There is one ground war plus two air wars currently underway in Yemen.
The ground war engages the Houthi rebels against al Qaeda and ISIS fighters in support of Yemen's Sunni regime.
One air war is being waged by Saudi and other Sunni air forces against the Houthi rebels - and the rest of the Houthi civilian population for that matter. The Saudis love dropping those made-in-USA cluster bombs on Houthi villages. You could very fairly say that the Saudi and Sunni coalition air forces are flying air support missions for al Qaeda and ISIS forces, also Sunni in the radical Saudi fashion.
Then there's that other air campaign. This is the fledgling American bombing campaign against AQAP (al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) forces in Yemen. It is no small irony that everyone on the ground in Yemen on both sides is getting hammered by America-built jets delivering America-built bombs.
The last strike took place on March 28, when US warplanes hit AQAP fighters stationed at “the headquarters of Brigade 27 near the city’s airport, an air defence camp and the house of the commander of the second Military Region” in the city of Mukallah, the provincial capital of Hadramout, Reuters reported. The number of casualties has not been disclosed.
Yes, that's right. al Qaeda is using Yemeni government military installations. In other words, Sunni militants are the Yemeni home team.
Why doesn't the USAF just cut out the middle man and simply shoot down the Saudi, Egyptian, Kuwaiti, Moroccan, Jordanian and Qatari warplanes which would allow the Houthis to get on with the business of pushing al Qaeda and ISIS out of Yemen. Then, once America's F-15s turn the Saudi F-15s into lawn ornaments they can negotiate the sale of the next batch.
"to get on with the business of pushing al Qaeda and ISIS out of Yemen"
ReplyDeleteA rhetorical question?
Maybe it is not in the interest of Imperium...
A..non
Wot abaht Al Nusra, (Al Qaeda "moderate rebels") against Assad? The US supports everyone and fights everyone except supporting directly Saudi Arabia and Catarhh and their UAE pals and fighting Assad. Wouldn't it be really nice to know exactly, really, fundamentally and not just a wild-assed guess and supposition what in hell the Saudis and Israelis have over the US to receive such unwavering support? It's beyond logical reason. And as for us, the drop in price of oil the Saudis made two years ago is why this country is in such bad shape economically, but we're still best buddies? Must be a pile of incriminating photos somewhere.
ReplyDeleteAll grubby capitalist greed for mid east oil and gas aside, what of this stuff makes any sense whatsoever?
As for the environment and lessening of oil use, forget it. Not going to happen. Methane will be the death of us all as a greenhouse gas. It leaks away steadily from pipes all over the world. The methane due to be released by melting permafrost in our tundra and that of Siberia is about to come on line. Have the wood fires in the Indonesia area been quelled? Will the BC fire season be stopped before it starts? Let alone US forest fires. BC forest fire annual CO2 emissions are of the same order as the tarsands in full flight.
It all makes you just want to order a pizza and watch some half-decent movies. During the daytime, building a solar panel windmill-equipped log cabin with attached greenhouse on a hilltop to avoid flooding of the basement seems logical.
BM
@ BM - I do get your drift. I've got plans for the site, complete with micro-hydro, solar and wind, a dock on sheltered bay with road access 12-miles off. Makes as much sense as anything.
ReplyDeleteAnyong.....10:18. I'm happy you can afford to do that.
ReplyDelete