The recent events in Yemen are taking on an increasingly dangerous turn. Rather than to paraphrase what others have written, I will refer you to the following articles:
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya “The Geopolitics behind the War in Yemen”
Ron Paul “Yemen Exploding: Is The Stage Set for the Big War?”
Waqar Rizvi “In Yemen, old strategy for a new reality”
What I propose to do is much more basic: I want to describe the very basic sequence of events which has taken place.
We have a country which is internally divided geographically, culturally and religiously. The President of that country was overthrown in a coup and had to flee abroad. This greatly worried some of the neighbors of this country which decided to keep recognizing the President that fled and organized a multi-state air-strikes campaign to punish the new regime. To justify their actions, these states accused another neighbor of supporting the revolutionary regime. There are now very strong and persistent rumors that the main country supporting the President in exile has massed over 100’000 troops at the border and is preparing for an invasion.
Does that not ring a bell? Is that not exactly what has taken place in the Ukraine?
Can you imagine what would have happened if Russia had decided that Yanukovich was still the only legitimate President and, assisted by Belarus would have embarked on a campaign of air-strikes which would have included the bombing of Kiev? And what if the Kremlin decided to hold consultations with it’s allies in preparation for a possible invasion with the explicit purpose to return Yanukovich to Kiev in a Russian tank?
And yet nobody is proposing to cut Saudi Arabia off the SWIFT system or deny them credits. Nobody is imposing any sanctions. The Arab and Muslim states are all turning collectively blind, even when reports surface of Israel participating in the bombing campaign. In fact, except for Russia – no country seems to mind what is taking place, even though the disasters which all the recent interventions of the AngloZionists are clear for all to see.
There is, of course, a major difference between the junta in the Ukraine and the junta in Yemen: the Ukrainian junta is formed oligarchs and nationalist neo-Nazis with full support from the Zionists, the Vatican, Uncle Sam and the “new Europe” whereas the Yemenis are only supported by Iran. This is the simple logic here: Nazi=good, Zionist=good, Papist=good, Wahabi=good, Orthodox=bad, Shia=bad.
The one good thing from that unrepentant, “in your face” kind of hypocrisy and double-standards is that the charade about human rights, democracy, justice, self-determination, international law, etc is dead and buried and all that is left is the ugly face of raw violence and the law of the jungle. I applaud that as I prefer an evil which shows its face to one which pretends to be kind. I also applaud every time I see the KSA and Israel working together hand in hand, like the two ugly twin brothers that they really are. Wahabism and Zionism are a match made in hell, and when you add Ukrainian nationalism in its Banderite expression you have a perfect mix of evils. Again, this a good thing as it shows that Nazis can be allied to Jews, Zionists to Nazis, Wahabis to both Jewish and Nazi infidels, etc. Finally the ugly true face of the Empire is emerging and that shows that its end is also coming closer with every passing day.
The Saker
Will you please stop with these crazy Papal conspiracies and jew claw garbage. These things just don’t matter at all, and they take away from what is usually interesting commentary.
Crazy – Apt name Just open your eyes..the Pope sucks, the Zionists suck, the EU suck, you suck. Some of us are sick of the Empire’s inexorable march to world war. Yemen…just another brick in the wall.
In recently revealed archival documents, it was shown that The Vatican went along with Mussolini in exchange for worldly goods and prime real estate, otherwise, how could his regime have come to power and stayed in power in Italy and the ideology spread into Europe?
Wahhabi Right Wing extremism began when the wealthy Sheikhs from the Kingdom sent their kids to college in fascist GER. They returned with the ideology superimposed over Sunni Islam.
Old habits don’t die. Why did the Vatican invite nazi leader “Jaz” shortly after the coup? Does the pope want a Reichskonkordat with Banderastan?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jxt4IWYAhFI
Crazy, No one mentioned a conspiracy; indeed, when the Vatican and Israel openly state their support, as have EU and the US, it’s open connivance w evil.
Why wd you wish us not to mention those who are supporting the Kiev junta who are supporting open fascism and ethnic cleansing? I shd think you wd condemn those who are afraid to mention the supporters of such evil.
Do you HAVE a reason for objecting? If so, please tell us. I really don’t know what it cd be.
“….These things just don’t matter at all”
On the contrary, to have any understanding of the purpose of our perpetual wars and how they are connected, they matter quite fundamentally. To ignore them is to see events through the eyes of an adolescent.
really really bizarre
“Catholic university officials caught on secret video approving student club devoted to raising money for ISIS, saying: ‘We’re here to get that done.’
Honors student set to receive communications award at Barry University in Miami told college officials she wanted to start a club to support ISIS
Student organizations chief told her she could get funding for group called ‘Sympathetic Students in Support of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’
‘They are terrorists,’ she told him, ‘but we’re trying to help them, we’re trying to educate them and give them funding’
‘We’re not here to limit people,’ the university administrator replied, and agreed with her request to ‘pass out Islamic State flags’ at a school event
The VP for student affairs told Daily Mail Online, ‘Barry University would not approve any group supporting a terrorist organization’
Project Veritas, a conservative group run by guerilla filmmaker James O’Keefe, made the startling video
Group previously filmed a Cornell University dean saying an ISIS ‘freedom fighter’ could host a training camp at the Ivy League school
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3017455/Barry-University-officials-approve-club-raising-money-ISIS-video.html#ixzz3Vx7eDJZ4
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook”
He is totally right.
“…But a few basic points can help decipher the confusion: Perhaps the most important is that – although it’s rarely acknowledged in the mainstream U.S. media – Israel is now allied with Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Persian Gulf states, which are, in turn, supporting Sunni militants in Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. Sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly, this Israel-Saudi bloc sustains Al-Qaeda and, to a somewhat lesser degree, the Islamic State…”
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/03/30/deciphering-the-mideast-chaos/
Saudi Arabia cannot survive without the empire, and vice-versa. The same about the zionists that occupy Palestine. They are desperate to keep their power in the region, but they are losing by the minute – fighting in Yemen AS IF they could stop history… Poor Houhtis – they will suffer a lot, until this is over…
This may become a big war…
The whole of Yemen will suffer. The Empire has made a blockade.
A poor country that has been played with by one empire (Anglo-Zionist British then Ziono-Saudi-Americans) and another is the 17 Century and as a whole since, the forced unification.
Well if we were a bit unsure who was who before this happening ,we sure have a easy time seeing them now . It will be interesting to see how the middle east does with it’s Vietnam .
“Israeli regime panics by advancing the Yemeni revolution”:
http://www.yemena.beirutherald.com/2015/03/regimen-israeli-entra-en-panico-por.html
Yes, Saker, I agree, always better to see a naked wolf than a wolf in sheep’s clothing!
I don’t know much about Yemeni politics but anything supported by Saudi Arabia, the U.S., and Israel is doomed. Politically, I suspect the Houhtis will gain legitimacy from the outside intervention.
It will be interesting to see if the war in Yemen has any impact on Bahrain.
“charade about human rights, democracy, justice, self-determination, international law, etc is dead and buried and all that is left is the ugly face of raw violence and the law of the jungle”
I have seen this for some time now and perfectly sums up the world today. I believe a lot of people that only get their news from the MSM are also starting to see this.
“Ansarola leader : “The bombings are an attack on the Yemeni people””:
http://www.yemena.beirutherald.com/2015/03/lider-de-ansarola-los-bombardeos-son-un.html
100,000 Saudi troops on the Yemeni border? acc to a private American source who worked in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi military is the most incompetent and cowardly in the region (an assessment consistent with other Am reports on the Saudi social order in general). So now the US would be giving at least tacit support for an invasion threat, just as they negotiate with the real regional power to bring some kind of order and stability to the ME?
here’s Badrakhumar, who is a veteran diplomat:
http://atimes.com/2015/03/m-k-badrakhumar-responds/
Saker, i suggest your analysis verges on hysterical; that you’ve been cultivating similarly hysterical sources for support; and your blog is well into cult territory. this doesn’t necessarily make you wrong, it makes you unreliable.
old heads like Badrakhumar or William Pfaff are consistently ignored, as you get wilder, more sectarian and millennially apocalyptic. you exceed your competence ex-cathedra, and sacrifice credibility for nothing. i could go on, but that belongs in the personal e-mail section.
re Bogdan
Although I am a novice, your comment motivated me to look thru The Saker’s post for inaccuracies or hyperbole. I could find neither…maybe you should provide some specific examples. I may be a novice in geopolitics but I am capable of parsing text for logical consistency, as are most of the readers here.
What I see in The Saker’s post is a collection of facts that lead him to a set of conclusions that exist as a subset of possible conclusions, all of which may be plausible if not necessarily correct, but his track record has been pretty good, so I file it under “let’s see what happens next”.
However, in reviewing your criticism, I find nothing of substance, and the link you provided does not in any way conflict with what The Saker wrote.
Your post comes across as FUD, your criticisms unwarranted. If you wish to disagree with someone’s argument, you lose all credibility if you do not provide a counter-argument, other than link to something that is someone else’s opinion (appeal to authority, one of the worst logical fallacies ever).
yeah, Bogdan, you are hysterical.
i’ve posted here before, Paulmeli.
“a collection of facts”? Yemen is Ukraine redux? really? in whose interest and with what resources? Bhadrakumar argues it’s in everybody’s interest this be settled diplomatically.
Kiev has “full” American support? Am support has been restrained, for multiple reasons, as has been Eastern (now “Central”) Europe’s. if it wasn’t restrained, the UAF wouldn’t be fighting with one month’s training.
Saker: “This is the simple logic here: Nazi=good, Zionist=good, Papist=good, Wahabi=good, Orthodox=bad, Shia=bad.” this is reductionist drivel, and the Vatican’s had nothing to do with this.
previous posts: everything’s trending toward WWIII, even PCR thinks so.
Saker’s track record has been pretty good when he stays within his competence. outside his competence he falls into absurdities.
podcast 2: “I believe the US is a colony of Israel”. why that’s absurd is a lengthy post in itself, but not now.
elsewhere and in the commentariat: the US and Saudi Arabia have crashed the oil price to damage Russia – obviously – since Russia was the first to be affected. nonsense. because it affects Russia doesn’t make it about Russia. oil prices have crashed because the pricing mechanism has crashed, and that’s an entirely different story.
there’s more, but if you’re new Paulmeli, just pay attention, because geopolitical thresholds have been breached and developments are moving fast. the US is retrenching with a new strategy and the transition is and will be messy. Stratfor gets it in their last 3 public posts. the moralizers here don’t.
i suggest start here. it’s an overview and in my opinion Saker’s position is fairly represented.
http://www.williampfaff.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=723
Dear Bogdan,
People like Badrakhumar are old timers who are part of the old system.
Such old time diplomacy is already in the new world.
The new world is full of hypocrisy and rule by brute strength.
So called developed nations and their allies ignore International laws and UN charter.
Saker is just pointing out the obvious.
You are just whining.
Viking:
what is at issue is the transition from the old to a new world; the terms are all contested and the terrain is shifting rapidly. right now, Imperial policy is retrenching. that’s about power- a raw fact of life – and that’s how Stratfor (not my favorite source), puts it.
this site is moralizing, as has RT’s Crosstalk show. if you want to be effective, or even build a functional platform, you do your moralizing after recognizing the shift; realities first, editorializing second.
you write, “The new world is full of hypocrisy and rule by brute strength.” first, that’s actually the remnant of the self-destructing old world; second, you expect what from an Imperial order losing strength; and third, under these circumstances, when was it different?
“Saker is just pointing out the obvious.” no, he’s missing it. what are the thresholds which have been breached? what (realistically) are the new dangers, and what has opened as political space? you don’t get answers by demonizing your opponents, by ignoring their interests (“New Europe”), by indulging your own contempt, by mythologizing your cause. that all cultivates polarization and blindness, esp if your limitations are the role of an informed observer.
there is a rift in the American Deep State.
have you any idea what the end of the petrodollar means? do you understand what the petrodollar is? and is not?
whining? if you want to join a cult, i’m sure you’re welcome. that’s where this site’s been going lately, perhaps intentionally.
it’s everyone’s loss, because sources of the quality that’s been reflected here are scarce. that’s my last response. i don’t argue with yes men.
Retired US Army Col. Patrick Lang, who runs the blog Sic Semper Tyrannis and who served 3 years in Yemen as military attache during a military intelligence career focused on the Middle East, asserts that the purported Iranian influence on the Houthi rebels in Yemen is greatly exaggerated.
http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/yemen/
“US supports Al-Qaeda against the Yemeni Revolution”:
http://www.yemena.beirutherald.com/2015/03/estados-unidos-apoya-al-qaeda-contra-la.html
Has to go to boots on the ground to be a serious war.
Saudis will pay for “its” soldiers from Pakistan or wherever they can conscript/contract cannon fodder.
Yemen will soon be another Obama-owned war. The US military wants it for basing badly. Iran can bleed them for years.
Pity the civilians. It will make the thousands killed by drones look like nothing with what the “Arab League” will do to Yemenis.
“Nazi=good, Zionist=good, Papist=good, Wahabi=good, Orthodox=bad, Shia=bad.”
No, the simple logic here is “Anglozionist vassal=good, sovereign entity=bad.”
Orthodox Bulgaria and Romania=good. What percent *really* religious is Russia? Having lived there I’d say 50% orthodox is very, very optimistic. The important division in the word is between those who see a higher power and purpose and those whose self is everything. Doesn’t matter what window dressing you put on it.
Otherwise I agree. Nazism and Zionism are the same thing, emerged at the same time at the same place from the same roots.
“No, the simple logic here is “Anglozionist vassal=good, sovereign entity=bad.”
Yes, that is more like it.
“Otherwise I agree. Nazism and Zionism are the same thing, emerged at the same time at the same place from the same roots.”
Well, no. They didn’t emerge at the same time nor in the same place, and one is rooted in nationalism and the other in internationalism (based on deception and theft). They are direct opposites.
“Bahraini people condemns attacks on Yemen”:
http://www.yemena.beirutherald.com/2015/03/pueblo-bahreini-condena-ataques-contra.html
“Oman offers dialogue and rejects war against Yemen”:
http://www.yemena.beirutherald.com/2015/03/oman-ofrece-dialogo-y-rechaza-guerra.html
“Pakistani people rejects and condemns Saudis attacks on Yemen”:
http://www.yemena.beirutherald.com/2015/03/pueblo-pakistani-rechaza-y-condena.html
“Yemen holds the bombing and gives blows to the Saudi military along the border:
http://www.elespiadigital.com/index.php/noticias/historico-de-noticias/9003-yemen-aguanta-los-bombardeos-y-da-duros-golpes-a-los-militares-saudies-a-lo-largo-de-la-frontera
Including statements made on Friday by Hassan Nasrallah:
Maybe the Saudi “Royalty” has finally crossed their Rubicon for their final demise. Assembling basically their entire army against the Houthis may prove to be that “bridge too far” move for these Arab Jews!
The Houthis has said that they will invade KSA if the Saudi invade Yemen! Vamos Houthis!!!
Saudis getting bogged down in a long war? Expensive business with low oil prices.
Another large oil producer like Russia could be nasty and keep oil prices down.
The Western hypocrisy is breathtaking.But really not at all unexpected.What can be done about it is the problem.My best choice answer would be for Iranians to support Yemeni forces with arms.And for the Yemeni forces to stir unrest inside Saudi Arabia.Let them feel some of the pain they are causing others.There are hundreds of thousands of people with Yemeni backgrounds in Saudi border areas,start there with them.As for Russia I don’t understand their stand at all.A good rule of thumb in war is any problems your enemy has,make them worse.Supporting Syria,Iran,Lebanon,and Iraq against your enemies seems the logical course to take.The only real route to peace is by taking the profit for your enemy out of war.As long as the Empire can see an advantage from wars they will push for wars.Once they understand their pushing for wars can lead to one too large for them to handle will they stop.
My 2 cents is that from the start, Russia,without the other nations involved, should have negotiated with Iran over the nuclear issue.Now I don’t believe Iran is seeking a nuclear weapon.So the negotiations would be simple.Ask Iran to renounce nuclear weapons and open to the inspectors their nuclear power installations. In exchange announce you and your allies will no longer abide by any sanctions at all on Iran.And that in exchange,you will guarantee Iran’s security from attack.Under no circumstances would the US invade Iran knowing it would bring immediate war with Russia.
Ending the war in Syria should follow the same type scenario.Ask for a peace conference in Moscow (or maybe Switzerland) between Assad and the opposition (non-crazy ones if possible).Announce Russia has taken Syria under her protection.And any more foreign based attacks,or arming of terrorists by foreign states will be considered an attack on Russia and dealt with in the same manner.Its time to end the endless pointless ME wars.And only a firm hand will accomplish that.The West gets away with these attacks because they don’t fear Russia intervening.In the Soviet days,there was never this level of attacks because the West knew better than to attack a client of the USSR’s.Some people say Russia isn’t as powerful as the USSR.That’s true,but the same ultimate guarantee is there today as was then,the nuclear arsenal.Plus today,China is concerned at the Western mischief in the ME which hurts their plans for the Silk Road.So its likely China would approve Russia stopping the troubles in the ME.
Some say this isn’t Russia’s concern.Russia’s concern is only Russia.Theoretically that’s correct.Yet as we see, what happens in the World affects Russia directly.The terrorists in the ME plan on attacking Russia as well,in the near future.Letting them get stronger and better prepared means harder work destroying them latter inside Russia.And Saudi Arabia in league with the US seeks to harm Russia through oil price manipulation.Allowing them to get stronger and harm Russia’s few ME friends means more hardship for Russia.Russia in the past,and for security and trade reasons now,is tied to the ME problems.Taking an ostrich position is not a good move for Russia.Taking a leading role in assuring ME peace would be a better move for Russia (and China) to make.
And have the USA call Russia’s bluff? Russia would be forced into a nuclear first strike or a back down, neither of which would benefit Russia or anyone else. While Russia has nuclear parity it is no match in conventional forces, which is what Uncle Sam would then use.
Have more confidence in the Russians. They know what they’re doing. They just don’t make all their moves at 30,000 feet.
They would not “call Russia’s bluff”.They have no interest in dying.The point is that for there to be peace the Empire must be stopped from the endless wars they wage.They wage those wars because no one stands up to them.Only a massive nuclear power can do that.If the wars continue there is no way to tell when they will go too far.
The same question can be asked about the ME as in Ukraine.Is it better to fight there than wait and have to fight inside the RF itself.Countries are made up of people.And as anybody can tell you, if a weak person kneels to a bully it doesn’t stop the bully from terrorizing him.It feeds their lust to go further.
The way to handle a bully is to stand up to them.Bullies aren’t brave, they feed of their opponents weakness.But when faced with courage they back down.Putin himself said a few days ago that only a strong Russia will be a safe Russia.
Uncle Bob 1, You ask for Russia to commit the same error of omnipotence which is committed by the US.
As for Iran, she has already allowed her nuclear installations to be inspected multiple times.
Iran has dialed back the level of refinement to below 5 percent (what’s needed for generating electricity) from its earlier level of 20 percent (needed for medical research) — compared with the 90-plus percent purity to build a nuclear weapon.
It’s not about a weapon; it’s about the US weakening Iran.
Regards
Working for peace is not omnipotence. I believe that there is far more danger for Russia (and the world) in allowing the empire to run rampant like a US serial-killer throughout the world.Than in building a consensus among nations and drawing a red line to stop their rampage.Some say that is what happened in 2013 with Syria.Now, I have my doubts on that story fully.But if it didn’t happen it should have.The fact is the West runs wild because they are let run wild.Its time to return to the structure of the Cold War.If they West wants to impose Cold War thinking in the World.Then they must also live with the pitfalls of that era.And those where,you had some things you never did.If you did them you faced war.And they as well as we, know what that means.So neither side did them.
Uncle Bob 1,
The present confrontations will not end with more, aggravated wars – there will be no final commands or moves. YES, Russia and China have the power to change the game; they do indeed – this is why you and me and everybody else sometimes think “why don’t they use their power to do it?” The thing is: they ARE using their power, already, and with great mastery! Obviously, the Russian deterrent has been ESSENTIAL to guarantee that the free world (including China!) continues its walk toward another world; otherwise, the Western demons would have already leveled it to re-start their filthy system, which has been hunting humanity for thousands of years.
The US empire has been wild, indeed; but, behind it, there is the US dollar. Remember: money comes first. They can do anything with the endless printing of dollars… BUT, the Western financial system is broken, and there is very little they can do to change the economic situation that will slowly deteriorate for them – they are just buying time, postponing the inevitable. They have already lost the real war – the money war! And they know it.
Now, every move in world affairs shows us how history is changing. This site is wonderful because the Saker tackles the REAL issues and allows discussion! Let’s keep an eye on it – soon, I believe, the day will come when we will finally be able to celebrate (well, some of us are already celebrating, he, he!)!
Let us hope you are correct.I know I hope so.
I totally agree with you. The Anglo-Zionists WILL NEVER back off trying to contain and subdue Russia from her destiny as a great power, and their efforts to control and bring the ME and Iran under their vassalage is all geared towards compromising Russia’s room for manouevre in defending her southern flank in the Caucasus and preventing the influx of CIA sponsored and trained ISIS type terrorists. Same scenario applies to China as well with its Xinjiang province highly vulnerable to the same ‘Jihadist’ destabilisation and that will compromise the New Silk road project.
UNLESS Russia draws a line in the sand and completely reconfigures the ME geopolitical chessboard to its advantage, backed by the implicit certainty that destructive military force will be applied to protect its interests, the AZ WILL NOT back off. Guaranteeing Iranian security just like the US guarantees Saudi security should be a Russian priority. At the same time, the moment has come for the Iranians to instigate insurrection in Saudi Arabia against those barbaric and unelected rulers. A bonus would be the massive spiking of the oil price to undermine the west’s sanctions against both Russia and Iran, and longer term, undermining and weakening the ‘full spectrum dominance’ doctrine that underpins the dangerous and warped US fantasies of global domination.
On Iran and nuclear inspections and whatnot:
What most people don’t realize is that Iran renounced nuclear weapons at a minimum over a decade ago, and their nuclear power-related facilities are already the most inspected in the world. The lack of any Iranian nuclear weapons program is the consensus of opinion of all the US’ own security agencies, who consistently say that Iran hasn’t had a nuclear weapons program since 2003.
The US doesn’t care about any of that stuff, and neither does Israel. If the US finds it has a serious reason to not want to beat Iran with a stick, it will stop doing so. Until then, Iran isn’t being punished for nuclear weapons programs, or for being only about as democratic as the US instead of being a real democracy (like, uh, our upstanding allies Egypt or Saudi Arabia?!), or for doing violent things to some Iranian citizens who don’t deserve it (again, as opposed to whom?). They’re being punished for being a regional power who want to run their own country and maybe have some regional influence, when the US and Israel don’t want anyone else to be able to do any of that stuff.
As Ingrian said above, “sovereign entity = bad”
Dear The Saker,
The hypocrisy just keeps on rolling:
http://novorossia.today/putin-letter-to-arab-summit-triggers-strong-saudi-attack/
The fact that they don’t even see their hypocrisy is truly unbelievable……Egypt needs to pull out of this coalition……
Rgds,
Veritas
Egypt is being supported by the Saudis w big bucks. That’s what allowed them to slip out of US control. Also Saudis & Egypt have a common enemy in Muslim Brotherhood.
ISIS has made a few small attacks against the Saudis. I don’t understand that, but if they’re serious this wd be the time. Also the time for the homegrown Saudi opposition.
Saudi’s shiia live in the Southern (oil-rich) areas.
I wonder if Turkey will hold back.
Turkey seem to be sitting on the fence, throwing stones both ways. They may end up speared by a fence picket.
That would be a good idea, except I don’t see how that is possible geographically.To get to Greece the pipeline must either go through Turkey or Bulgaria.If Turkey is trustworthy the pipeline is a win-win for Turkey and Russia.But lately Turkey is acting anything but as a trustworthy friend.Continuing to side against Syria,and now appearing unfriendly to Iran.Neither of those moves are good for Russia.Turkey needs to jump off the fence one way or the other.If they want to be friendly to Russia’s interests that’s good.But in reality the South/or Turkstream is only important to cut Ukraine out as a transit point for Russia’s gas.If the junta is toppled and a pro-Russian government put in at liberation than a new pipeline wouldn’t even be needed.
on uk tv the other day, Uk army training “moderate” anti Bashad forces…..in Turkey!
So what does Rus think of that? These sorts of things happening could easily link up to events that parallel first world war?
JJ,
The training of al qaeda/ISIS in Turkey has been going on for a long time– at least a year. Turkey also treats their wounded in its hospitals & trucks supplies to them from Turkey’s airport.
Al Qaeda has sold Turkey entire Syrian factories– an entire auto assy plant and an entire bank. Turkey trucked the entire things back home. Turkey has expressed itself as willing to invade Syria, but hasn’t til now cuz it refuses to go in alone & US, etc won’t go in w it.
“… If the junta is toppled and a pro-Russian government put in at liberation than a new pipeline wouldn’t even be needed. …”
It would indeed solve everything. What are the chances and ways of it happening? A “colored revolution in reverse”? Liberation of Malorussia by Novorussian army? Or by Russian army? Realistically?
Incidentally, reading /31-03-2015-ukrainian-crisis-news-war-in-ukraine-dpr-poroshenko-yatsenuk-india/#comment-85106 : either that is some more posturing by the Americans & satellites; or they are cooking something; or they are anticipating something that we do not – a Russian offensive in Malorussia (not likely IMHO … though someone said that unlike the western gang, Russians “never threaten but just go in action”)?
Pepe Escobar Alert! Donbass: ‘The war has not started yet’
http://rt.com/op-edge/245285-ukraine-donbass-cossack-commanders/
MUST READ!!!
Remarkable!!!
What baffles me about this bombing campaign is what it is expected to achieve. Since when does aerial bombing alone produce a military victory, let alone regime change.
I agree with Saker on the meta implications of this, the messages to the world about how comfortably these supposedly opposite philosophies and nations can collaborate. Gradually they all show their face. The fight between factions comes into its true form – in ultimate reality a fight between the rich and the poor, currently dressed as the western empire with its pipeline geopolitics, versus indigenous populations practically everywhere.
2014 and now 2015 seem to be strong years for evildoers to play all the cards they’re holding and reveal their true hand. Indeed it would be satisfying in a grim way to see Saudi Arabia caught in a vast overreach, “aided” by a US increasingly revealed as impotent in a true fight, and spurred by a ruthless and fear-maddened Israel.
I also found this article by Vladimir Efimov for Iran.ru useful as a good primer on the Yemen situation. Translated by Kristina, published at the Fort: Yemen – the Weakest Link
Can someone with graphic design skills, pretty please, create a poster titled “Nazis, Wahabis and Zionists – unite!”
Billions$ of Saudi money has been spent spreading Wahhabism throughout the Mideast including Yemen.
.
Billions$ on schools and mosques and al Qaeda.
.
The Houthi want schools of their own and influence in their *own* country.
.
Saudi Arabia stepped up its attacks on Yemen back in 2009 (decades before that they conquered and annexed a sizable chunk of Yemen).
.
From 2009: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/nov/23/saudi-arabia-yemen-houthi-war
.
“A large share of these resources was reserved for its back garden, Yemen. Thousands of schools were established, covering every city and village in Yemen. Saudi Arabia created in Yemen a strong Wahhabi current that was politically and ideologically loyal to the ruling al-Saud. Indeed, Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, used imported Wahhabism to defeat his domestic opponents – first the communists, then the Houthis – despite being a Zaidi Shia.
.
But now this policy has backfired, with the Houthis openly rebelling against Wahhabi encroachment on their religious ideology, while themselves encroaching on neighbouring Saudi territory as they fight the government.”
It does look like the buildup to a big War. Could the Armageddon prophecy come true? The players are in place.
Jak,
Don’t forget that a number of other prophesies have to be fulfilled before we get to Armageddon. The 7 years tribulation has to begin, then half-way through that, the advent of Anti-Christ/ mark of the Beast, and then the remaining years of tribulation closed out by the war of Armageddon – the big one. That will also be when the return of Jesus Christ happens. Anyway, I think that’s how it goes; maybe our Bible scholars here will kindly correct me if I’m wrong.
I don’t think so – Those writings were specific to that time, and filled with then contemporary symbolism. But that isn’t to say the writer had no understanding of politics and social movements, or the foolishness of tyrannical men, or that empires and civilizations don’t fall, or that we couldn’t exterminate ourselves by way of current foolishness. Those metaphors do have some application generally, and there is no shortage of ‘beasts’ or lies in the world now.
One can find both creation and destruction myths in many religions, generally based in the mysteries of the human psyche interacting with the world, with many themes and archetypes in parallel among them. So I think don’t take the myths literally, but don’t ignore them either — find the common roots and consider what insights they may yield.
The difference now is that Armageddon would not limited to a small area of Europe or the Middle East, but would be global — planetary. That particular Biblical myth did not happen (and, after all, a good prophesy should serve as a warning to help avert catastrophe), but other civilizations have indeed destroyed themselves, so optimism should be guarded. We might well indeed wipe out most life on the planet now. Pollution and chemical contamination, climate disruption, species extinction and crop failure, major genetic disruptions, nuclear holocaust with nuclear winter and radiation poisoning — there are various ways we destroy the biosphere.
Dear Saker, thanks very much for your incisive analysis. For some of us, the mind reels and cannot fathom the twists and turns of the recent and ongoing events, and confusion dwells. Your writings remove the cobwebs that cloud the mind and throw great flashes of lightning on the darkened landscape. You are performing a very noble service and deserve our full gratitude. Thanks once again.
Saudi Arabia, Israel and UKUSA are two sides of the same coin.
All good points, I just hate seeing the massive civilian death toll rising daily, with nobody but, Hezbollah, Hamas and Syria along with Iran and Russia, all hated peoples, being the only ones to speak out about the hypocrisy. It appears from looking at outlets from around the world since this started that everyone but US aka “west” seems to realize that this is outright agression and interference in internal affairs of another state. However, for an interesting and totally different and somewhat surprising take on the underlying problem see: “The Arab Civil War”, by Thierry Meyssan at:
http://www.voltairenet.org/article187183.html
Thank you Saker for a most relevant observation of the moral standing of the parties.
Russia in all her restraint, in her reluctance to invade a sovereign nation even while it is engaged in wrongdoing– Russia in her determination to alleviate only insofar as possible w/o invasion– Russia must now be seen by all to personify international law against thuggery.
Given enough time to be understood morality counts. A massing of resistance to the AngloZionists is gathering. I know it. One tiny example:
The G77 (now comprising 134 countries) has condemned Obama’s decree against Venezuela. Other groups which have condemned it include 33-nation CELAC (Latin America & Carribean), UNASUR, ALBA, and the Non-Aligned Movement.
Their evil is failing & so they are driven to more outrageous (& more transparent) actions.
Historically, the Anglo-Zionists have always had an equivalent Islamic lesser counterpart:
British Empire and the Ottoman Caliphate
American Empire and Saudi Arabia
Israel and ISIS
The curse (and trial, if I may say so) of being a majority Muslim sect (Sunni) is to have these Zionist Muslim regimes implanted in their midst and to be brainwashed and pacified, except for a few. The same would have happened to the Shias if they had been in the majority. If anyone think the Shias could not be brainwashed into being a Zionist clone, then think again. But since they are in the minority, by the grace of God, it fell on them to provide the Resistance to the Muslim Zionists.
What we are seeing is a play for the takeover of ISIS of Mecca and Medina. They are already another Zionist lapdog and with control of the Holy Cities, they can more easily control the Sunnis, with Resistance coming from the Shias.
Modus operandi is a great method to predict future action. We can see historically how the transition happened between the Ottomans and the Saudis, and we can already see and can forecast how ISIS will replace the Saudis, if history is any guide.
To those who think the Saker is being extremist in his views, I would say Saker is realistic. He knows the abyss we are all going to and he is shouting a big fat warning. To those who cannot hear, then just wait a while. History will march and bite your big behind while you moan about proper language.
Dear Termite
Your comments are thought provoking. Say have you been listening to Sheikh Imran Hosein by any chance?
anon, can you give a link to his latest ?
Saker, think about this, carefully:The white King has decided to change his approach. He decided to play offensively, not defensively. Proactive rather than reactive. And now, with the help of its allies (known and accused, and unknown, but influential in area) now fallen basement of Saudi Arabia. Kingodm is terrified because may return to face, instability can threaten the survival of Saudis… They are now terrified. Terrified indeed. This is a direct shot to the heart of cabal. This is a direct shot to the heart of financial power of empire.
This is chess, which smells like mat.
Dear Saker, I agree absolutely with your analysis… Poor yemeni people, as “we have seen this movie before”.
:(
Wayne Madsen’s landmark 2011 article on the link between Israel, Saudi Arabia & Turkey.
A must read. http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2011/10/25/the-doenmeh-the-middle-easts-most-whispered-secret-part-i.html
Thank you so much for that link. I hadn’t encountered it. An excellent piece of scholarly journalism from Wayne Madsen. He seems increasingly to me like one of the great informers of the time.
Good grief. Kemal Ataturk and Ibn Saud, two of the most powerful men of the time in the region, BOTH descended from the Dönmeh sect of Judaism – which forbade marriage outside of its sect, which grew to commanding power in Turkey, which gave birth to Wahabbism, and which anchored both Turkey and Saudia Arabia as unshakable promoters of a Zionist homeland in Palestine.
What battles must occurring secretly in Turkey at this time, and Egypt, another country to fight back against the Dönmeh control.
Madsen is right. It makes a lot of difference in one’s understanding of the ties between Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, to know about the Dönmeh, a powerful force responsible in the past for the Turkish massacre of the Armenians, deliberately self-erased from the historical narrative, and perhaps now in danger of being painted back in, to reveal a common foe to many in the region.
Wahhabis were installed by the British, who also literally carved Saudi Arabia out of the map. It’s a well-documented piece of history.
http://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/439/imperialism-oil-and-the-house-of-saud/ http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/22253
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/AlSaud.html
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2012/3938house_saud.html
Also well documented in many historic archives. Britain was then also the first country to recognize Saudi Arabia as a valid country.
The “Weeklyworker.co” link above is dead and does not connect to an article. Please revise the link so that it works. Or possibly the article has already been taken down at its source?
Space missing between before second http://, like so:
http://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/439/imperialism-oil-and-the-house-of-saud/
http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/22253
Hi … good catch, fixed as you suggested.
HS
..and who dominated the upper “caste” of the british empire, if not the Sassoons, Rothchilds, Reuters etc. ? How come the empire wanted to split Palestine from the Ottoman empire ? Why did they promise Palestine to the zionists ? Was it “british interests”, or perhaps an influential minor elite’s interests ?
http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/British_Empire
Dude… take that red herring back to that kindergarden you got it from. I’m tired of re-explaining it over and over to every new rense-poisoned youth that comes by.
See also: Globalists Created Wahhabi Terrorism to Destroy Islam and Justify a Global State and Reply to Criticism
All Yemeni ports are blockaded by Saudi naval forces.
I wonder when Iran will use some missiles to sink some of those ships.
Right now, Yemen’s military facilities are getting clobbered, most of the air bases are ruined, no ports for resupply.
No Fly Zone is established over the country.
It looks like a bad beginning for Iran’s proxies.
They have had six months to get ready for this. Underestimating your enemy is usually fatal.
They aren’t Iran’s proxies.They are Shia,but a different sect than Iranians.What they have in common is dislike of Saudi aggression.I don’t doubt the Saudis will start out winning.Its when they get into the mountains and guerrilla war that they are in trouble.Its unlikely that Iran will send troops and attack Saudi Arabia.Their aid (whatever it will be,if any) will be covert.
“bad beginning for Iran’s proxies.”
Please spare us from the sectarian zionist propaganda, using the Iran-shia bogeyman. Unless you have proof of Iran sending weapons there.
When SA is funding IS and AQ camps in your country, while US is droning civilians in the name of fighting the same terrorists and US&Saudi are allied officially, it’s a recipe for disaster.
“There is, of course, a major difference between the junta in the Ukraine and the junta in Yemen: the Ukrainian junta is formed oligarchs and nationalist neo-Nazis with full support from the Zionists, the Vatican, Uncle Sam and the “new Europe” whereas the Yemenis are only supported by Iran. This is the simple logic here: Nazi=good, Zionist=good, Papist=good, Wahabi=good, Orthodox=bad, Shia=bad.”
Yup.
“The one good thing from that unrepentant, “in your face” kind of hypocrisy and double-standards is that the charade about human rights, democracy, justice, self-determination, international law, etc is dead and buried and all that is left is the ugly face of raw violence and the law of the jungle. I applaud that as I prefer an evil which shows its face to one which pretends to be kind. I also applaud every time I see the KSA and Israel working together hand in hand, like the two ugly twin brothers that they really are. Wahabism and Zionism are a match made in hell, and when you add Ukrainian nationalism in its Banderite expression you have a perfect mix of evils. Again, this a good thing as it shows that Nazis can be allied to Jews, Zionists to Nazis, Wahabis to both Jewish and Nazi infidels, etc. Finally the ugly true face of the Empire is emerging and that shows that its end is also coming closer with every passing day.”
Hey, it’s just one big ZPC/NWO dysfunctional family of freaks.
In addition to the posted articles in this entry, this one lays it out pretty well also:
The Money Trail: How the US Fostered Yemen’s Separatist Movement
“Welcome to phase two of US regime change operations. After Yemen’s 2011 revolution failed and Houthi militias overthrew President Hadi, forces trained and sponsored by the US government are being activated as a separatist movement…”
And right on que, the zionazi faction of the ZPC/NWO orders their pindo freakshow to join in the mass murder:
US Backs Joint Arab Military Force, Ready to Cooperate
“I think if they are willing to do more, in this case with respect to Yemen, then that is a good thing because ultimately it is their region,” Carter told reporters at Fort Drum, as quoted by NBC, adding it was a “good thing.”
When asked if the Pentagon would work together with the Arab crisis-response force, Carter pointed to the bilateral security ties that already bind the United States and some of the Arab League nations, like Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
“These are partners and security allies of ours, and when they act in a way that we regard as in our interests as well as theirs we will continue to partner with them as we have been in other matters,” the US defense secretary stressed.
Crasy popal conspiracys, well boy, I dont wana popp you cousy bobble, and talk about the true evil, the vaticane. Dont insult us with your solid ignorance about history and specaly what the scums in the vatican have done, and I never seeces to be amazed by the sheer level of ignorance about the Vatican.
I dont wana waist time on ignorants, other than to say that the Vatican is the wurst slaughterer of humans ever been present on our planet, robbing and killing.
Anfd the UssA a good nr. 2
Since I count the Bolshewiks into it, and both, the vaticane and the UssA is runn by the tribe.
To me, the vaticane is a bank.
period
The rest is just a show.
But, you see, saker.
They want blood, thats it.
And I am done with explaining, and from now on I will be totally silent, since all this eats up my body and soul.
WE lost it, and stil some wants us to belive the western propaganda.
I will watch the Arabs, I dont care about the UssA, witch we know from before, but what is the Arabs going to do.
I know what they will do.
NOTHING.
Yemen will be pulverised, with the curtecys of the west.
And secured by the cowardness and utter corruption and greed of the Arab people.
And now when Abbas/Fatah is openly stating He wants Gaza crushed and gone,with the help of the Israel and UssA. I know I am done with the Arabs world and their history.
I am deeply shamed and whats even wurse, fooled, I can take a punch in my face, a kick in the nutts, but Fooled/humiliated is mutch wurse, the first is physical, the seond is mental.
I infact was so naive, despite been hash about witshfull think and stupid daydreams, I was naive, and I blame my self for been engaged.
A misstake.
What is it, what makes the Arab world so coward, the complyance is staggering, the turning away is mindboggeling.
I know Yemen as Palestina is and will be gone, oh we read some say something, as some have sayed someting for decades, but this somethings have always ended up as nothing, and nothing have happened expet the ruining of the land and its people is stil continuing, and nobody cares.
hehe, all this probably an effect of what i define as a massive braindamage , a braindamage that have followed me thruout my life, I have suffered mutch, insulted even more, humlilated so mutch I dont care any more, thruout it all, since I was born with a serious damage, witch I define as DumKind.(i dont know the proper english term)
You dont know how mutch pain this causes a person.
Take care people, love life, we only have this one, dont waist it.
Il tell it once, I was kicked back to life, ordered back more precisely, and now I am done, and will return home soon, since my body is damaged.
peace
Mikael dear friend, stay with us. Don’t go silent just from being disappointed.
What you call stupid daydreams is…. hope. There is nothing stupid about that, even if it doesn’t come about. A dream, a vision, a decent life to hope for — that is what should be driving people/s lives. Without it they have no reason to do anything.
The Arab world is now caught, like others before them,. in a situation where can be crushed if they do nothing. Crushed if they try to achieve a sliver of better life. Crushed if they object to the crushing.
Don’t try to take it all on your own back. The dead hopes and dreams we can overcome – use as a ladder we can climb on.
Don’t withdraw from the one life. Stay with us, Mikael, link hands with us here, together we are stronger than the individual parts.
It seems Saleh never really lost control over the country, the military is still largely loyal to him as well as the northern tribes, his political party (which Hadi was a member of), the important govt ministries and the Yemeni media. In all but name, Saleh is the undisputed King of Yemen.
Pls Comrade Saker if you can expand a little bit on the issue……
Why is Ali Saleh (apart from the important Iranian connection) such a threat to western interests and why is it important for the west to risk war and the lives of millions of innocent in furthering this already bloody conflict. I mean they had a man in Yemen they could trust and then they got rid of him (Arab Spring) putting that whole Somali-Yemeni trade corridor in threat. Is this just total madness or is the western oligarchy up to something?
Thanks Saker.
Rasta
Amen
The first one Saker mentions is an excellent blow-by-blow. Took my breath away.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-geopolitics-behind-the-war-in-yemen-the-start-of-a-new-front-against-iran/5439431
I recommend this article from the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/02/23/whats-behind-yemens-recent-political-turmoil/
It is written by Stephen W. Day, an academic who has also written a book about about Yemen. He stresses the tribal and other antagonisms inside Yemen. He also mentions that the Fiver (Zayda) Shiites of Yemen has much less conflict with Sunnites as the Twelvers of Iran and Iraq.
The Natoists are edging toward involvement in another sectarian proxy war by backing its totalitarian “ally” Saudi Arabia.
It seems clear enough that the Saudi regime’s decision to boost oil output when prices were already falling was designed not only to protect market share and undercut fracking, but to punish Iran and Russia for their role in the Middle East and Europe to the benefit of Riyadh’s US sponsor.
Some images of Yemen, a beautiful country with a friendly and charming people, good in the full sense of the word.
God bless you
*Sanaa. Ciudad vieja:
http://www.fundacionaquae.org/sites/default/files/ciudad_vieja_de_sanaa.jpg
*Montañas Haraz:
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_ukDlCWLL75A/RxjMzQ_0E_I/AAAAAAAAAP4/mJfPYGeWC-M/Yemen+2007+251.jpg
*Shihara:
http://pixdaus.com/files/items/pics/3/65/206365_ef364e0ef4eabb537f563b4a8ba4d394_large.jpg
*Wadi Surdud:
http://c8.alamy.com/comp/BX188K/wadi-surdud-northern-highlands-yemen-arabia-orient-street-desert-landscape-BX188K.jpg
*Marib:
https://myarablife.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/marib.jpg
*Ramlat as Sabatayn ( desert ):
http://www.viajarsiempre.es/wp-content/uploads/import/10610/011YemenDesertoRamlatAsSabatayn.jpg
*Al-Kureiba ( Wadi Daw´an – Hadramaut ):
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/2497708.jpg
*Shibam-( Hadramaut ):
http://37.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdx05l50aS1qlhrzvo1_1280.jpg
http://www.eikongraphia.com/wordpress/wp-content/CITY%20OF%20SHIBAM%20HADRAMAWT,%20YEMEN.jpg
*Seyun ( Hadramaut ):
http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/67385096.jpg
*Playa de Bir Ali:
http://www.markos.it/quaderni/album/yemen2008/slides/IMG_3599-Bir-Ali.jpg
*Mukalla:
http://almasdaronline.com/uploads/site_images/1db63bb3-5de9-4338-b116-545635c11be1-20121202-180344.jpg
*Adén:
http://looklex.com/e.o/slides/aden03.jpg
Thank you for these great pictures. Yemen has a very old and rich history – over 5,000 years. Again the Whabbi’s destroy all these ancient cultures in their quest to control history/culture and beliefs – because they have none – only hate and destruction.
Rgds,
Veritas
Yes its really possession. Couldn’t be anything else.
thanks so much for photos Elsie !! that must have taken you some time for those…they’re beautiful…I can’t believe it all may be smashed to pieces soon,
Make no mistake the U.S are funding the Yemen Rebels, March 17th Washington Post said the Pentagon cannot account for the 500 million dollars they sent to Yemen and then they want to blame Iran for commandeering the weapons. The bottom line is that there is ZERO PROOF that Iran is anywhere near nuclear weapon proliferation so they are hard up to implicate them any way they can.
Is a really BIG war coming?
Emergency broadcasting messages on all TV stations in most all of the Eastern US states.
US military drills all over the South Western States
Major national unexplained power outages through out Turkey, The Netherlands & other western countries.
Major military alliances being formed such as the one murdering the Yemeni people unchallenged by the UN or any western nations in full flagrant contradiction to International laws.
Little Venezuela being declared a national Security threat to The USA.???
Defamation campaigns and false flags against Argentine President Kirchner corresponding with weapons purchases, troop movements against Argentina on the Falklands.
NATO breaking all agreements made with Russia and the Soviet Union to never expand past the Federal German Republic.
US general openly making statements calling for the killing of Russians in Ukraine.
Should I be concerned!
The anti social & unfounded hatred campaign against Russians we are experiencing here in western Europe that is basically left unchallenged by anyone in the European Media resembles the propaganda machine of Goebbels & the Nazis.
They are daily trying to brainwash us to hate & distrust Russians.
I like Russians & & like Putin a lot more than any of these US warmongering lunatics and foul mouthed US state department Types. After all they told Europe to go F itself.
I am worrying to be personally shipped of to a new age indoctrination concentration camp, get a number tattooed on my wrist and maybe be gassed by Brussels if I do not agree to blindly hating Russians, Persians, Yemenis, Venezuelans etc.
Maybe id better immigrate to Russia before there is a big wall with barbed wire keeping me in Europe.
I sense there is something very big and ugly brewing and understand that I am not the only one whose worried.
It’s exactly the same in the FSofA (Fascist States of America). I was in a meeting with our CFO, and the idiot talked about the risk to the markets if Russia invades Ukraine.
Americants are absolutely, almost 100% completely brainwashed, except for a small minority of free-thinkers.
We were hit by a big power outage in our city in the Midwest last weekend. Strange stuff – the drills, the propaganda, the military exercises..
yes, believe it or not, here in the far south west of Canada I have been experiencing power outages in the wee hours of the morning…I’m a night owl and so I know about it, although most people don’t. I don’t know if its on purpose but its happened several times…all quiet and then no power for a few hours. weird
To add to Saker’s excellent list of links to analyses of Yemen situation, here is the latest one (31 March 2015):
Yemen Echoes of 1930s – Aggression and Descent into Barbarism, by Finian Cunningham, http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2015/03/31/yemen-echoes-1930s-aggression-and-descent-into-barbarism.html
Where does the Saker’s irrational obsession with and hatred for Catholic people come from? I know the Church has waged wars on the Orthodox, but the Saker should really let his personal prejudices and biases stay in the background when he does his reporting. His anti-Catholic diatribes come off as unhinged.
Doug Stanhope – Catholics vs Nazis
Great stuff, contains a few naughty words, though. The audience reaction really says it all. :D
On OffGuardian.org:
Questions you aren’t supposed to ask about ISIS: #1 – those Toyota trucks
What seems obvious to me is that in spite of names with a religious conotation none of the criminal syndicates noted in your comments actually have anything in common with it.
All are nothing more than organized criminal groups. Facilitated and supported by the US their allies, Britain, Israel, Saudi Arabia and their respective vassals. The Leaders of the entire criminal syndicate.
I believe this blog is becoming day by day fitter to combat Western propaganda.
PCR interview on the ME/Yemen situation then [US] economy starting around 24:38.
“Paul Craig Roberts-Inflationary Depression Coming”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaB9EcUCkdI#t=2956
What concerns me is that these indigenous movements end up being puppets in proxie wars. Iran is backing the Yemen and Russia is backing Iran, this could turn out to be KSA and Isreal’s excuse to attack Iran as things heat up the closer the p5+1 talks progress. It has been the Yemeni Houthis that have been fighting Al Queda and ISIS in Yemen How much deeper in the outhouse can US State Dept get? Totally, Totally FUBAR-I have not seen anything this screwed up ever-little wonder more US service men die of suicide than by the hands of the enemy. They are in a unsolvable dilemma thanks to US inteliigence screw ups. The enemy they end up fighting is against the enemy they are told they are fighting and they end up supporting the enemy they are supposed to be fighting? I wonder how many vets are coming home hooked on opiates of some kind-this was a huge problem in Vietnam and given the proximity but we don’t hear much about it do we, you would think we would with the military actively involved in smuggling and funding terrorism-Oh but we had investigative reporter’s in those days and a new room that didn’t pander to advertisers I unnerstan now.
How is it that you get the it is “Yemen” and not “the Yemen”, but cannot seem to understand that it is “Ukraine” and not “the Ukraine”????
Well, I’ m surprised that your post has survived, as it is clearly contrary to Paragraph 6 of the Moderation Policy, but seeing as it has, I’ll answer it by reposting an answer I wrote at stackexchange.(http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/68901/is-it-the-yemen-or-yemen/237505#237505”)
“The Yemen” is technically correct, as “yemen” means “south”. (Or, to be really precise, “on the right-hand side”, the assumption in Arabic being that you describe directions as if you are facing the sun-rise.) But only an extraordinarily pedantic person would object to “Yemen”.
This etymology implies using “the” because in English, when you make a proper noun (i.e. a name) out of a description or a common noun, you insert the definite article, “the”. This is just an example of the standard use of “the”, which is to indicate that a phrase which could apply to many different things is actually being used to refer to one particular pre-selected thing. The rule is compulsory if the description or common noun is in English (“The Gulf”, not “Gulf”; “The Cape”, not “Cape”), but if it’s in a foreign language it may be optional, this being largely determined by common usage. So definitely “The Netherlands”, (“The Lowlands”), not “Netherlands” (“Lowlands”), but on the other hand, definitely “Detroit”, (“Strait”) not “The Detroit” (“the Strait”), while you get the choice in “(The) Yemen” and “(The) Ukraine”.
The names of rivers almost always get a “the”, but this is a quite separate and less logical convention, as it applies whatever the derivation of the river’s name. While it seems that the countries The Congo and The Gambia inherit their “The”‘s from the corresponding rivers, that explanation can’t apply to the Yemen, as there is no river there with that name. In fact there are no rivers there at all, only seasonal wadis.
Of course, the “the” is there in the country’s Arabic name “al-Jumhūrīyah al-Yamanīyah”, literally “The Republic of The South”. This adds force to the argument, but it is not necessary. For instance, the Russian name for the Crimea is “Krim”, with no definite article, since Russian doesn’t have any articles at all. But educated Russians are taught that the word means “fortress” in Tartar, so if they are also fluent in English, they will tend to call it “the Crimea” rather than just “Crimea”, and this has carried over into educated English.
The choice of “the Ukraine” or “Ukraine” has become politicised. Until the breakup of the Soviet Union in the early 1990’s almost everyone used the “the”, and omitting it was widely considered an error. This is because, as described on the Wikipedia page “Name_of_Ukraine”, the name is standardly derived from the word for “borderland” in Slavic languages. (Hence also “The Krajina”, the borderland between Serbia and Croatia – the pronunciations are very similar in the original languages.) The Ukraine was the borderland between Russia on the one side and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire on the other. But as the Wikipedia article notes, “during the period of Romantic nationalism it was popular to trace the origin of the country name to an ancient ethnonym,” which is sometimes given as “the Ukrs”. That would imply no article – the land of the Angles is England, not The England, and the land of the Franks is France, not The France, so the land of the Ukrs should be Ukraine, not The Ukraine.
A couple of years after independence, the new Ukrainian state changed the approved English form from “the Ukraine” to “Ukraine”, presumably under the influence of “Romantic Nationalists” who wanted to suppress any reminders that Ukrainian identity was actually just a renaming of Malorossian, i.e. Little Russian, identity, and instead wanted to see it as derived from the mythical Ukrs, who supposedly predated Russia by thousands of years. (“Little Russia” means the original heartland of Russia, as opposed to “Great(er) Russia”, the areas expanded into later. See the paragraph starting “Just to clarify” in this page from the blogger known as The Saker, who incidentally gets his “The” by exactly the mechanism being discussed here.) Though The Saker doesn’t mind if other people leave out the “the” from “the Ukraine”, he getsvery irritated with people who impudently tell him that he must do the same, as he sees that as a demand that he should supress the truth for the sake of a divisive and false politically-inspired mythology.
On Wednesday, the extremist Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) group, known for its brutal beheadings and mass murder, took over the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp inside Damascus city limits. Palestinian women and Christians and male secularists are at special risk now. Had they been living normally in their homes in what is now Israel, with their own state, they would not have been left vulnerable to this fate. Refugees and stateless people not only have no courts or armies to defend their rights, they are not even recognized as having the right to have rights.
The Israelis ethnically cleansed three fifths of the Palestinians of British Mandate Palestine in 1947-48, creating enormous refugee crises in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon that roiled the region through the subsequent decades and continue to contribute to instability in the region. Some 70% of the Palestinians cooped up by the Israelis in the open-door concentration camp called Gaza are descendants of refugee families from what is now Israel, some living only an hour’s walk from the homes that were stolen from them. Some 40% of Palestinians in Gaza are still living in refugee camps, despite Israeli direct rule 1967-2005, which propagandists say was benevolent– but clearly it left Palestinians with blighted lives.
Propagandists who excuse the ethnic cleansing campaign and the continued explicit denial to Palestinians of the right of citizenship in a state often maintain that it should have been possible for “the Arabs” to “absorb” the Palestinians. But in international law, the state that committed the ethnic cleansing is responsible for it and for reparations, not the hapless neighbors on whom the refugees were unceremoniously dumped.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/islamic_states_conquest_palestinian_refugee_camp_syria_israel_20150402