The situation in Yemen appears to be a mess. We don’t really know who is in control of the
country. That’s not unusual. For a long time, Yemen was more or less
divided into two countries, North and South Yemen, with Sanaa and Aden as its
respective capitals. The Hoothis who are
taking over the country in Sanaa, are a relatively unknown group, described to
some extent by the NYT
They are Shiites getting help from Iran, but apparently not
your ordinary Shiites. And they are fighting al Qaida in Yemen (which sponsored
the French terrorist attacks), as is the government that they are
overthrowing. Again we find the US
allied with Iran against al Qaida, while Israel is killing Iranian generals in
Syria.
Strange world!
Yemen would have been a mess in any case, but did we make it
worse by intervening in the Middle East in Iraq and Afghanistan, and
encouraging government overthrows in Egypt, Libya, Syria, and other
countries? We certainly did not have a
beneficial effect.
Yemen borders on Saudi Arabia. Does the instability in Yemen bode ill for
Saudi Arabia, especially if the Shiite Hoothis take over? Although their border is mostly desert, it
can’t be a good thing.
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