Saudi ground troops in yemen now!

[Gumboy]

Yemeni rebels are saying they are now in contact with Saudi special forces in Yemen.
The saudi government says a limited number are there now, with more to follow.

http://news.sky.com/story/1476938/ye...-on-the-ground

Kind of a big deal, considering iran has been pretty active there as well with support (of the other side)

The Saudi forces seem to be trying to take the airfield and surrounding area, for obvious reasons.

[Deleted]

All I see is rather important local countries using other smaller countries to make war between themselves without making war between themselves directly. Whomever wins, the people in Yemen will suffer.

[Stormdash]

Iran's growing belligerence is becoming a threat to Saudi Arabia, between their opportunistic "cooperation" against ISIS which incidentally helps them begin to annex Iraq, to their backing of the Houthi takeover of Yemen. They've already got Hezbollah as their proxy in Lebanon. Between their expansionist moves and the now near-certain knowledge that the road is being cleared internationally for Iran to get nuclear weapons, the Saudis will push back now and probably start their own development as a check on them.

[Mihalik]

Iran's growing belligerence is becoming a threat to Saudi Arabia, between their opportunistic "cooperation" against ISIS which incidentally helps them begin to annex Iraq, to their backing of the Houthi takeover of Yemen. They've already got Hezbollah as their proxy in Lebanon. Between their expansionist moves and the now near-certain knowledge that the road is being cleared internationally for Iran to get nuclear weapons, the Saudis will push back now and probably start their own development as a check on them.

That's funny, when considering that Saudi Arabia is the primary financial backer and the ideological root of Al Qaeda, ISIS, Boko Haram, the Al-Nusra Front along a number of other terror groups operating in Syria, Libya, Algiers, Tunisia.

Saudi Arabian Wahabbis/Salafists are essentially the inventors of modern Islamic fundamentalism. And while the Saudi government "officially" condemns terrorism the Ulama Council of Saudi Arabia provides the ideology for it, and the "public elites" (considering most of the Saudi elites have family ties to the government) provide the funding via donations.

Funny isn't it?

Let's pretend that the Sunni majority are all innocent victims of the filthy belligerent Shia Iranians and their pals.

[Deleted]

Yeah the US invaded the wrong country 9/11 werent afghani people.

[Stormdash]

That's funny, when considering that Saudi Arabia is the primary financial backer and the ideological root of Al Qaeda, ISIS, Boko Haram, the Al-Nusra Front along a number of other terror groups operating in Syria, Libya, Algiers, Tunisia.

Saudi Arabian Wahabbis/Salafists are essentially the inventors of modern Islamic fundamentalism. And while the Saudi government "officially" condemns terrorism the Ulama Council of Saudi Arabia provides the ideology for it, and the "public elites" (considering most of the Saudi elites have family ties to the government) provide the funding via donations.

Funny isn't it?

Let's pretend that the Sunni majority are all innocent victims of the filthy belligerent Shia Iranians and their pals.

Oh, don't mistake me, I'm not assigning white hats and black hats, they are all bad actors. I wish the US and the West weren't as in-bed with the Saudis as we are. But international politics is a game of "least worst", and between the House of Saud and the Mullahs in Iran, advantage Riyadh.

[Rennadrel]

Oh, don't mistake me, I'm not assigning white hats and black hats, they are all bad actors. I wish the US and the West weren't as in-bed with the Saudis as we are. But international politics is a game of "least worst", and between the House of Saud and the Mullahs in Iran, advantage Riyadh.

You can thank America's interest in oil the last 60 years for that, otherwise they probably would have nuked most of the Middle East by now.

[Stormdash]

You can thank America's interest in oil the last 60 years for that, otherwise they probably would have nuked most of the Middle East by now.

Oh, if the US were the devil we're branded as, it would be a far different world. The world has never had a superpower voluntarily put as much distance between what it could do and what it does do as the US.

[Rennadrel]

Oh, if the US were the devil we're branded as, it would be a far different world. The world has never had a superpower voluntarily put as much distance between what it could do and what it does do as the US.

Just think what would happen if someone who isn't afraid to wield the power of the US military at its fullest potential managed to get into a position of power. That is probably one of the things that worries me about the Tea Baggers Party is that some crazy asshole could wind up getting elected out of sheer ignorance by the American voters and the amount of intentional vote disrupting that can be done to impact the election, that they would use the weapons at their disposal.

Either way, one must wonder why dropping a nuke hasn't been done in recent years by the American government, just to remind some countries of who the boss is. I'd be worried that us Canadians would get caught in the crossfire of a nuclear war between America and Russia though.

[Stormdash]

Just think what would happen if someone who isn't afraid to wield the power of the US military at its fullest potential managed to get into a position of power. That is probably one of the things that worries me about the Tea Baggers Party is that some crazy asshole could wind up getting elected out of sheer ignorance by the American voters and the amount of intentional vote disrupting that can be done to impact the election, that they would use the weapons at their disposal.

Either way, one must wonder why dropping a nuke hasn't been done in recent years by the American government, just to remind some countries of who the boss is. I'd be worried that us Canadians would get caught in the crossfire of a nuclear war between America and Russia though.

Well, the good thing about irrational fears is that they tend not to come true even if the dreaded trigger event occurs; in this case, a conservative winning the White House. Hell, our last "war for oil" forgot to actually involve the acquisition of oil, and spent more time trying to rebuild the occupied nation than actually formally occupying and running it. And that, too, spans a pretty wide gulf of what the "Great Satan" could manage if he actually came over wanting to earn that name.

I don't expect we'll see another nuclear detonation in the world until Iran makes their debut, either immediately after or, just for lulz, before the term of any grand deal. My only real curiousity there is if it would be an underground test, an above ground test, or a live deployment against Tel Aviv that the West will no doubt jump on the chance to pretend was an Israeli nuclear accident.

[Independent voter]

Yemen is Saudi Arabia's next door neighbor. It's like Canada fell into chaos and was being invaded by Iranian backed Shiite militias, the US would have to step in.

[Kassadin]

Yemen is Saudi Arabia's next door neighbor. It's like Canada fell into chaos and was being invaded by Iranian backed Shiite militias, the US would have to step in.

... didn't we, literally talk Russia down for doing this?

[Illiterate]

... didn't we, literally talk Russia down for doing this?

it's fine when murica and murica's allies do it though.

[Independent voter]

... didn't we, literally talk Russia down for doing this?

You Iranian or Shiite? Support the other side? That's fine.

[jugzilla]

First of all Saudi Arabia is...not a good ally.

This is a country, who paid our soldiers to defend it from 1990-2003 and wouldn't even allow our servicemen and women to bring in christmas trees. This is a country that wont allow our soldiers to carry a bible. This is a country were women can't drive. This is a country were women can be raped as long there aren't enough witnesses.

I have no love for the house of Saud. Obama, his father was a Shiite as well, has even more reason to dislike SA. I fear however, this reallignment that we are seeing right now, Obama trying to drive the west closer to Iran, will only backfire. None of these people are our friends, none of them share our common interests.

[artemishunter1]

First of all Saudi Arabia is...not a good ally.

This is a country, who paid our soldiers to defend it from 1990-2003 and wouldn't even allow our servicemen and women to bring in christmas trees. This is a country that wont allow our soldiers to carry a bible. This is a country were women can't drive. This is a country were women can be raped as long there aren't enough witnesses.

I have no love for the house of Saud. Obama, his father was a Shiite as well, has even more reason to dislike SA. I fear however, this reallignment that we are seeing right now, Obama trying to drive the west closer to Iran, will only backfire. None of these people are our friends, none of them share our common interests.

Did not being Friend stopped FDR, Churchil, and Stalin to work together? What about Regan shaking hand with Castro? Your biggest mistake is assuming there is even a "Good" actor is politics. Truth is there is none. As long as our interests carry out, our next allies might as well be reincarnated HITLER.

[jugzilla]

Did not being Friend stopped FDR, Churchil, and Stalin to work together? What about Regan shaking hand with Castro? Your biggest mistake is assuming there is even a "Good" actor is politics. Truth is there is none. As long as our interests carry out, our next allies might as well be reincarnated HITLER.

Agreed. Nations aren't friends. There are common interests, and personal relationships though. What we are seeing now is an attempted realignment by a very strange US government, and fortunately has only like 500 days left before it is cleansed. Obama is looking beyond national security interests when he decides to embrace Iran over the protests of Saudi and Egypt. This was an irresponsible and unecessary action in my eyes.

[ringpriest]

Yemeni rebels are saying they are now in contact with Saudi special forces in Yemen.
The saudi government says a limited number are there now, with more to follow.

http://news.sky.com/story/1476938/ye...-on-the-ground

Kind of a big deal, considering iran has been pretty active there as well with support (of the other side)

The Saudi forces seem to be trying to take the airfield and surrounding area, for obvious reasons.

What, you don't believe the Saudi press-critters denials? (I know I certainly don't - the Saudi dictatorship's claims during this war make Baghdad Bob look like Walter Cronkite by comparison.)

Speaking of lies from the terrorist-funding ("He [Saudi King Salman] has not only started an air war in Yemen but has given stronger backing to Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qa’ida affiliate, and other jihadi groups in Syria.") Saudi dictatorship... the claim that "iran has been pretty active there as well with support (of the other side)" is also misinformation straight from the head-chopping, culture-destroying zealots running the show in Riyadh, who desperately want someone else to do the killing (and dying) in their attempt to put an unpopular puppet back in control of Yemen. Special Operations Command, the National Security Council, and the U.S. State Department's own internal reports say otherwise (although State's PR flaks are quite willing to spout whatever 'ISIS with a Crown' tells them - whether because they're corrupt, stupid, or both is hard to tell):

WHO ARE THE HOUTHIS, PART TWO: HOW ARE THEY FIGHTING? (leaked State Dept Cable from 2009):

"Contrary to ROYG 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."

US generals: Saudi intervention in Yemen ‘a bad idea’ (Al Jazeera, last month):

"Later, in a telephone interview, Horton expanded on that. “These constant reports that the Houthis are working for the Iranians are nonsense, but the view is right out of the neocon playbook,” he said. “The Israelis have been touting this line that we lost Yemen to Iran. That’s absurd. The Houthis don’t need Iranian weapons. They have plenty of their own. And they don’t require military training. They’ve been fighting Al-Qaeda since at least 2012, and they’ve been winning. Why are we fighting a movement that’s fighting Al-Qaeda?”"

And, Iran Warned Houthis Against Yemen Takeover (Huffington Post, two weeks ago)

The newly disclosed information casts further doubt on claims that the rebels are a proxy group fighting on behalf of Iran, suggesting that the link between Iran and the Yemeni Shiite group may not be as strong as congressional hawks and foreign powers urging U.S. intervention in Yemen have asserted.
...
As the regime in Tehran has signaled, the Iranians are not unhappy to see their Gulf rivals embroiled in conflict in their neighborhood, but their advice against seizing Sanaa suggests that controlling Yemen is at best a secondary priority for Iran, far behind relief from sanctions that could come with a successful nuclear pact.

On the other hand, the revelation that the Houthis directly disobeyed Iran gives credibility to the White House's argument that Iran is not directing the rebels, who follow a different branch of Shiite Islam than Iran's leaders and are believed to care more about corruption and the distribution of power in Yemen than the spread of Shiite influence across the Middle East.

"It remains our assessment that Iran does not exert command and control over the Houthis in Yemen," Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, told The Huffington Post.

It's clear that the Iranian government will be quite happy if the Saudis pull back a bloody stump from their murderous Yemen idiocy, and undeniable that they have provided support to organizations like Hezbollah (among others) - but the idea that Iran is puppet-mastering the Houthis and a large part of the Yemeni army (groups that have little in common with Iran and are quite competent well armed without Iranian help) is ludicrious.

[jugzilla]

See its really bad, when Obama forces me and Ringpriest to be on the same side.

We have completely different interests, but Obama has managed to piss everyone off.

[Deleted]

All I see is rather important local countries using other smaller countries to make war between themselves without making war between themselves directly. Whomever wins, the people in Yemen will suffer.

Better under Saudi control then yet another ISIS no man's land shithole.