[News] War on Terror or War on Disaffected Yemenis?

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/jacobs12312009.html

December 31, 2009


War on Terror or War on Disaffected Yemenis?

Interventions R Us

By RON JACOBS

As if the US interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan were not enough to 
satiate the Empire's bloodlust, the calls are increasing for an 
all-out war on the nation of Yemen.  The reason given for this 
intervention is that the man who apparently wanted to blow up an 
airliner on Christmas Day 2009 spent some time there and may have 
received his instructions while he was visiting.  Like the 
increasingly bloody occupation of Afghanistan, Washington wants the 
world to believe that attacking a nation that hosts organizations 
intent on resisting US domination will somehow end those 
organizations existence and make everyone safer.  Left unsaid in this 
rather simplistic equation are the obvious facts.  Over eight years 
of war and occupation of Afghanistan has neither stopped the desire 
of politically nor religiously motivated individuals to blow up 
airliners and other structures in their war against US cultural and 
economic imperialism.  Nor has it broken the back of the groups in 
Afghanistan that also oppose the US intervention in their 
country.  In fact, if we are to believe intelligence reports from 
various US agencies, these groups are not only still in existence, 
they have mutated politically and are at least as strong as they were 
before the US invasion in 2001.

In recent months, parts of Yemen have come under attack by Saudi 
Arabian forces backing the government there.  In recent weeks, the 
Saudis have been supported by the US military.  It seems quite likely 
that there is more to the growing likelihood of deeper US military 
involvement in Yemen than the visit of Mr. Abdulmutallab.  Although 
Saudi Arabia and North Yemen fought a war in 1934 when a prince 
formerly aligned with Ibn Saud switched allegiance to the Yemeni 
Prince King Yahya, Although Riyadh supported the Zaydi monarchist 
predecessors (Zaydi Imams) to the Houthi rebels in the 1962 
republican revolution in North Yemen, it now supports the successors 
to those it opposed in 1962.  This support is religious and 
geopolitically based, with the Saleh government being primarily Sunni 
(with Wahabbist leanings) and the opposition being Shia.  The fact 
that the conflict is primarily occurring in a province on Saudi 
Arabia's borders explains Riyadh's concerns with regard to 
geography.  he victory of the north Yemeni forces began a period that 
saw increasing repression of forces opposed to Saleh, with human 
rights groups documenting torture, displacement and extrajudicial 
killings.  Since the defeat of the Zaydi Imams in 1962 by the 
forerunners of the current Yemeni government, the northwestern 
province of Sa'adah has been ignored by the Yemeni regime, leaving it 
to founder economically.  Over the years this has naturally caused 
resentment.  By 2004, a full-blown insurgency in Sa'adah shifted the 
Yemeni military's interest to this historically ignored region.  This 
rebellion is known as the Houthi insurgency because of its leadership 
by dissident cleric Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi (rumored to have been 
killed in US and Saudi air strikes in November 2009).

South Yemen was a colony of Britain until it achieved independence in 
1967 after a struggle led by socialist revolutionaries. After North 
and South Yemen reunited in 1990, Saleh refused to grant the former 
members of the Democratic Republic of South Yemen power commensurate 
with their support. This fact and a desire by the Marxist former 
leaders of South Yemen for more progressive social policies led to 
civil war in 1994.  Saleh's government was backed militarily by Saudi 
Arabia.  The victory of the north Yemeni forces began a period that 
saw increasing repression of forces opposed to Saleh, with human 
rights groups documenting torture, displacement and extrajudicial 
killings.   In 2009, renewed resistance against the Yemeni regime 
began in southern Yemen led by leftist-leaning forces.  Yemeni 
military forces have met this popular uprising with overt and often 
violent repression.

On to all this, one must add the group that calls itself Al Qaida of 
Yemen (AQY).  While it seems unlikely that this group (if it is truly 
a terrorist group and not some kind of black op) is carrying out 
specific orders of Bin Laden or one of the dozens of supposed Al 
Qaida leaders, it is reasonable to say that its members are inspired 
by the philosophy and actions of groups nominally known as Al 
Qaida.  However, as far as the Yemeni regime is concerned, its 
existence in Yemen in the minds of Washington and the rest of the 
west is quite useful.  After all, if the Pentagon is willing to 
escalate its low-scale conflict to a full fledged war in the name of 
fighting terrorism, than Saleh and his military can gain an advantage 
against the two insurgencies currently being waged against his 
regime.  By claiming that the terrorists are either aligned with one 
or both of the insurgencies or are at least located in territories 
controlled by them, Saleh's regime can direct US air strikes at those 
areas of the country.    This will most likely disrupt not only the 
supposed terror cells, but will also interrupt the insurgencies.  If 
it is the Yemeni air force that conducts the raids, it will be with 
US weaponry that will soon be on its way.   In addition, the 
likelihood of attacks against the insurgencies increases should the 
Yemen government convince the US to let them run the show (with US 
supervision). Naturally, military action on this scale will also kill 
and wound civilians, thereby increasing the likelihood of alliances 
between the insurgents and AQY, neatly sewing the three elements 
together and continuing Saleh's continued rule.  I am simultaneously 
reminded of Israel's use of US weaponry and funds to subdue the 
Palestinians and Washington's deal with Pakistan's Musharraf after 9-11.

Like Afghanistan, Yemen is a very poor country.  It is also somewhat 
unstable politically, as the above paragraphs describe.  Its 
proximity to Saudi Arabia raises some concerns for Washington 
primarily because of its fear that the ideas informing the 
insurgencies might inspire Saudi Arabia's disenfranchised masses and 
upset the oil teat America depends on.  Also, like Afghanistan, it 
can be argued that its best promise for stability and a decent life 
for its citizens was when it had a socialist oriented government--a 
regime subverted with considerable help from the United States.

Ron Jacobs is author of 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859841678/counterpunchmaga>The 
Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground, which is 
just republished by Verso. Jacobs' essay on Big Bill Broonzy is 
featured in CounterPunch's collection on music, art and sex, 
<http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html>Serpents 
in the Garden. His first novel, 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0977459098/counterpunchmaga>Short 
Order Frame Up, is published by Mainstay Press. He can be reached at: 
<mailto:rjacobs3625 at charter.net>rjacobs3625 at charter.net




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