The Saudis have always been hypersensitive about Yemen. There was some argument for us doing that if we felt that the Iranians were backing the Houthis, which I don’t think they were.”
Related Stories:
- Senator Says Bombing Yemen is Distracting Saudis From Fighting Terror
- U.S. Report on Saudi Arabia Downplays Civilian Casualties in Yemen
- Growing International Movement Seeks to Place Arms Embargo on Saudi Arabia
- In Yemen, Civilians Suffer Relentless Bombing By Saudi-Led Coalition
- Saudi Coalition Just Bombed Center for the Blind in Yemen
Top photo: Yemenis inspect the damage at a sewing workshop that was hit by a Saudi-led coalition air strike in the capital Sanaa, on Feb. 14, 2016.
It is all about oil. In oil we trust.
It is all about peace otherwise Saudis wont intervene.
Since the United States has been accused of aiding Saudi Arabia in committing war crimes (many thanks to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for pulling off that multi-billion dollar weapons deal including very high-tech aircraft), now Obama is “doubling down” on his obscene relationship with the Saudi dictatorship and is sending U.S. troops/advisors directly into Yemen, no doubt so they can develop a cozier relationship to the mercenaries/terrorists in the region.
I really do hope FBI Director Comey is able to connect the dots between Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and contributions to The Clinton Foundation.
Really funny thing how her IT expert Bryan Pagliono’s emails are now “missing” from The State Department.
At this point I would like to see both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama brought down.
How many human beings must suffer and die for their hubris and criminality?
And speaking of Saudi Arabia and war crimes, just read where Saudi Arabia financed Bibi’s last campaign!
Is there NO WAY to stop these SUPER PREDATORS??
I guess it must fall upon someone to mention that news has come out today, May 9 — if it wasn’t actually yesterday — that US troops are actually on the ground in Yemen, actively assisting the Saudis in their war. Just how many troops and in just what role is something, I believe, not yet clear; but I guess we shall all soon find out more soon and an update to this story might well prove in order.
“despite the fact that they possess a kind of Shia faith. I would argue and I have argued with the Saudis that it’s a mistake to define your opponents in sectarian terms,” Freeman said”.
Meanings of war did change apparently after you left Saudi in 1992. One cannot ignore that the sectarian incentive is a reason; unfortunately.
“Defenders of the Saudi-led war have claimed that the Houthis are Iranian proxies, and that the Saudis are defending a neighboring country against that country’s influence, as Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said when the war began.”
Even-though I do not believe in this defend because I, as one commented down; have business relations with Saudi, but it is the current war plan for Iran; to serve their sectarian goals through proxies. By causing trouble to take over Muslim’s Holy city which is located in Saudi. Do not ever underestimate such a reason.
Apparently none of these ambassadors know that the US is directly involved in drone strikes in Yemen. I think this is a fact known to more than Intercept Readers. Am I wrong? It certainly makes US policy more than silent non-intervention as the ambassadors, who should certainly know about the drones, seem to portray it, doesn’t it?
Throughout the recorded history of mankind it’s been the same question – Muslims have never been able to figure out whom they are fighting and why. You can get a Muslim to carry out suicide-bombings because of their delusion of the meritorious awards that Allha will keep ready when they go knocking at his door.
If the United Nations cannot stop one member country from bombing another then I wonder what is Ban Ki fellow is doing drawing his big salary.
American, I know your history is but a speck, and you don’t remember anything about the speck, but who are you to be calling anyone else delusional?
Can you explain your own torture/killing binges? Can you explain your own decapitation fetish? I know, I know… race hatred with a pinch of religion.
Can you be a little more creative? (It’s old.) And on a personal note, can you justify your public teat-sucking pension? I’m tired of paying it, asshole.
Quite the opposite, true Muslims know exactly what are they fighting for and what they want from this temporary life. Unfortunately, there are those with radical beliefs help distort the real image of Islam which is reflected in the meaning of Islam, surrender and peace.
Can we please stop pretending to be naive here? These are not mistakes or stupid moves, they are done for geopolitical reasons to buttress the U.S. empire. The Houthies are supported by Iran (U.S. enemy) and Hadi et al. was supported by the U.S. This is a perfect example of a proxy war, and those in power couldn’t care less about morality, civilian casualties, or anything else that sane humans care about.
But they are the mistakes and stupid moves of a simple minded and hubris bloated people who think they are something more, and their perpetual war is bankrupting their increasingly hated and distrusted empire. Sure, lots of torture & kill happy assholes have been laughing all the way to the bank as more circumspect practitioners of realpolitik — who have a superior understanding of their own limitations — run circles around them with far less military hardware and free-to-print cash to burn. Hubris based stupidity always takes it’s toll; arrogant and willfully ignorant Americans are unexceptional in this regard.
What is naive is the belief Democrats, Republicans, and the sort of people who vote for them know what they’re doing, despite the fact they (you too?) choose Iran as your enemy and not Saudi Arabia, who’s pure white princes had more than a little to do with knocking down a wall of your strongest fort and two of your tallest buildings.
But don’t listen to this nattering nabob. Internalize your TV and go vote Americans. You’ll get it right this time. Heh.
Where in my comments did you read that I think Iran is an enemy of MINE? I said it’s an enemy of the U.S., of which I’m only reluctantly a part since I was born here. I was critiquing the analysis of facts in the article, not giving an opinion. What’s with the overblown and totally off base reaction?
Since this mess primarily benefits Iran, President Obama is to be thanked for helping to strengthen the Iranian resistance against the terrorist Saudi state and their allies, the Israelis.
if you call Saudi Arabia terrorist state, then can you tell me why Saudi Arabia has helped establish the United Nations Counter-terrorism Center?
I think people are manipulated by what’s the media is telling them about Saudi Arabia which proved its assertiveness in combating terrorism. KSA has suffered long enough from many attacks by ISIS and AlQaeda and it’s time to put an end to those extremists.
Most of the regimes which promote “counter-terrorism”
do so because they also promote terrorism.
They make money and seek domination from both sides
of the scheme and they depend on the suckers to do their dirty work.
“Homeland security” is primarily a scheme to strip people
of human rights in the name of private profits.
Claiming that “most” of the countries that counter terrorism, are terrorizing, is just an absurd claim.
Any person can see and comprehend the major effort any country does to combat terrorism. Dismantling and penetrating terrorists’ plots are not to be belittled Mr. Clark.
if what you are saying is true, then the whole world now is promoting terrorism and that is irrational.
No leader wants its citizens to get killed by extremists just to gain a few dollars. We need to have faith in those campaigns.
Your first sentence is correct in stating that the GWOT
is “irrational.” Beyond that , this murdering and savagery
– in the name of fighting against murder and savagery –
is a bottomless pit which is sucking away lives and
resources for the irrational delusions of grandeur.
As for your second sentence, you assume that the people
who sell their own lives for power are capable of really caring.
I find this assumption dubious.
Finally, “faith” is a fool’s paradise, especially when it is
applied to political machinery.
I agree with, but us citizens have nothing but keep hoping that a change will happen in the near future that’s why we believe in such words like faith and hope even in political contexts
How come! Saudi never ever tried to be part of any war except for Yemen. They made it clear to the world that it is for the general good.
This brutality does NOT benefit Iran.
It doesn’t benefit anyone, not even the people who are
promoting it. The Saudis, the faking U$A, and their allies
are their own worst enemies and NEED to be dismissed,
repudiated, and restrained, so that they do less harm.
Obama doesn’t give a shit about who gets slaughtered,
unless he (like most of Washington’s criminal class) can
use his fake indignation as a way of unleashing more
horror on innocent people
for the privatized monetary profit of his ilk.
How come Iran is not benefited from all this brutality?
Iran interferes on neighboring internal issues for its own benefits. They might not step up as the front actors at the show, but they are definitely the main supporters for such harsh and cruel war.
Why would they interfere on Arabs, or specifically, Arabic Muslim nations?
My point is that NO country “benefits” because the people
of EVERY country involved in this corruption lose rights
and lose economically when their “government” uses
“terrorism” as an excuse for increasing militarization
and reduced social programs.
They All do it. One answer – more expensive militarism
and, in the case of the neo-fascist faking U$A,
gutting what was a constitution for private profits.
It seems Saudi Arabia and Israel have been much cozier than we realized:
http://yournewswire.com/panama-papers-leak-saudi-king-funded-netanyahus-rise-to-power/
Hey Intercept! Howz about an in-depth study on this?
The underlying leitmotif of believing that this savagery
“harms US interests”
is clearly based upon a false notion.
Rather than harming US “interests” these vicious bloodbaths
are a hallmark of US interests.
This false notion is like saying that blood-stained water
“harms” the interests of alligators and sharks,
as if their “interests” would have it otherwise.
Rather, the truth is, that they are INVESTED in the savagery.
What threat? AQAP is the Saudis. They’ll do what they’re told.
It’s a bit funny to think that Saudis are AlQaeda! I mean Saudi Arabia its self has suffered from AlQaeda attacks for almost 13 years. AlQaeda’s main aim is to destabilize KSA. In an operation carried out by Saudi-led coalition, almost 800 members of AlQaeda have been killed and that helped retake Mukalla which has been held by AQAP for a year. That was four days ago and many stories proved that Saudi Arabia has waged a war against AlQaeda, so you better stop accusing other nations based on nothing.
One wonders how you came to be so defensive of the Saudi monarchy of murderers. You remind me of the lazy chubby child of a Bahraini minister who was in my class. He explained how all the protestors were violent and that was the cause of the harsh crackdowns and arrests. What does anything you have said have to do with this article about the extreme violence against Yemeni towns , the bulk of which falls on civilians? Are we supposed to believe you are reading The Intercept out of genuine interest?
Mr. Jonabark, I believe commenting and interacting with different views is beneficial to widen your gaze. Surrendering oneself to what the media wants you to believe in is a fault to be done to oneself. Never thought of someone hushing a person who is trying to understand the happenings just as you do here.
AQAP is actually in Yemen, it is mentioned on the same article that we all read, it was linked to be Saudi, thus, explaining how not-Saudi AQAP is. As simple as that.
My comment might not be related to the article, but it’s a reply to your comment regarding what you said about Saudi Arabia and AQAP. I just wanted to clarify some misunderstanding you have, so I had to mention some facts to prove my point.
Actually, I read what I find interesting for me and newspapers were never meant to be read by a certain group of people.
It would be very interesting if some intrepid reporter (hint, hint…someone at The Intercept), could spell out for the international public exactly “who” all these “terrorist groups” are, who is funding them and whose objectives they are serving?
There is ISIS/Daesh/ISIL and then there is Al Queda, and then we have Al Nusra, then there are the “Syrian Rebels” and Boko Harem and of course we can’t leave out the CIA and the various groups they are funding (including the Syrian rebels and Al Queda and Al Nusra).
I have even read reports where Israel is funding and supporting ISIS!
Are these all just fancy names for the same types of “rebels” the United States funded during the Contra days in Nicaragua fighting the Sandinistas?
And we can’t leave out all the various CIA mercenary groups on the U.S. payroll fighting in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq and Yemen like Xe, Triple Canopy etc.:
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/333186-blackwater-yemen-mercenaries-pentagon/
http://www.alternet.org/world/35-countries-where-us-has-supported-fascists-druglords-and-terrorists
And Democrats are expected to stand in line to vote for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who is well aware of all of this?
I don’t think so.
OMG, does it really take 6 former diplomats to figure this out? God help us if someone needs to change a light bulb!
Still, I realize Intercept really does need such testimony in order to have cred with the hoi-polloi. But most of us here don’t need them for analysis.
History repeats itself.
Our disguised bombing of Yemen shows everything gained by the courageous Vietnam protesters is or has been dismantled.
“In 1969, President Richard Nixon and his National Security Advisor, Henry A. Kissinger, unleashed B-52 carpet bombing for over fourteen months against a people who still tilled the soil with water buffalo. The 3,500 bombing sorties resulted in 600,000 deaths. The American bombing of Cambodia was a closely guarded secret primarily because the U.S. was not at war with Cambodia.
Not only did Nixon and Kissinger not seek the necessary approval from Congress to bomb Cambodia, they tried to conceal the bombing not only from the American public but Congress as well. Nixon and Kissinger believed that these hideous lies were imperative to hold on to South Vietnam as part of the American Empire..”
http://thirdworldtraveler.com/American_Empire/Nixon_Cambodia_LFE.html
We are a most evil empire and the way we bomb and pillage the world has been brought home only in reverse with pillaging the masses first, unless you count geo-engineering and the constant spraying of our skies as bombing.
http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/
http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/category/breaking-news/
Don’t forget about Laos it was the most heavily bombed as well and is still one of the poorest countries with many deaths still from unexplored ordinance.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Barrel_Roll
Thanks, it is hard to keep track of all the murders, but as I was posting I was thinking of all the ongoing deaths and horrific injuries to children from those land mines.
It’s always former this and former that. America’s rugged active duty conformistalistas are not the risk takers they advertise themselves to be. Quite the opposite. After all, there is no risk. Ever seen an American torture policy man or woman, or a Goldman Sachs thief go to jail? Thought so.
“Former U.S. Diplomats Decry the U.S.-Backed Saudi War in Yemen”
It is hard to believe that the US is not supporting the Saudis or just looking to the other side. Obama was in Saudi Arabia a few weeks ago I am sure they talk about this daily massacre.
March 22nd, 2016 The US Gov’t Finally Admits That The People They Armed In Syria Have Committed Genocide
State Department is legally mandated by Congress to determine whether Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) persecution of minorities in Iraq and Syria – Christians, Yazidis, Sunni Kurds and Shiite Muslims – constitutes genocide.“What is happening in Iraq and Syria is a deliberate, systematic targeting of religious and ethnic minorities. Today, the House unanimously voted to call ISIS’s atrocities what they are: a genocide. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin)
http://www.mintpressnews.com/us-govt-finally-admits-people-armed-syria-committed-genocide/214993/
http://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Pg.-291-Pgs.-287-293-JW-v-DOD-and-State-14-812-DOD-Release-2015-04-10-final-version11.pdf?
Let the Saudi Royals make a hell of a mess in their own back yard……… Don’t $hit where you live is obvious….. Being allied with the great satin is another no no….
We are talking here about innocent people being killed every day by rebels and their ousted president! So I think we should all care about this conflict and support the Saudi-led coalition to restore the legitimate regime.
This is just sour grapes on the part of former diplomats, because Yemen is not their war. Obviously, the United States has an interest in selling “tens of billions of dollars in munitions to the Saudis”.
It is true that Yemen was a poor country without much oil before the war, and it will be a poorer country without much oil after the war. So the United States does not have a political interest in Yemen per se. But if Saudi Arabia is willing to do the fighting, I don’t think that’s a significant objection.
Foreign policy evolves, and these ex-diplomats are still living in a bygone era which operated by different rules. Mr. Obama has greatly lowered the cost of war, by use of proxies to do the actual fighting and drones which enable war to be conducted from the comfort of a recliner chair. So there is no longer any limit on the number of wars which can be fought by the United States. We live in an era of plenty, but the habits of these diplomatic dinosaurs were fixed in the days when people were stingy with wars, picking and choosing their battles carefully. We should respect them for the difficult circumstances in which they lived, but we are by no means obliged to pay any attention to them.
Wow! You had me going there for a minute, thinking, “Yeah, this jerk’s name is apt.”
But then I read your last paragraph and flicked my sarcometer with my finger, and it started working again.
Former senior diplomatic officials – former, of course. I suppose few currently serving diplomats want to suffer the way of John Paton Davis, Jr. It’s replay A Bright and Shining Lie, the not so Best and not so Brightest are at it again. Persians under bushes, commies under beds, it’s the same bogeyman punishing many to profit a few.
As for “I just cannot see a U.S. interest that is served by the war in Yemen,”
I am not convinced that any war has ever served a country’s interest for the long term, but it has definitely always served the interest of a select few for decades if not centuries to come.
London now has a Paki Mayor. God bless the Queen.
London’s Mayor-elect is a Brit, born and raised in Old Blighty.
Some people see the Revolutionary Guard under every bed.
This whole thing leads to one conclusion. The aim is to enrich “illegitimate” fighting forces to fight “illegitimate” future wars -such as a valuable land grab somewhere else. To fight an illegitimate war you need proxies.
I have been noting, since the rise of ISIS, that ISIS has been too easily grabbing land, to then relinquish it too easily to the Kurds. There was almost a pattern to it. The net effect has been a series of land-grabs by a somewhat more legitimate “ground allies” as they are called.
There is a pattern to “it”. All of it.
‘Bout f’in time… some diplomat, somewhere, decries war… Imagine that.
Defies imagination, don’t it? Usually the photo op is for a buncha pale, stressed angry lookin’ dudes in suits or power-figure (as opposed to action figure) attire, mostly with ties, clenched jaws and pinched, furrowed brows looking like the dude with the Kill-List pen just won’t sign soon enough to hold off collapse of some huge deal for like 3 billion in jets, drones or robobo-guns – or severe irritable bowel syndrome blowout, whilst on camera…
and… “former” speaks volumes. Less skin in the game?
I always thought that the Secretary of State’s job was to use diplomacy when dealing in foreign relations.
All it seems Mrs. Clinton did was to call for WARS and regime changes!
Her position as Secretary of State can be summed up in one word: FAIL.
‘Bout f’in time… some diplomat, somewhere, decries war… Imagine that.
On this:
“Defenders of the Saudi-led war have claimed that the Houthis are Iranian proxies, and that the Saudis are defending a neighboring country against that country’s influence, as Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said when the war began.”
McCain’s Arizona nonprofit has taken at least $1 million from the Saudis (the Clinton foundation took $10 million plus). This kind of political corruption was also seen with Nixon, Kissinger and the Shah of Iran in the 1970 ‘s.
This rather explains the growing Bush-Clinton pro-Saudi alliance, I think.
This is the kind of thing that leads me to consider voting for Trump, to be honest. Hillary and her neocon Republican pals are simply not an option. She’d probably go to war against Iran with her friends in Israel and Saudi Arabia.
This rather explains the growing Bush-Clinton pro-Saudi alliance, I think.
think? or see…
Honestly. Consider it.
Hillary is a snake. an elitist establishment. too blind to feel the nasty of it.
i am independent. lean libertarian. i support Bernie, Trump second.
The fraudulent fiat US $ is goiing into the toilet. Wallstreet greed has caused them to double down on their fraud.
I would be in cash at this time. I would actually buy yuan or swiss. CERTAINLY NOT US BONDS! china and saudis are on-the-ready to dump.
Wallstreet, IMO, will not invest 1 dime in the US.
lotsa luck. you are a good person.
wow- won’t hear this on the american media.
Dispossessing people of their land and making a bunch of money doing so has grown to be very popular today. It’s like the elite establishments are saying..
“The Saudis have been implicated, according to U.N. special panels, in war crimes,” Khoury noted. “Given what we in the United States have been doing to support the war effort, we are implicated as well.
Sure. War crimes shmore crimes.
Chinese Companies Profiting From Exporting ‘Tools of Torture,’ Report Says
http://time.com/3423817/china-torture/
Congress was NEVER meant to be a full time job. The establishment elite now seek refuge in their jobs to be away from the people they pretend to represent. America is no democracy, it’s a sham. The NSA is monitoring keywords in conversations https://theintercept.com/2014/08/25/icreach-nsa-cia-secret-google-crisscross-proton/. Israel wants another billion from US. Britain wants more US participation in taking refugees from the syrian dispossession. The IMF-WorldBank is forcing austerity onto south america which will drive many of 250,000,000 poverty persons into America. The US is goading china into WW3.
Nice planet.
That’s because all the Wahhabi inspired terrorist organizations all over the region (and possibly globe) are either the creation or proxy of the despicable Saudis royals and the GCC cabal, or the Pakistani ISI.
I’ve said it for nearly 10 years, if America was smart it would pivot, desert the GCC clowns, and engage in massive rapprochement with Iran and the Iranian people who aren’t a bunch of backward lunatics like the Saudis and their fellow monarchists in the region.
Iran has all the oil and natural gas the Western world could want for the interim period between getting off the fossil fuel nipple or watching the global ecosphere collapse–whichever comes first.
The Saudis and GCC are not ever going to be a part of a global solution to any problem whatsoever. And if it wasn’t for Medina and Mecca being such holy sites to over a billion people, the US should have bombed the Saudis and their fellow travelers into dust after 9-11 and left everyone else alone.
But they don’t because America isn’t concerned about the American people’s “security”. America’s elites are interested in their financial ties to the Saudis and their fellow travelers of longstanding.
“That’s because all the Wahhabi inspired terrorist organizations all over the region (and possibly globe) are either the creation or proxy of the despicable Saudis royals and the GCC cabal, or the Pakistani ISI.”
Yes. Sometimes with the able assistance of the CIA, of course.
“I’ve said it for nearly 10 years, if America was smart it would pivot, desert the GCC clowns, and engage in massive rapprochement with Iran and the Iranian people who aren’t a bunch of backward lunatics like the Saudis and their fellow monarchists in the region.”
And also yes.
Just wait till Hilary gets in office, she’ll put a stop to this. I mean, she’s a democrat, why wouldn’t she? It’s not like she’s close friends with the Saudis or the miltary indutrial complex or anything.
Iran and Libya is already in her cross hairs. Her and Nutjobnutanyahu will make sure this will occur.
We came, we saw, they died.
Hilarius Clintonus
I’m laughing already.
How many of these huge mistakes can the US/Saudi Empire withstand before there is serious trouble in the realm (not just Saudi Arabia)?
They shrugged off Snowden, LuxLeacks and the Panama Papers is just throwing up a lot of smoke nothing will really happen to the super wealthy.
The enormity of the mistakes the US led global economic empire is stunning. War can go on in Vietnam for 15 years the US looses and so what it is still #1, before that the Korean peninsula, and after Nicaragua and all the other losses Iraq I guess doesn’t count as a loss sense it is not over yet.
Now Yemen – they kill and maim create suffering and death on vast scales and they are getting away with it.
You will find no mention of this in the Guardian for example.