Yemen: Follow-Up

Clapper has called AQAP (Al Qaeda on the Arab Peninsula) the greatest threat to US national interests… now it’s Russia. Quite a shift in so little time. But what was the AQAP remark all about? Weapons sales, of course.

Terror has been the excuse for small corrupt governments, like that of Yemen, to milk hegemons (either global like the US, or local like Saud) of their money to combat terror. While strikes against both civilians and terror groups lead to more recruitment, the terrorists (considered by locals as freedom-fighters) are increasing acts of terror (read: liberation) to further the cycle. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy and a perpetual wheel, and US military contractors salivate at the prospect. If war is the most profitable industry, that is where capital (and capitalism) will flow… moral compass be damned. A corporation can be sued by its shareholders for acts of morality which cost the company money. Let the poor defenseless suckers pay for it all. This is disaster capitalism at its finest, the strong picking on the weak. This is why there is a wealth gap, in the first place.

Meanwhile, the poorest suffer, but they fight, for what other choice is there? Abandoning sovereignty is not a choice, it is a consequence of defeat.

America’s Dangerous Game In Yemen – (25:01)

 

Prince Charles is one of the world’s leading arms dealers (47:15) and should be brought to answer for his deeds especially concerning Saud and their war with Yemeni people. Unfortunately, there exists no legal mechanism in England to accuse any member of the royal family of having broken the law. They are the law. The UK, USA, Turkey, and Canada, amongst others, have sold the Saudis all the weapons which are now being used against the innocent people of Yemen including illegal cluster bombs and white phosphorus munitions. The mainstream media are silent and, in so being, complicit.

Prequel to this article here.

Meanwhile, In Yemen…

There are many images which have been foisted upon the west through its media sources. We all remember the picture of the Syrian boy who washed up on a beach in Turkey.

There is also “Aleppo boy” who was rescued from the rubble after an airstrike. (What was the girl’s story? She was not as photogenic as Omran Daqneesh, and so was ignored by the media. An interesting article about how the White Helmets used the boy for propaganda against Assad can be found here.) Two equally important articles showing the White Helmets for who they REALLY are HERE and HERE.

These are, of course, just two of the horrible images of war in Syria. But releasing these images had a purpose, that of demonizing Assad.

There is another war going on. It is a  war few people speak of. There is far less coverage of it in the news, but the effects this war has on its population are just as devastating. It is the war in Yemen.

On one side are the Huthis, an armed group whose members belong to a branch of Shi’a Islam known as Zayidism. The Huthis are allied with supporters of Yemen’s former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. On the other side are anti-Huthi forces that are allied with the current President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the Saudi Arabian-led coalition.

Members of the coalition include the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and Sudan. The USA and UK have been providing key intelligence and logistical support to the coalition.

The USA, UK, France, Spain, Canada and Turkey transferred nearly US$5.9 billion worth of arms to Saudi Arabia between 2015 and 2016, including drones, bombs, torpedoes, rockets and missiles, which risk being used to facilitate serious violations in Yemen.

Strangely enough, though the Amnesty International article I have quoted above is quite thorough, it fails to mention that many of the pilots flying Saudi-owned American jets, which seem to be indiscriminately bombing hospitals, schools, and markets, are from Israel.

So there we have it, all the countries currently fighting (or helping to fight) Assad in Syria (illegally) are now ganging up on a relatively small band of un-sophisticated fighters known as the Huthis, in Yemen.

There is, however, one notable exception absent from this coalition: the western media. In Syria, the media generates sympathy for civilians in order to discredit Assad; in Yemen, on the other hand, the coalition supports the government. Surely, if the truth about the situation there were to leak out, it would show the ‘allies’ for what they truly are. It would point the finger of atrocities straight at the west. It would show that WE are to blame (since the Huthis have no air-force.)

American cluster bombs and white phosphorous munitions, both illegal weapons of war, and both used by Israel against Palestinians, are now being used in Yemen by another US ally, Saudi Arabia. The effects of these weapons can be seen in the images at the end of this article.

So while massive resources go into scripting the overthrow of Assad in Syria and setting all sorts of traps for him (Ghouta, Khan Sheikoun, barrel bombs – because he has helicopters, etc…) the people of Yemen are forgotten and their images are forever put away, never to be shown for what they are.

(Follow-up to this article here.)

*** WARNING — The following contains VERY GRAPHIC CONTENT ***