Followers of Middle East news are likely aware of the simmering conflict in Yemen. It is now appearing to burst its narrow confines, and draw in a number of regional players. As with most conflicts that involve overlapping sectarian, regional, and internal power dynamics, the Yemen conflict is aggravated by the shifting motivations of the players. We will attempt here to describe the basics of the current war (and it is a war) in a way that imparts a general understanding without bogging us down in minutiae.
As a preliminary matter, we must first identify the Houthis. Originally a theological movement allied with the Zaydi sect of Shia Islam, it has now taken on the character of an armed militia fighting group. In the early 1990s the group’s primary focus was the fraternal aspects of religious devotion. It had two opposing internal currents: one part of the group called for more openness, and other voices called for more traditional interpretations of Shia doctrine.
The founder of the group, Hussein Bader Addian al-Houthi, was an advocate of the “openness” faction. The movement became militarized around 2004 in response to a crackdown by the former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh. When Saleh sent security forces into Houthi territory (Saada province) to arrest Hussein Houthi, armed revolt against the government followed. Hussein Houthi himself was killed in 2004.
Broadly speaking, the political demands of the Houthis now are these: greater autonomy for their northern Yemeni region (Saada province), and a greater role in the federal government in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.
The Houthis are also strongly opposed to Sunni fundamentalist types. They have not hesitated to use force to stop Salafis and other more unsavory types of the Sunni extremist gallery.
Chaos and disorder are also fueled by widespread dissatisfaction with the government, which is rightly seen as either ineffective or as a puppet of the West. The Houthis political rivals, the Islah Party, accuse the group of being tools of their co-religionists in Iran, and of trying to restore the Shia government that ruled Yemen until 1962.
The former Yemeni president, Saleh, was deposed several years ago. His sudden departure after decades of rule left a power vacuum that has contributed to the epidemic of violence. The new president, Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, has been unable to assert control over anything more than the presidential palace.
The Yemen conflict in the 1960s was a quagmire for Egypt
Complicating matters even more is that fact that former president Saleh has not just departed quietly. He is actively colluding with the Houthis to undermine the current president; without doubt he harbors delusions of returning to power.
What appeared likely to remain a localized conflict has now recently become internationalized. Saudi Arabi has begun conducting airstrikes inside Yemen in an attempt to degrade Houthi military effectiveness. This intervention was prompted by Houthi power demands that were seen as excessive; rather than settle on being part of a coalition government, the Houthis now seem to think that they can impose their will on their opponents by force. Saudi military actions also took place in 2009, but were on a much smaller scale.
Saudi military strikes (which are called Operation Decisive Storm) have destroyed the Yemeni air force and a considerable portion of its missile capability. The Saudis are concerned with casting the Yemen problem in terms of its own “Shia-Sunni” obsession; in Riyadh’s view, the hand of Iran is everywhere, and all Shias are Iranian proxies.
This line has had some resonance in the West. The Saudis are receiving American backing for their invasion, and this support is joined by Turkey, France, and Britain. Other countries are providing more direct military support: Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, and the Gulf States. Opposing military action (rhetorically) are Iran, China, and Russia.
Taking advantage of the chaos are some of the more unpleasant groups in the region: Al Qaeda is there of course, as well as various more obscure Sunni and Wahabi extremist groups.
Although the current president claims to be the “legitimate” president of Yemen, he was the sole candidate for the office in 2012, and was “running” at a time when his term in office had expired. It was the current president who invited in foreign powers to bomb his country.
None of this is likely to end well. Completely absent from the media coverage of the crisis is any mention of Yemen’s long history of being a quagmire for foreign powers. The Egyptian army in the 1960s sent over 70,000 men to Yemen for roughly the same reasons as it now supports actions against the northern Yemenis today. In that conflict, often called “Egypt’s Vietnam,” nothing of any substance was achieved, despite a high death toll and the use of chemical weapons.
Yemen is now perched on the edge of civil war, with much the same depressing sectarian overtones that have characterized the warfare in Syria and Iraq. It is difficult not to conclude that the entire Middle East is entering a new period of chaos and violence, which I predict will not end in our lifetime.
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The Middle East is unsolvable from our perspective.
For years I was firmly non-interventionist but then ISIS come along and raise the stakes.
It’s a fucking mess. We’re compelled to act but seldom fail to reap unintended consequences when and where we do
Some deep and complex moral lessons may be the only positives to take, but our own dumb culture couldn’t decode and deliver them anyway
Clusterfuck
Yes we have been compelled to act since colonialism and all of our invasions on the middle east and what do we have to show for it? From Africa to Asia to Europe, America and the west has not been able to “fix” one muslim country. Leave them alot, let them solve their own problems. How would America look if every time we had a problem in our history, some other larger far more powerful nation invaded it and carved it up and took it over and put in puppet governments that had cultures alien to America.
Let ISIS take over those countries, its not our problem. We don’t even have freedom in America where a cop can shoot a man in the back for “Contempt of cop” and plant evidence to make him look guilty.
It would make sense to invade if only to rescue priceless ancient works of art.
People whine about how the British grabbed boatloads of artwork, but in the end it was a smart move. ISIS is rapidly grinding human history into dust.
That’s what came to my mind reading you comment:
most of those art works are fakes and replicas, the real ones have largely been taken, deestroyed or are in the homes of private collectors or former colonial powers.
Correction about those priceless Assyrian/Akkadian works of art: the Assyrians were a very violent and blood thirsty society.
In the end it is ironic that a violent and blood thirsty movement like ISIS is destroying the works of their ethical predecessors.
“Let ISIS take over those countries,”
Fuck that
+1000
You think that ISIS would stop there?
Not gonna happen. One only needs to look at ISIS being defeated left and right. So its best to leave them to it.
And what are you fighting to save in these sharia law countries that already chant death to america daily??
ISIS = CIA’s new boogyman.
heh, ‘colonialism’. Gonna start quoting Marx now?
The only part of colonialism that failed was when it ended too soon.
Funny, when Germany and Russia started colonialising the rest of europe, europeans never thought it was so wonderful now did they?
Are you serious Brig?
It couldn’t be clearer to me that us N Europeans should have gone the most isolationist – as in build a tall guarded wall – route possible, kept our numbers in check through eugenics, and not given a single god damned bit of technology to the Orcs.
We would be living in the closest approximation to utopia conceivable.
Naww. Progress or stagnate. Eurowhites should have taken over the world instead.
The rest of Europe wasn’t filled with stone aged primitives so stupid they think washing your hands after jacking off is unclean, and poop is something good to rub into wounds.
Oh, I forgot. “Fucking Virgins is a great way to get rid of HIV and other VD’s”
Progress is an illusion.
The belief in perpetual growth and “technology will save us” have led us to where we are today.
Outnumbered by subhumans who want our shit.
Technology is the only thing that CAN save us. If we don’t get off this ball of mud in the next 600 years, there’s better than even chance the human race will go utterly extinct.
Space travel, in the long run, the ONLY thing that can save us in the end… colonizing the universe so far and so wide that no single extinction event could ever stomp us out.
To the best of our knowledge (aside from wishful thinking) we are the only species that has accomplished our level of tool-using intelligence. Nothing but that intelligence can save us from a comet that dodges Jupiter, the earth’s cooling cycle, or the eventual extinction of the sun.
As for the rest, all technology outside of murder, medicine, and space travel are superfluous at best, retrogressive at worst. A new kind of phone doesn’t advance survival.
Polish were still riding horses when the germans went in, most of it was primitive at this time. Besides france, Germany, Britain and a few cities in Russia, the rest of europe was primitive. Portugal is still primitive. And europeans thought roling in the mud and not showering was good for your health. They thought showering would open your body to diseases. They committed a white doctor for germ theory to tthe mad house because they thought he was crazy (claiming that tiny invisible monsters can make people sick) he was laughed at by the white medical community. Whereas the africans and asians where practicing vaccines for thousands of years before the euro-clowns even knew what it was.
“Whereas the africans and asians where practicing vaccines for thousands of years before the euro-clowns even knew what it was.”
Impressive, that means they were giving eachother autoimmune disorders and deteriorating health “thousands of years before” Europeans thought of doing it to themselves:
http://www.amazon.com/Vaccines-They-Really-Safe-Effective/dp/1881217302
Yep, and that sure helped them against the colonials, didn’t it?
Poland had zero industrial capacity. What do they produce? Oil, Tin, and salt… like 40 pounds of ferrite in the whole country after the surface layers were tapped during the middle ages.
Frankly, Poland did a whole lot of brilliant tactical swaps until they were simply… rolled over by German Armor. Germany may have great technological thinkers, but tactically Rommel was like a 6 year old playing skee-ball.
As opposed to who… Shaka Zulu? The man who invented the short-spear 2000 years AFTER Rome demolished the african armies with a weapon that was nearly identical, the gladius? a People who live on some of the richest, most productive, wealthiest land in the WORLD, until south America was discovered, where you can stick your dick in the ground and find decent, easily-purified low grade Ore almost anywhere? The land with every type of precious and semiprecious gemstone known to man, where you can practically stick a seed in the ground and piss on it and feed your village for a week? The land that has the most incredible and easily-trained animal power in the world (elephants, Zebras, Oxen, Cattle) and yet somehow never managed to build ANYTHING… not one lasting monument south of Egypt or even a major empire that didn’t rely the musclepower of individual slaves and the communications speed of a fast runner.
Compared to POLAND, the very second stop on every major invasion route since 1200? The land where the only thing they had in plenty was warlords and sodium cyanide, and a bare scattering of peasants who were decimated by nearly every disease known and unknown to man? And yet this polacks pulled on their armor, loaded up their rifles, got on their horses, and, save for enormous german ordinance stockpiles, stood a damned good chance of stopping the thir reich before the bulldozer even got started?
You are trying way, way too hard to convince people that sub-saharan Africans are NOT some of the dumbest beasts on earth. And if the africans DID have some vaccines thousands of years before europeans, why the hell was their medical science so easily outpaced? in thousands of years they couldn’t invent sulfa drugs? (Europeans did it in less than 40 years) In thousands of years they couldn’t figure out basic refinement methods? With thousands of years of ‘advanced medical science’ they couldn’t even figure out the basic principles of sanitation? Why the water that made them sick to drink didn’t make them sick if they used it in soup? These things were discovered in less than 200 years of European safety in between plagues of rampaging barbarians and…well…actual plagues that usually killed over half the population (or nearly 90% during the black plague)
Yeah, the chinese invented gunpowder. and what did they do with it for three thousand years? They made pretty sparkled in the sky and scared their enemies with crappy, almost useless ‘rockets’ made of paper. Face it. compared to euroamerican innovation, most everyone else in the last couple of centuries REALLY sucked.
So, we are the weak ones, the corrupt, lazy and stagnant ones now. How about instead of whining about how much your race was bullied in the past (like everyone else’s race has been bullied) you and your ‘peeps’ get off your asses, start innovating, and TAKE the new power? Unless you are simply willing to admit that your subspecies passed it’s peak millenia ago and have been on the downwards slump into idiocy ever since, to end with their eventual replacement. Hey, it will happen to us too, in a couple of thousand years. Deal with it, get a hispanic girl pregnant or something… maybe some far distant yime in the future, your genes will exist inside the new, innovative conquerer.
There is some truth here. Most people think the anti-vaccine people are nuts but its not true. Vaccine science is real, the problem in the west is the vaccine companies spike the vaccines with chemicals to cause auto immune diseases on purpose to make more money for their other drugs. Normal vaccines do not cause this. Its kind of like how people use to eat fruit and vegetables and not get sick. Now you eat the fruits and vegetables with all the gmo, you get chrones, colitius, and hundreds of other diseases in your gut. Vaccine science is real if done proper. But the vaccine companies are down rotten. They were caught putting hiv into 100,000 vaccines in the 1980s.
Ps. your politicians don’t take the same tainted vaccines
The survivng African elephants cannot be tamed. Even the europeans tried, far too aggressive, not like indian elephants who can be taught tricks. Only the carthigian could tame them and the north african elephants were a different breed now extinct.
zebras same thing, they aren’t like horses and cannot take the stress. This is why the camel was used over the zebra.
Not one last monument south of egypt, LOL. You have no knowledge of african history. HYou are trying to defend your ignorance through lies.
Again, you make foolish comments then ask me questions assuming I agree with your preposterous premises. You ask me if Africans invented vaccines, why did europeans produce sulfa drugs first. Firstly, europeans only developed sulfa drugs in the 1930s. Yet we are aware that as far back as the time of washington, whites knew of vaccination as one of george washington slaves was also an african medical doctor who had vaccinated washington and his troops against various diseases.
So your 50 year time frame is way off. Secondly, I already explained to you that colonialism ruined African countries and actually pushed them backwards in terms of development.
Colonialism was about whites stealing out resources and regressing other non-white civilizations and raiding, just like the vikings, what resources and technology other countries possessed. People tend not to progress when they are being invaded and raided and murdered and kidnapped and enslaved by foreigners.
The reason europeans had the plague and sub-saharan africans didn’t was because they already had advanced sanitation system before the european arrived. The europeans use to shit in the streets like animals. The side walks were elevated because the streets were shit covered, and then they wondered why they got sick.
The grand irony, is despite all its raiding and theft and raping of the world, the white countries are all regressing back to the shit holes they have always been. And some have always just been shit holes like portugal, poland, belarus, ukraine, moldova, etc. with all their advantages of white power.
Always with the excuses, aren’t you? ‘untameable elephants’ and unbreakable zebras. White people oppressing 500 times their numbers back into the stone age.
Have you actually listened to yourself? Can’t you even smell the bullshit as it flows between your teeth?
Four days you have kept this shit up, about how evil, stupid, barbaric whites destroyed the noble savage negro empires that were basically Atlantis mixed with Pocahantas and a dash of fucking Unobtainium.
Look, I admit my forebears were a race of savage, often psychotic conquerors. We, every one of us, is the descendant of thousands of Genocides culminating in what you see today. All the failures died or were conquered. We are descendants of rapists, every one of us. Why is it so goddamned important to you to build up a fucking frame of bullshit to convince yourself that your greats were anything other than the stupid, dirt-poor losers of African wars between savages and dumbshits?
Hell, you write reasonably well (Despite the fact that 90% of what you say is pure lying, it is well-written lying). You should be proud of the fact that you are probably a thousand times smarter than your retarded forebears. Thank your Irish ancestors forcibly bred into black slave lines for that. I got a black man’s nose and gigantic, muscular body from exactly that sort of breeding five or so generations back, I am not about to avoid using it to get what i want just because it comes from a non-Scotts Gaelic Source.
Mate, I think you need to visit Planet Earth some time…you do know what ‘primitive’ means, right? Have you ever been to Lisbon? Do you realize that’s in Portugal? Did you know the CITY of Warsaw (which is in Poland) was founded in the 12th century by Duke Boleslaw? The polish CAVALRY rode horses in WWII because it was a status symbol (and strangely enough, that’s what cavalry do), not because they had no tanks! The Queen’s HORSE guard STILL ride horses for much the same reason. And since when is a germ an ‘invisible monster’? And nobody ever put Pasteur in a madhouse, he founded the Pasteur institute and received many awards for his work. Ugh, I could go on, but seriously? Why waste my time on somebody who has apparently only the barest comprehension of what they read?
So, spread the Cancer of Humanity throughout the cosmos?
I don’t see whites taming african elephants, if you want to get crushed by one go and try it.
We all saw what happened when Hitler colonized the Ukraine, mass starvation back into the stone age. Don’t pretend like being colonized is some grand gift. Even the white colonized countries are complete shit holes.
Your racial hatred of blacks and non-whites doesn’t allow you to see the fact that white countries colonized by other whites like Costa Rica and Argentine and Urguay and mexico are still hell holes.
If you want to believe a false history of Africans as dirt poor losers and wars between savages I cannot control your beliefs, but it is inconsistent with the historical facts. The walls of Benin are four times the size of the great walls of China, and no one thinks the ancient chinese were dirt poor losers. The historical facts which clearly demonstrate africans were the founders builders and creators of western civilization, art, music, literature, history, science, mathematics and religion.
The whites enslaved the blacks because the whites knew who were too lazy and/or incompetent to build their own civilizations, knew who the builders of civilization and the most productive worker on the planet had and has always been, the black african.
You telling me Africans were dirt poor losers, would be like an African telling you whites in the industrial age were dirt poor losers who never accomplished nothing when we agree despite their general savagery for the most part ruled the world.
Lisbon is a real shit hole and is primitive. I am not talking aboout pasteur. Pasteur did not “Discover” germ theory.
South American countries, ‘white countries colonized by other whites’?
Are you fucking insane? and the rest of your rambling is retarded rewriting of history. Tell you what, why don’t we just agree that you are a fucking idiot, and you shut up and go someplace where you can talk to people who will believe your utterly unsubstantiated bullshit. Like maybe the NAACP website.
absofuckinglutely. What the hell else is there?
BTW, remember to always cut along the road, not across the tracks. I will have nothing to do with self-loathing misanthropists.
BTW, apparently you haven’t heard of the Belgians. They used hundreds of Tamed African Elephants to haul timber out of the congo.
Admittedly, they hired Indian Mahouts to do the training, due to their much greater experience, but the concept that African elephants are untameable is patently ridiculous.
“I don’t see whites taming african elephants”
That’s because Europe and America don’t have native elephants, dumbass. Why reinvent the wheel when there are always highly trained mahouts looking for work?
You are an idiot they did not tame elephants, and if they were using elephants then they probably were imported indian ones.
No one has tamed african elephants, the elephants they try to tame always end up goring the owner and killing them. Look at South Africa, lots of whites, lots of elephants, how many white south africans do you see taming elephants.
Elephants will not accept a human as a leader and when they do rough house the human in the way a horse or cow would they would die.
Thanks to USA and to Muslim barbarian and aggressive mentality we now have WW3 running from Afghanistan to Nigeria.
And either al-Qaeda or the Houthis now have modern military equipment courtesy of the American taxpayer:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-03-23/us-loses-500-million-weapons-given-yemen-now-al-qaeda-hands
OMGGGGG who cares? What’s Kim Kardashian doing? I heard a black guy looked in her general direction and sent his voice over to her, is she now fucking him?
To be fair, there were probably English and German socialites in 1914 who said “The Archduke Ferdinand? Who cares?”
You’re right, his stupid Pop 40 band sucks! :)-
Will this info help me bang muslim chicks in america?
Let the Muslims kill themselves.
Should be let to happen without any outside influence. That includes Saudi Arabia
Ever since the end of the Cold War I’ve lost track of all the different conflicts. All I know is that there’s a lot of oil over there which is why we always get involved or we are just acting as Israel’s guard dog whenever big, bad [insert country here] is about to start another Holocaust :cry
I’m guessing this is probably the same thing?
You generally have a good idea of the big picture, if not the individual players.
Excellent article – Quality.There is every chance that the next global conflict will start in the middle east. It’s good to stay informed on these separate yet similar conflicts.
it’s already started…Israel needs to just sit back and let them all get on with it…they played it wrong with Syria but luckily Assad has hung in there – we can thank Putin for that. But we hashed up Libya where Gaddafi was just fine for stopping all the illegal immigrants who now pour across the Med.
Good luck to Iran and I hope they can win in Iraq, Yemen and Bahrain and help keep Assad in power too. Saudi and the Arab Sunnis ate the real enemy
The whole region is now just like the Balkans used to be.
Finally, someone to talk about this, whenever I try to bring this up to topic everyones face is like “uh?” “what is Yemen” “What is shia?” “what is sunni?” “what are you talking about” “what is that?”
Kings and ancient rulers, as well as todays rulers are always aware of what happens in the other side of the world. Only an idiot thinks that knowing this is a waste of time.
From my own perspective I think Iran, is gaining a LOT of momentum in middle east politics. They already control part of the persian gulf, I think their end game strategy is to establish a shia government in Yemen, and gain full control of the red sea and the gulf of Aden. This is where the majority of oil exports go trough.
Another theory that I have is that Iran deliberately started firing up this conflict through their revolutionary guard in order to keep the heat off the Nuclear P5+1 negotiations. Primarily to divert the attention of the arab countries.
So why is this important again? You didn’t really give a reason other than just make fun of people who don’t talk about.
I’m a very busy person, tell me why I should even invest even two minutes of my time learning about this.
It is important in order to not make a fool out of yourself, like you just did.
He asked a legitimate question… How does this impact the west? Is there a reason we should even be taking sides? Both Iran’s power bloc and Saudi’s power bloc are inimical to our interests overseas, and there are some contentions about what those interests really are, especially with the recent discovery of enormous shale deposits in the EU, lessening our need for mediterranean oil.
Should we even intercede? considering that our future energy interests might lie in Poland or even (god forbid) the UK?
Yes. A poster earlier pointed this out. Petrodollars. Same reason why Saddam was ousted. Petrodollars. When Iran takes control of the Middle East, life might be difficult for Uncle Sam.
you do realize that within 1 year of Poland getting it’s head out of it’s ass about fracking, The petrodollar won’t be fit to wipe your ass with, right?
I suspect The Russians know this, and they have a remarkable ability to temporarily un-ass heads long enough to break shit hard.
This might be the pivotal event that Balkanizes the US permanently. I think it’s about time we started to pull our asses out of the fire before the russians steal our asbestos panties.
It is not entirely Black or White. For instance, US has its own shale gas reserves (it is expensive to “frack” but in interests of energy security, that does not really matter). Alaska has tremendous reserves. US still has the biggest military might and thus might bully the OPEC nations to do its bidding. The biggest and cheapest oil fields are still in Saudi Arabia and they are firmly sucking on American D**k. So no problems there and it is in America’s interest to protect the Saud family. I personally hate them and hope they die a miserable wahhabi death.
Again, it cannot last. Saudi Oil is drying up FAST. Shale deposits in the Americas and europe will NOT help the petrodollar, (although it does mean america will fall apart from within instead of getting invaded). WE stil have the greatest military in the world, but Obama’s lame duck shit is certainly going to wreck that… we have already sold most of our Naval workhorses, and one cannot control land with air power. Our infantry, while perhaps the most advanced in earth, is certainly NOT the best trained, or even the best physical specimens… not even close.
after saudi dries up or is rendered irrelevant by closer, cheaper energy sources, what the point of even flexing our muscles over there?
The west cant risk having their oil tankers attacked as they make their way around the Arabian peninsula and up into the Red Sea.
The author forgot to list the major reason this countrry(as well as Egypt and Syria) is failing: they do not have anymore excess oil with which to trade with the west. They dont have much else to trade with. former oil profits were used to provide subsidies to the poor ie cheaper than normal food and energy costs internally. When people cant provide the basics like food on the table and electricity in the home, they tend to get very very angry…
Tremendous reserves where? How would you get gas to market? You cant transport gas long distances(unlike coal and oil). Nat gas tends to be used more locally, and there arent many people in Alaska…
There is no cheaper, more energy-dense source other than oil. Das it.
I wasn’t trying to be a total dick here, but I have about 30 minutes of total uninterrupted free time a day so political talk/being informed becomes a waste of time for me unless it’s actually relevant to my life somehow.
Not that I think political talk is useless, but I’ve been drawn offsides by the fear mongerers so many times now that it’s basically become a “Boy Cried Wolf” scenario at this point. Plus, I already know about the Bildeberg Group, bankers, Rothschilds, etc. so even moreso it’s hard for me to get worked up everytime somebody in the Middle East has their annual food fight. But I’m still legitimately curious if this really is different and something we should be concerned about , or is it just the same old song and dance for the hundredth time?
However, I still gave this article a good read since it was a Quintus Curtius article as his are always top notch.
I agree the fearmongerers (*cough* Alex Jones *cough*) are incredibly annoying but something big will happen at some point, we just don’t when or what will happen. Best thing to do is notice trends (rise in feminist movements, tolerance of Islam, etc) compare with similar events in history (fall of Roman Empire) and prepare accordingly.
Disagree strongly. Alcohol always has been, and will be, both cheaper and denser… Only problem is, Henry Ford Set the gold standard on the internal combustion engine… He specifically used oil because most of it’s lighter burnables were a waste product, and insanely cheap ‘at the time’ . The lower combustion ability (without adulterating it with water, like alcohol) was actually a plus, as alcohol experiments had too great an explosive force, and tended to blow up. Even Methanol has a better energy ratio (and is far cheaper) than oil products.
I think its going to be some time out, but I’d say watch if/who the Zionists start backing a new parasite nation.
Given the scenario you describe, I predict the nuclear armed nations will all simply hang back and wait to see which of them is destroyed from within and then alliances/blocs will form and pounce on the nations destroyed from within. I could see a Moscow-Beijing or a Beijing+SE Asia bloc, or a greater Asian bloc (Russia, the Stans, China, India, possibly Iran, and other SCO members) emerging as the new global superpower after the West destorys itself. I could also see a Hispanic bloc in South America, and a Sunni bloc forming in the Middle East and/or in Indonesia, Malysia, and parts of the Philippines.
Basically Balkanization. That might be bad from an economic point of view, but from the point of view of the individual’s ability to act that is often the best possible situation.
If you can’t understand why it’s important just based on what he wrote then you need some remedial education on world affairs. Read the first paragraph of “guest”‘s comment above to start.
Having general knowledge of politics, including foreign policy, is useful because you never know when it may affect your life. The world is an interwoven web, and understanding how it works can benefit you personally by allowing you to optimize the way you invest your time and money.
Beyond your personal understanding, it is important for we as citizens to understand what is going on in the world, because ignorance on the part of the people is what allows the elite to gain control and implement tyrannical policies.
I’m well aware of the big picture, I’m just trying to figure out what details I should focus on and which ones are useless.
Fair question, guess this one’s not for you. Not everything is everyone’s business. Only a democratist could be that naïve… you know, The People must be Informed! Because uh, their votes uhh… lol
I’m interested in the region, and the article helped me fit a couple pieces together. Also it showed breadth and progress in the site.
Cheers.
Good luck to iran…we need to realise Saudi Arabia is no friend of ours and is the drive behind ISIS.
Saudis are not our “friends” just because we like them. We made a deal with them: We defend the Royal family(note not Saudi Arabia but the royals themselves), and in exchange they will sell oil in U.S. dollars (petrodollars). Because of that, the U.S. dollar is the reserve currency and as a consequence we can print at will to sustain our “way of life”. As long as our military is next to none, we will go to the end of earth to defend Saudis interests. No ifs and buts about it.
On somehow a related note…People say debt is bad, but here’s something I’ve just stumbled upon today. Did anybody read the 14th Amendment carefully? Paragraph 4 says this:
“The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”
SHALL NOT BE QUESTIONED.. I find that very interesting. Am I missing something here?
I’m with you, that’s some chilling language…
When it says the “validity” of the debt shall no be questioned, it doesn’t sound like it’s saying that no one is allowed to criticize the accumulation of national debt.
Rather, it is a promise from the US government to it’s creditors that the US will not renege on it’s debt obligations (refuse to pay those to whom it owes money).
Particularly when the country was still young, and after the shaky start with the Articles of Confederation, some were concerned that the government would be unable to operate, and would simply declare it’s debt to be “invalid”, thus refusing to pay back it’s creditors.
In addition to Ghost’s helpful response: take out a US dollar note. Where it says that it may be tendered for all debts public and private, that means — with the backing of Paragraph 4 — you can’t throw a worthless, hyperinflated dollar back in the US government’s face and say “Fuck you, I want to be paid in gold, this piece of paper isn’t worth the price of an equivalent-sized piece of toilet paper.” The government can legitimately leave you with a worthless pile of paper for its debts towards you.
The 14th and 15th amendment were writen durring reconstruction after the end of the civil war. Lincoln was considered a moderate republican, which is not the same as the republicans of today, he was more of a progressive. He was opposed by a fraction of the republican party in congress know literally as the “radicals”. The part about debut amongst several other items were to prevent the formation of guerrilla troops, and alow the terms of the closure of the civil war to stick.
The radicals had very different ideas about who was owed money, including conscripted union soldiers. The last thing most of congress wanted was a pissed off army.
It also had to do with Northern entities that lent money to the Confederation.
..i guess it means that the debt must always be paid…like a Lannister always pays their debts, America does too…
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#5. Fucking off when you are first told to do so.
It’s hilarious. Most can’t point Texas on a map let alone foreign countries and understand what’s going on over there.
I bet I could convince forty percent of them that ‘Nebraska’ is not in the United States.
Cheers.
It’s funny how in the Iraq conflict right now Iran is supporting American efforts to beat IS but in Yemen they are supporting the people fighting American influence
Welcome to France and the UK circa 2050, but with europeans vs. non euros.
100% correct
Earlier perhaps?
Time for the reset button!
What seems to be going on in the Middle East, is a battle between Iran and Saudi Arabia to gain dominance over the region. Very similar to the battles between France and England to gain power over Europe for a good part of history.
It’s going to be bloody for sure.
It’s always kind of fun to watch supposed red-pill types avoid the general subject of Zionist control of America’s foreign policy.
I agree, Israel has far too much influence with nuclear talks been the USA and Iran. I’m not necessarily anti Israel but I do believe that they don’t need billions from American taxpayers every year, and they have no place operating an agency like AIPAC within the United States.
they don’t need billions from American taxpayers every year
nor does Egypt.
Egypt gets it because of Israel.
Egypt gets it in order to control who is really running the region’s most populous nation at any given time. Welfare payments tend to take freedoms from its recipients.
“The peace between Egypt and Israel has lasted since the treaty went into effect, and Egypt has become an important strategic partner of Israel. Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a former Israeli defense minister known for his close ties to Egyptian officials, has stated that “Egypt is not only our closest friend in the region, the co-operation between us goes beyond the strategic.”
As part of the agreement, the U.S. began economic and military aid to Egypt, and political backing for its subsequent governments. From the Camp David peace accords in 1978 until 2000, the United States has subsidized Egypt’s armed forces with over $38 billion worth of aid. Egypt receives about $1.3 billion annually.”
No disagreement with those facts, but there is a reason those 38 billion over 32 years were given to the military and not directly to the Egyptian gov’t or “people”.
Israel stole nuclear technology from the US.
It recently came out that they have HYDROGEN bombs.
Google “the Sampson option”
No man who claims to be red pill has any excuse not to know this stuff.
Retards are only brainwashed into thinking they’re our “friends” because they have bought every institution in the west with the money they printed.
The only question is why the fuck haven’t we done anything about it yet.
Not US…but France. Look it’s a tiny country smaller than even New York state and it’s surrounded by millions of muslim savages.
“Retards are only brainwashed into thinking they’re our “friends” because
they have bought every institution in the west with the money they
printed.” –
Sounds like you are talking about Saudis rather than Israel.
And by the way, why does it bother you so much? Pakistan and N. Korea posses nuclear bombs too and they are ruled by maniacs contrary to
Israel.
Of course they did, the Zio psychos always seem to get what they want. They are also at least partially behind the multicultural genocide plaguing Europe and the US.
Kennedy actually was going to make organizations like AIPAC register as foreign agencies. Now our elected officials serve a foreign power to the detriment of the American people, and right wing “patriots” are the most obsequious grovelers.
Can we stop trying to talk about the red-pill as a catch-all for “stuff I agree with and think every man should know”?
Nice try.
Hopefully we have a full blown Sunni Shia war and both Saudi Arabia and Iran wipe each other out completely.
Not gonna happen. See my comment a little down below.
The situation in Yemen is a good example of US government hypocrisy: it is in some ways similar to the Ukraine crisis, yet the position of the US is the complete opposite.
In both countries, the president was ousted and forced to flee the country (Yanukovych and Hadi). In Ukraine, the US supported this and actively worked to remove Yanukovych from power. Yet in Yemen, they support the ousted president. They claim he is legitimate, even though he was the only candidate in the last election. Yanukovych actually won a close and heated election against another candidate, yet he was still not legitimate in the view of the US. In Ukraine, the US supported those who overthrew the previous government, while in Yemen, they are against them.
Just goes to show their hypocrisy.
“Yanukovych actually won a close and heated election against another candidate”
First of all, there was some serious rigging during those elections, but even assuming that Yanukovych won fair and square…. he won in freaking 2010! The Euromaidan had nothing to do with him as elected president or not, it had to do with his treasonous activities, when he basically sold Crimea to Putin for some cheap gas and tried to bring the country back into Russian(Soviet) orbit. That was the main reason why Euromaidan started.
“In Ukraine, the US supported those who overthrew the previous government”
Yeah right, why not just say that they were all Pentagon agents dressed as Ukrainian to oust poor Yanukovych.
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I wish Putin would O-Soto Gari your ass straight into ground, schmuck!
Wow . . . the sheer amount of ignorance you displayed . . . is astounding.
Typical Russian attitude: What?! You dare not to agree with me and my sacred opinions? You are ignorant, Nazi, gay, stupid, Russophobic(?), bla, bla, bla.
Not at all. I simply described what I saw.
“First of all, there was some serious rigging during those elections, but even assuming that Yanukovych won fair and square…. he won in freaking 2010!”
None as far as I am aware, I suppose it’s simple to just accuse your opponent of rigging the election if you don’t like him.
” The Euromaidan had nothing to do with him as elected president or not, it had to do with his treasonous activities, when he basically sold Crimea to Putin for some cheap gas”
Actually, last time I checked, the vast majority of the Crimean people voted for the reunification with Russia, AFTER the events of the Maidan. A recent poll found that the majority of people think the decision they made last year is a good one and continue to support the reunification.
“and tried to bring the country back into Russian(Soviet) orbit. That was the main reason why Euromaidan started.”
He did not sign the EU Associated Agreement, which had many negative consequences for the Ukrainian economy (as shown with what is happening now). Russia offered for Ukraine to both join the EU and increase trade with Russia, but the EU refused. The Euromaidan people now see the error of their ways as the cost of living goes up while overall quality of living goes down.
“Yeah right, why not just say that they were all Pentagon agents dressed as Ukrainian to oust poor Yanukovych.”
The fact that it was a coup is obvious to most by this point. Obama said that the U.S. was “involved in the transition of power in Ukraine”. Nuland and Pyatt had a phone call where they discussed which politicians would get what role in the new government (setting up a puppet regime). And it happened as they said. Nuland later admitted that they invested $5 billion in “democracy” in Ukraine (we all know what that means). George Friedman, the head of the Stratfor political think tank, called it the “most blatant coup in history”.
“Actually, last time I checked, the vast majority of the Crimean people voted for the reunification with Russia, AFTER the events of the Maidan.”
Yeah, nothing suspicious in a referendum with 96% supporting the side which is meanwhile knocking on your door with AK-74s. Brings back the nostalgia of good old Soviet “elections”.
Nobody denies serious Russophilic tendencies in Crimea for the simple reason that the MAJORITY there are, in fact, you know, RUSSIANS! The “problem” (for Russians that is) is that it is still part of Ukraine as recognized by the whole world and Russia itself after the collapse of Soviet Union. One can’t hastily cobble some kind of referendum like the “Crimean one”. It’s such a blatant disregard of international law, it is not even funny anymore. Just for the record, Scottish referendum on independence (Yeah, not the same subject, but very similar, so I’ll go with it), took three years, THREE FREAKING YEARS to organize. The “referendum” you are referring to, took, what, two weeks?
Such referendum is a clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty integrity, something Russia itself actually GUARANTEED in 1994.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum_on_Security_Assurances
“consequences for the Ukrainian economy (as shown with what is happening now)”
Oh, really? Something tells me it’s more because of Russian embargoes and support of the separatist bandit movements in the east, not EU.
“Russia offered for Ukraine to both join the EU and increase trade with Russia”
Oh, so now I get it! That’s why they banned all imports from Ukraine basically paralyzing it’s economy and FORCING to stop(for a while) all preparations for signing the Association Agreement with EU. Turns out they just wanted Ukraine to join EU!
Seriously as much as I hate to do ad-hominem attacks, one has to be mentally handicapped in order to believe that Russia, especially Putin’s Russia, will allow Ukraine to join EU or NATO. They would rather start World War Three and kill billions than allow that to happen.
“as the cost of living goes up while overall quality of living goes down”
Do you even realize you just described Russia in nutshell right there? Low wages and shockingly expensive commodities, especially in cities. Hell, Moscow is the most expensive city in the world. Meanwhile, populations in some faraway Shitograds are on the brink of starvation. Yeah, quite the “superpower” right there! Don’t forget the falling Ruble and the “quality” of products there too.
“The fact that it was a coup is obvious to most by this point”
Do you even know what a freaking “coup” even is? It’s a sudden, short and immediate intervention (often violent military one) in country’s politics, involving military and political ELITE in order to take down the government. How the hell does Euromaidan, a FOUR-MONTH PUBLIC INITIALLY PEACEFUL demonstration fit that description, exactly?
“Yeah, nothing suspicious in a referendum with 96% supporting the side which is meanwhile knocking on your door with AK-74s. Brings back the nostalgia of good old Soviet “elections”.”
The voter turnout was 83%, so that’s 96% of 83% of voters. But yes. And, no, there were no ‘knocking down doors with AKs’. There was no violence at all as a matter of fact (unlike in Kiev).
“Nobody denies serious Russophilic tendencies in Crimea for the simple reason that the MAJORITY there are, in fact, you know, RUSSIANS! The “problem” (for Russians that is) is that it is still part of Ukraine as recognized by the whole world and Russia itself after the collapse of Soviet Union. One can’t hastily cobble some kind of referendum like the “Crimean one”. It’s such a blatant disregard of international law, it is not even funny anymore. Just for the record, Scottish referendum on independence (Yeah, not the same subject, but very similar, so I’ll go with it), took three years, THREE FREAKING YEARS to organize. The “referendum” you are referring to, took, what, two weeks?”
Irrelevant. Crimean people made their choice, and the rest of the world needs to accept that. And it does not matter how long it took to organize it. If you want international law violation, talk to the US government, they are leading in that field.
“Such referendum is a clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty integrity, something Russia itself actually GUARANTEED in 1994.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B…”
That was signed by Boris Yeltsin, who was a traitor that made Russia weak. Luckily, Putin undid most of his mistakes. Anything that Yeltsin the alcoholic did can be forgotten and is illegitimate.
“Oh, really? Something tells me it’s more because of Russian embargoes and support of the separatist bandit movements in the east, not EU.”
Cost of living went up by more than twice as much in some cases ever since IMF/EU dictated policies were implemented. The self-defense forces in the east don’t make it any better but blaming them is just foolish.
“Oh, so now I get it! That’s why they banned all imports from Ukraine basically paralyzing it’s economy and FORCING to stop(for a while) all preparations for signing the Association Agreement with EU. Turns out they just wanted Ukraine to join EU!”
None of that happened.
“Seriously as much as I hate to do ad-hominem attacks, one has to be mentally handicapped in order to believe that Russia, especially Putin’s Russia, will allow Ukraine to join EU or NATO. They would rather start World War Three and kill billions than allow that to happen.”
Just like the US would rather start WWIII and kill billions rather than lose its control, with Ukraine being an important part of its imperial expansion. As US National Security Advisor and Obama’s foreign policy mentor Zbigniew Brezenski wrote in his book back in the 90s, “The Grand Chessboard”, the United States must take Ukraine away from Russia if it wants to exert dominance over Eurasia. And so far I have not seen Putin start a world war, in fact, he was the one that has been calling for peace (which was ignored until recently) from the beginning, while Washington continues to pump weapons in which escalate the violence.
“Do you even realize you just described Russia in nutshell right there? Low wages and shockingly expensive commodities, especially in cities. Hell, Moscow is the most expensive city in the world. Meanwhile, populations in some faraway Shitograds are on the brink of starvation. Yeah, quite the “superpower” right there! Don’t forget the falling Ruble and the “quality” of products there too.”
Ruble is the best performing currency in 2015, according to Bloomberg, having went up in value against the dollar by a lot since the beginning of the year. And frankly it sounds like you never been to Russia because much of what you described is not true. Though that is what the US govt dreams of causing, then they hope they can force the current Russian govt to collapse and then replace it with a puppet regime.
“Do you even know what a freaking “coup” even is?”
Yes, and apparently you don’t.
“It’s a sudden, short and immediate intervention (often violent military one) in country’s politics, involving military and political ELITE in order to take down the government. How the hell does Euromaidan, a FOUR-MONTH PUBLIC INITIALLY PEACEFUL demonstration fit that description, exactly?”
Not necessarily. You need to brush up on your English. A coup is generally an overthrow of a government. While the Euromaidan began as a genuine protest, it was hijacked by Western powers who used it for their own selfish and aggressive goals. Western diplomats got involved in organizing the overthrow and met with Euromaidan leaders, also providing funding and handing out cookies. Afterwards they established a puppet government based on their dealings with the Euromaidan leading figures.
That’s Islam for you – a violent religion which we see clearly everyday. There will be no peace whilst they believe in a war lord who killed and butchered people.
No idea why the west is supporting sunni saudi arabia – which spreads extremist Islamist terrorism – if you were to choose sides it would be with the shia.
“No idea why the west is supporting sunni saudi arabia . . .”
Charles de Gualle rose from the dead today, just to prove he could really do it.
De Gualle challenged Richard Nixon to a game of international monetary war for all the fucking marbles. De Gualle proved to be a hard man, again. Nixon blinked, then cut a deal with the Saudis to prevent the collapse of the dollar; and so the Petro-Dollar was born. It only lives so long as the Saudis continue to play the game.
As is par for the course in that part of the world, follow the oil & money trail.
Why let a petty thing like religious differences get in the way of mutually assured interests…
Oh boy, brown people finding new reasons to kill each other.
You wish they were new reasons, but actually it’s the same reasons they’ve been killing each other over for several hundred years. Catholics and Protestants got over that shit pretty quickly by comparison.
God damn, if we could put out a bunch of drones over brown people countries to video all the fighting over whose imaginary god is better it would probably be the best reality show ever. I’d pay for it.
Most of the Middle Eastern sectarian conflicts are exactly as sectarian as the Northern Irish. That is, not really about religious differences, just intercommunal power struggles in a context where religious adherence and community are synonymous.
Now, if any Shia faction was actually trying to enthrone a descendant of Muhammed with the right lineage, and a Sunni faction oppose them in that, then you might have a point.
That helps. Whatta mess. Takes a daily scorecard to keep up with the middle-east musical-chairs.
The Arab regions generally retain ancient tribal characteristics, natures, loyalties. National boundaries are marginal concepts, like the endless occupations and re-occupations of various Islamic sects. Brother striving against brother.
As with North Africa, it’s clear the middle east is heating up. Spiritual and religious hostilities. Strategic shipping lane chokepoints to the Red Sea and Persian Gulf under contest. Large disparities between super-rich and poor. Etc.
There are a lot of impoverished Yemenis, and war is hard on the land. May their futures improve. Eventually.
Cheers.
I say we nuke the entire place from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure
So which one is Barry, Sunni or Shiite?
Good read but it seems to me that Yemeni’s lack the simmering hatred that the extremist groups and the Baathist government have for each other in Syria that has caused that tragedy to continue for so long. Also Yemen is one of the poorest Arab states so there is little there to fight about other than political power. Saleh came to power through bloody means as is usually the case in that part of the world but the years in power enervated him instead of turning him into an Assad (the father not the current one). Yemen will be messy for a long time but I don’t expect the situation to be as brutal as in Syria or even Iraq.
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