As Yemen Erupts In Violence, U.S, Saudis Face Dilemma

[Purveyor]

Islamic State, Al-Qaida, Shi’ite rebels, Sunni militia and an ex-president who refuses to concede defeat – welcome to the complex warzone called Yemen.

By Zvi Bar'el | Mar. 23, 2015 | 3:21 AM

The slopes around the city of Taiz in southern Yemen are home to one of the best strains of coffee in the world and some of the country’s finest khat. More than half a million people live in Taiz, which was once home to a large Jewish community of some 10,000. The city was also known for its fine gold and silver repoussé work and, until the revolution of 2011, was a popular tourist destination.

On Sunday, the city fell to Houthi rebels, members of the Zaidi Shi’ite religious minority that constitutes some 40 percent of the country’s population. Taiz is located on a strategic crossroad, one branch of which leads to the Indian Ocean port of Aden. The Houthis intend to reach Aden, and thus to complete their conquest of Yemen.

Yemen joins Syria and Libya – which are ruled by religious or civilian militias – and Iraq, where the central government is only in partial control of the country. Like Syria and Iraq, in Yemen, too, the war is not only between the Houthis and the regime, which moved its seat to Aden after President Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi managed to escape house arrest last month and flee there from the capital, Sana’a.

The forces operating in Yemen are just as complex as those in Syria. In the south, large groups of Al-Qaida operatives fight alongside regime forces, supported by some of the Sunni tribes. In the same area, Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL) militants are active, some of them former Al-Qaida operatives who have now pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

There are also Sunni militias operating in the south, demanding that Yemen be redivided into northern and southern states, as well as armed tribesmen demanding a just distribution of the country’s oil resources, most of which are located in the south.

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http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/.premium-1.648310

[Maedhros]

1. "Erupts" in violence?

We've been perpetrating violence in Yemen since at least 2009, when Obama ordered air strikes that killed 45 civilians:

http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2013/6/7/witness_to_a_massacre_yemeni_tribal_leader_recalls_how_us_attack_on_al_majalah_killed_45_civilians

We've drastically increased the intensity of our drone warfare in Yemen since then. Yet we're pretending the violence is new?

[delrem]

2. It's like history doesn't happen anymore.

It's like a never-ending spin zone, where nothing exists outside the spin.
I've never seen it so bad, but it seems to have a hold everywhere in the English speaking world, including forums like DU where there shouldn't be any excuse.

Have people no lasting memory at all? Are we just machines whose memory can be overwritten by new stuff daily, hourly, the past obliterated anew every day as we're told the latest version of spin -- and we don't even notice?