The War in Yemen, Explained

The war in Yemen has created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, and it’s been made worse by outside actors. Countries using the war in Yemen as a proxy to increase their own power and influence, but with a massive human cost.

  • @jimmydoreisaleftyOPM
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    – VIDEO CHAPTERS –

    1. 00:00 Intro - The Believing Youth
    2. 6:06 The Houthi Rebellion
    3. 8:17 The Arab Spring
    4. 11:21 War with Saudi Arabia
    5. 16:07 A New Front in the War
    6. 18:41 A New Status Quo
    7. 19:51 The Houthis Today

    Check out all my sources for this video here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17xrf_8XYoy-Bz4TKj0Qt_lRuqmEsFMkiwe9mu9PXyvA/edit?usp=sharing


    My Sources for “Rise of the Houthis”

    00:21 South Yemen was an independent country from the 1967 British withdrawal – after which it went on to become a Soviet-backed communist one-party state – until it united with the north in 1990.

    An attempt to break away again in 1994 sparked a short-lived civil war that ended with it being overrun by northern troops.

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/4/26/timeline-history-of-separatism-in-southern-yemen — 00:29 Interview with Baraa Shiban, Yemen expert at the Royal United Services Institute — 0:44 See chart at the top for Yemen demographics.

    https://www.usip.org/programs/religion-and-conflict-country-profiles/yemen — 1:10 Interview with Baraa Shiban, Yemen expert at the Royal United Services Institute — 1:26 A Zaydi republican general named Ali Abdullah Saleh came to power after a succession of coups in 1978. Saleh ruled—or misruled—Yemen for the next 33 years. He united north and south Yemen in 1990, tilted toward Iraq during the 1991 Kuwait war, and survived a Saudi-backed southern civil war in 1994. He had complicated relations with both Riyadh and Washington, but by the late 1990s was generally aligned with both against al-Qaida. The al-Qaida attack on the USS Cole in late 2000 in Aden drew the Americans closer to Saleh, although his cooperation against al-Qaida was always incomplete.

    The Houthis emerged as a Zaydi resistance to Saleh and his corruption in the 1990s led by a charismatic leader named Hussein al Houthi, from whom they are named. They charged Saleh with massive corruption to steal the wealth of the Arab world’s poorest country for his own family, much like other Arab dictators in Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria. They also criticized Saudi and American backing for the dictator.

    https://www.brookings.edu/articles/who-are-the-houthis-and-why-are-we-at-war-with-them/ — 2:25 Since the administration of United States President George W. Bush, Washington has provided military assistance to the Yemeni government under the stated goal of bolstering the Yemeni Armed Forces’ capacity to combat Yemen’s local branch of al-Qaeda. This assistance was fairly consistently provided up until the outbreak of the most recent conflict in 2015, irrespective of the domestic upheaval taking place in Yemen.

    Widely supported by US officials, this military assistance has had undemocratic and destabilizing consequences for Yemen. For instance, in the early 2000s, American aid to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh allowed him to consolidate power around his family through the placement of his sons and nephews in key positions in the US-trained-and-equipped elite military units. When Saleh officially stepped down to end the prolonged political crisis that followed Yemen’s 2011 uprising, US military aid continued under Saleh’s successor, Abdo Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Washington’s myopic emphasis on counterterrorism issues, however, led American officials to ignore the deep tensions underlying Hadi’s transitional administration, which were only exacerbated by Hadi’s deeply unpopular decisions to publicly endorse American drone strikes in Yemen and allow the US military unprecedented leeway to conduct operations in the country.

    https://sanaacenter.org/publications/analysis/4517 — 2:49 3:06 The American invasion of Iraq in 2003 deeply radicalized the Houthi movement, like it did many other Arabs. It was a pivotal moment. The Houthis adopted the slogan: “God is great, death to the U.S., death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory for Islam,” in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The group also officially called itself Ansar Allah, or supporters of God. It was a turning point largely unrecognized outside Yemen, another unanticipated consequence of George Bush’s Iraq adventures.

    https://www.brookings.edu/articles/who-are-the-houthis-and-why-are-we-at-war-with-them/ — 3:23 After 2003, Saleh launched a series of military campaigns to destroy the Houthis. In 2004, Saleh’s forces killed Hussein al Houthi. The Yemeni army and air force was used to suppress the rebellion in the far north of Yemen, especially in Saada province.

    https://www.brookings.edu/articles/who-are-the-houthis-and-why-are-we-at-war-with-them/ — 3:26 In 2004 militants associated with the group disrupted mosque services in Saada, shouting anti-government, anti-American, and anti-Israeli slogans. The disturbances soon spread to Sanaa, with protesters criticizing the Saleh regime for its counterterrorism cooperation with the United States. Exact details are diffi cult to come by, but reports suggest that some 600 Zaidi protesters were detained in Sanaa following the outbursts. That June, after an unsuccessful reconciliation effort, the government attempted to arrest Believing Youth leader Hussein Badr al-din al-Houthi, a former member of parliament representing the al-Haqq party. The government accused him of fomenting unrest and seeking to revive the Zaidi imamate.

    https://carnegieendowment.org/files/war_in_saada.pdf — 3:31 Troops yesterday killed the radical cleric Hussein Badruddin Al-Houthi, bringing to an end his ten-week insurrection in northern mountains of Yemen that left more than 400 dead.

    Authorities said the Shiite preacher was killed in an early morning battle with troops in the mountainous Marran district of Saada province, 250 km north of Sanaa.

    “Today all military and security operations, that aimed at crushing the rebellion led by Hussein Badruddin Al-Houthi and those who supported him, were concluded after the killing of the rebellion’s leader,” said a joint statement by the Defense and Interior Ministries.

    A Defense Ministry source told Arab News that 20 henchmen of the cleric were also killed in the battle, adding that the body of Houthi was found in a cave bombarded by the army.

    Houthi’s insurgency began June 21, when security forces tried to arrest him. Since then, the government has unleashed a massive operation using tanks, artillery and aircraft to pound the armed followers of Houthi in their fortified mountain lairs.

    https://www.arabnews.com/node/255115 — 6:10 6:27 In the first Houthi war, fought from June 22 to September 10, 2004, the rebels were unable to even defend cave complexes in their native Sa’ada province, with the result that their charismatic military leader Hussein Badr al-Din al-Huthi was captured and summarily executed on the battlefield in September 2004. By 2010, the same organization was able to fight the Yemeni government to a standstill in four provinces, seize and hold strategic towns, force entire surrounded brigades into surrender, and carve out tactical footholds inside Saudi Arabian border settlements.10 In the author’s assessment, this evolutionary transformation was arguably largely due to the counterproductive tactics of the Yemeni government, plus incremental improvements on the traditional soldierly qualities of northern Yemeni tribesmen.

    https://ctc.westpoint.edu/houthi-war-machine-guerrilla-war-state-capture/ — 6:40

    In 2004, the Houthi movement’s armed cadres appear to have been small, numbering in the low hundreds—largely the family, friends, and students of Hussein Badr al-Din al-Huthi.11 From 2005 onward, the numbers of Houthi movement fighters swelled in response to government errors. The first was to progressively alienate Zaydis. After Hussein Badr al-Din al-Huthi’s death, the government posted images of his body on walls in Sa’ada, inadvertently chiming with Shi`a themes of martyrdom, elevating him to saint-like status, and agitating the Zaydi tradition of rising up against unjust rulers.12 Consolidation of co-religiosity was reinforced by the sacking of Zaydi shrine towns such as Dahyan and major population centers like Sufyan, and the use of sectarian themes (“Safavid Shiites”a) in government tribal mobilization.13

    Northern tribes also flocked to the Houthis to gain revenge on common enemies and express tribal solidarity.14 Indiscriminate government use of heavy artillery and airstrikes resulted in a wave of tribal recruitment for the Houthis from 2006 onward, a reaction to the perception that the government was executing a “retaliatory policy against everyone” in the Houthi home provinces.15 The government also alienated tribes by deploying rival clans as auxiliary fighters within their native districts.16 The Houthi movement was well-placed to absorb and shape this influx of allies because of the aforementioned cross-cutting social relationships developed prior to 2004, notably the tens of thousands of young men sent through Believing Youth summer camps and social or educational programs under the stewardship of Badr al-Din al-Huthi’s sons.17 b War and mutual loss reinforced this “spirit of tribal solidarity” or “cohesive drive against others.”18

    https://ctc.westpoint.edu/houthi-war-machine-guerrilla-war-state-capture/ — 6:47 Shiite Zaidi rebels in northern Yemen on Monday accused Saudi Arabia of allowing Yemeni forces to use its territory to attack rebel strongholds near the border.

    Saudi authorities have “allowed Yemeni army to use a Saudi base in Jabal al-Dukhan from which it launched attacks,” the rebels said in an emailed statement received by AFP.

    “We advise the Saudi regime to remain impartial and not allow the Yemeni army to use its territories to attack us, because we would be otherwise forced to retaliate,” it added.

    The rebels said…