Yemen: A Perpetual Proxy

It's impossible to evaluate U.S. relations in the Middle East without seeing blatant hypocrisy. U.S. actions in the region serve as case studies of hypocrisy. The hypocrites and their accomplices could counter posing as adults lecturing the utopian critic about the necessity of realpolitick. Thus, we live in a fallen world and foreign policy at its best should improve relations but cannot transform all participants into angels. The hypocrites here construct the classic straw man that they can easily exile from the debate. The stubborn facts remain though awaiting our attention. Our focusing enough critical attention on the ongoing war in Yemen will expose U.S. hypocrisy displayed in grandiose fashion. The U.S. realpolitick mindset here presupposes they are simply reacting to events instigated by others rather than their own actions contributing to this tragedy in Yemen. 

Syrian opponents consisting of several groups: Free Syrian Army, Al Nusra, Al Quaeda,  and ISIS are often conflated under a rhetorical cover of "opposition".  Lt. General Michael T. Flynn former head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) discusses in a well known interview with Al Jazeera that the U.S. was aware that the Salafists, Muslim Brotherood, and Al-Quaeda in Iraq were the major forces driving the insurgency in Syria:

  

In this interview he discusses briefly the observations revealed in the DIA report created in August 2012. Mehdi Hasan asks General Flynn about the implications of this report. Flynn does not explicitly state in this interview that the U.S. was directly supporting these groups. He does though acknowledge the U.S. awareness of their rise in 2012.

Nonetheless war hawks like John McCain believe the stated but unseen moderate opposition to Assad deserves support. In case you have trouble identifying these moderates amongst the embattled mercenaries, they are the ones riding the unicorns. Or, if your imagination fails you, simply wait for the U.S. to announce casualties resulting from Russia's bombings. The  reasons why the U.S. expresses the need to support the elusive moderates are for a different discussion. But, what is important to see is that the elite support of Assad's opponents does not extend to the opponents of the regime in Yemen. When asked about a recent Saudi military bombing in Yemen that apparently killed civilians, Senator John McCain stayed in character tersely and incoherently babbling:

“They may be bombing civilians, which is actually not true,”        McCain said, when asked about civilian casualties in Yemen.

“Civilians aren’t dying?” I-the reporter-asked.

“No, they’re not,” the senator replied. “Oh, I’m sure civilians die in war. Not nearly as many as the Houthis have executed,” McCain continued, referring to the Shiite militia waging an insurgency against the Sunni government in Yemen.

Asked about the recent reports of Saudi forces bombing a wedding party in Yemen, McCain said, “I’m sure in wars terrible things happen and the Houthis however are an extremist group backed by the Iranians who are slaughtering Yemenis.” [1]

McCain's observations show two persistent fallacies in regard to conditions in Yemen. First, he rationalizes Saudi abuses by drawing a moral equivalence to the Houthis' actions. His statement is wrong according to the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights whose analysis thus far indicates the Saudi's are responsible for more of the civilian deaths in Yemen. When do facts ever matter to warmongers? McCain's second fallacious statement though deserves more analysis because the U.S. elites repeat it so often. This view suggests Yemen is a failed stated destroyed by terrorists supported by Iran seeking to integrate Yemen into a Shiite arc of dominance. This view is wrong.

The U.S. elites' claiming that Houthi rebels are Shiite proxies serving the hegemonic ambitions of Iran is an embellishment and ignores what factors contributed to the rise of their movement. Several examples provide better insight into Saudi's harmful effect on Yemen, which created conditions for the development of an opposition group like the Houthis. For example, the House of Saud expelled over a million Yemeni workers from Saudi Arabia in retaliation for the Yemeni government being only of 1 of 2 nations opposing Operation Desert Storm. [2] Saudi not Iran punished the economic conditions of many Yemenis for not following the will of the hegemonic power.This act was an example of a larger pattern of Saudi exerting control over Yemen. No Ayatollah fingerprints on this move. Yet Yemen proceeded to become one of the poorest nations in the Middle East.

While the U.S. elites constantly accuse Assad of being a genocidal dictator who drops barrel bombs, chlorine bombs (not to mention his being responsible for the sarin-gas attack against his own people in August 2013), they maintain mostly silence on the fact that Ali Abdullah Saleh had presided over North Yemen since 1978 and the unified Yemen from 1990 to his being forced from power in February 2012. His tenure is certainly not an example of progressive leadership directing Yemen into a stable functioning democracy. Rather, he opted after Operation Desert Storm to become an ally of the Saudi monarchy which both cooperated to repress many Yemenis, preserve the feudal hierarchy in the North, and meanwhile managed to make Yemen one of the poorest nation in the Middle East.

The coalition of nations currently cooperating with Saudi to bomb Yemen should presuppose that creating democracy is not an objective. Would a military coalition consisting of Saudi Arabia, Morocco, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar,Egypt, and Sudan result in a bombing-induced transition to democracy? Now the realpolitick voices on cue could chime in here stating that utopian dreams of democracy can wait while this Arab coalition bombs Yemen to stop the Iran-backed Houthis. This statement is mostly an exaggeration and as stated above ignores that Saudi has exercised much greater control in Yemen. Also, this Arab bombing coalition not being approved by a vote in the UN Security Council is just rhetorical filler though. Who cares about the soft UN whose legitimacy does not compare to that of a coalition consisting of dysfunctional and oppressive monarchies or autocratic systems? Sarcasm is impossible to avoid here.

The U.S. elite's demonization of Iran has rendered its influence anywhere an immediate and grave danger warranting preemptive military intervention if possible. Of course the facts show Iran's influence in Yemen is an exaggeration and that social and political conditions more complex than simply dividing this nation explicitly between Sunnis and Shiites.

The common theme echoed in the western press is that the Houthis are proxies of Iran rallying around the infamous refrain of "Death to America, death to Israel, damn the Jews." The latter refrain more easily allows the media to associate Houthis with Iran, working together to destabilize the region. Another view that has failed to enter into public discourse to the same degree as a familiar refrain is the former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen's diplomatic cable including an observation that:

Contrary to ROYG (Republic of Yemen Guard-my insertion) claims that Iran is arming the Houthis, most analysts report that the Houthis obtain their weapons from the Yemeni black market and even from the ROYG military itself. [3]

The ever vigilant observer always connecting the dots between any movement loosely identified as Shiite with Iran could reply that Wikileaks published this cable in 2009. Today, rather, war hawks could argue that conditions have changed now showing the heavy hand of Iran. More recent statements made by U.S. intelligence weakens claims of Iran's omnipresence in the region.

One critical factor explaining world involvement in Yemen is that it is positioned near oil and gas shipping lanes. Control over Yemen provides an important piece on an empire's chessboard. The U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) report on World Oil Transit Chokepoints sheds light on the economic importance of Yemen given its location relative to the Bab el-Mandeb chokepoint:

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is a chokepoint between the Horn of Africa and the Middle East, and it is a strategic link between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. The strait is located between Yemen, Djibouti, and Eritrea, and connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea. Most exports from the Persian Gulf that transit the Suez Canal and SUMED Pipeline also pass through Bab el-Mandeb. [4] 

Its being open and accessible is critical to the delivery of gas and oil flows from North Africa and Europe:

Closure of the Bab el-Mandeb could keep tankers from the Persian Gulf from reaching the Suez Canal or SUMED Pipeline, diverting them around the southern tip of Africa, adding to transit time and cost. In addition, European and North African southbound oil flows could no longer take the most direct route to Asian markets via the Suez Canal and Bab el-Mandeb. [5] 

The importance of Yemen's location gives to it significant geopolitical value, while Yemen continues to be a poor nation.


The Empire First crowd consisting of neocons and center-left liberals alike will argue about the level of Iranian influence in Yemen, and just how much Houthis serve as enablers extending the much feared Shiite arc stretching from Tehran to Damascus. Meanwhile the proxy war in Yemen continues demonstrating that once an empire deems a nation an important geopolitical pawn, tragedy is imminent.    

[1]. Fee, Lang. "U.S. Senators Hem and Haw on Saudi Arabia's Human Rights Abuses." The Intercept: Unofficial Sources. Oct 01 2015. https://theintercept.com/2015/10/01/u-s-senators-hem-and-haw-on-saudi-arabias-human-rights-abuses/

[2]. Collon, Michel and Gre'goire Lalieu. "Yemen: USA are fighting against democracy, not against Al-Qaeda." Voltaire Network. Feb 09 2010. http://www.voltairenet.org/article163938.html

[3]. Diplomatic cable initially classified by Stephen Seche U.S. Ambassador to Yemen. Dec 09, 2009. "Who are the Houthis Part Two: How are They Fighting? accessed at Wikileaks' Public Library of U.S. Diplomacy. https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09SANAA2186_a.html#efmAjaAmV

[4]. U.S. Energy Information Administration. "World Oil Transit Chokepoints: International energy data and analysis." Nov 10, 2014. http://www.eia.gov/beta/international/regions-topics.cfm?RegionTopicID=WOTC