YEMEN

Millisphere : a region inhabited by approximately 1000th of the world’s population.

NORTH YEMEN, EAST YEMEN, SOUTH YEMEN and WEST YEMEN

Red stars = Houthi missiles Blue stars = US missiles

Based on tribal geographies going back to biblical times, Yemen (2023 population 34 million) can be divided into four millispheres; which for convenience I call NORTH YEMEN, EAST YEMEN, SOUTH YEMEN and WEST YEMEN: not to be confused with the pre-1990 North Yemen and South Yemen. Yemen’s population is mostly Arabic and can be divided roughly 60 - 40 between Sunni and Shi’a Muslims. 

Yemen is the third highest in the world, after Serbia, for civilian firearm ownership. America, naturally, comes first. In 2017 The International Red Cross called Yemen the worst humanitarian crisis that the world faced and estimated then that seven million Yemenis were starving and about one million had cholera. In 2019 the United Nations reported that 75% of Yemen’s population were in need of humanitarian aid and in 2020 it was ranked 2nd (after the Central African Republic) on the world hunger index.

Houthis control most of NORTH YEMEN and WEST YEMEN

The ongoing civil war in Yemen started when fundamentalist Sunni Yemenis, returning from Saudi Arabia, established Wahhabi mosques in Sana’a and preached against Zaydism (the local form of Shi’a Islam). The inevitable backlash came from the Zaydi Houthi tribal areas in the mountainous north of Yemen, and in 2015 the Houthis overran Sana’a. A decade later the Houthis controlled most of NORTH YEMEN and WEST YEMEN.

The Republic of Yemen split into EAST YEMEN and SOUTH YEMEN

The Republic of Yemen government fled south to Aden on the Arabian Sea coast and Yemen - last united in 1990 - returned to being two countries. The Republic of Yemen then spit into two factions; the separatists, backed by the United Arab Emirates, holding most of SOUTH YEMEN; the Republic of Yemen, now based in Saudi Arabia, holding most of EAST YEMEN; much of it desert and producing most of Yemen’s oil: which in turn attracted the bandits of Al Qaeda.

Governing Yemen is like dancing on the heads of snakes  

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union supported South Yemen and the Americans backed North Yemen. Then the situation reversed and there were US special forces in the south supporting the Republic of Yemen in exile and coordinating the war against the Houthis, who were supported by Iran. 

In 2000 al Qaeda suicide bombers detonated an explosive laden launch beside the USS Cole while docked at Aden; killing seventeen US navy personnel. Osama bin Laden was a Sunni Saudi of Yemeni descent, and a Wahhabi, but by 2015 al Qaeda in the Yemen, along with the Americans, supported the Republic of Yemen - the alliances were getting confusing. The country’s late president Ali Abdullah Saleh once said: “Governing Yemen is like dancing on the heads of snakes.”

What was North Yemen, currently held by the Houthis, can be further divided along altitude lines - between WEST YEMEN on the Red Sea coast where food is grown and imported and NORTH YEMEN in the highlands where the capital Sana’a sits. Yemen does not grow enough food to feed itself and the Saudis have destroyed the Red Sea port infrastructure, blockading food imports. Yemen could possibly grow enough if they grew lentils instead of khat, the narcotic leaves of which are chewed as a stimulant. To compound the food shortages the population has been doubling every thirty years; a third of Yemeni women are married before they are eighteen and one tenth before they are fifteen.

Better if wars were fought with American arms

Since the 1960s, US arms manufacturers have lobbied their government representatives about capitalising on the conflicts in the Middle East - it would be better for American businesses if these wars were fought with US arms, not those made by other members of the P5 (France, Britain, Russia and China) they reasoned.

Dumb bombs with graduate degree guidance systems

In 2009 Saudi Arabia had started fighting Yemen’s Houthis with arms supplied by the Obama administration. Saudi Arabia was reluctant to put soldiers into Yemen and has conducted a “smart war” from the air. Drones and jet fighters with “dumb bombs with graduate degree guidance systems” were deployed by Riyadh - with American technical assistance - and Yemen descended into an Islamic blood feud: half the casualties of which were civilian. 

Jobs, jobs, jobs - decouple humanitarian from security concerns

After selling the Saudis $US100 billion worth of the latest in American weapons systems, and after the Saudis had killed the neutral mayor of Sana’a in 2016, with a guided missile at a funeral, the Obama administration started raising concerns about civilian casualties with the Saudis. Barack Obama’s signing of the “nuclear non-proliferation” treaty with Iran further angered the Saudis.

Incoming US president, Donald Trump, “decoupled humanitarian from security concerns,” in Yemen and signed a deal for another $US110 billion dollars of arms sales to Saudi Arabia. He said the deal represented “hundreds of billions of dollars of investment in the US and jobs, jobs, jobs.”

Exit strategy

In 2020, supposedly in response to Covid, but mainly in response to the missiles Yemen was directing at their northern neighbour’s oil infrastructure Saudi Arabia started putting together an exit strategy and ceased hostilities. Also in 2020 the U.A.E. withdrew from Yemen and The Republic Yemen’s unpopular and corrupt president Hadi, after ten years in power, resigned: under pressure from Saudi Arabia it is claimed.

The US continues to sell arms to pay for oil

Saudi Arabia remains the world’s largest arms importer; 80% of which are bought from the United States. In 2021, under US President Jo Biden, this trade was still worth $US50 billion as the US continues to sell arms to pay for oil but things were starting to change in the Middle East.

In March 2023 Saudi Arabia and Iran signed a peace treaty (mediated by China) and in April 2023 peace talks between Yemen and Saudi Arabia commenced (this time mediated by Oman). In September 2023 a Houthi delegation visited Riyadh for the first time - but the Houthis remain unrepentant.

The Houthis were launching missiles again: this time at Israel.

On October 7th 2023 things changed again. Hamas broke out of Gaza; killed a thousand Israeli civilians; captured another 200: taking them back to Gaza as hostages. It was all on again; Israel started bombarding Gaza; the Houthis were launching missiles again: this time at Israel.

Emboldened by their “victory” over Saudi Arabia and not forgetting the decade of American weaponry that had claimed 300,000, mostly civilian, lives in Yemen the Houthis started attacking shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Yemen in support of Hamas in Gaza: but mainly to strike at America. The Americans responded by launching missile attacks on NORTH YEMEN and WEST YEMEN.

How long can the American taxpayer sustain all these wars?

American arms manufacturers are doing very well; running at capacity; supplying weapon systems for bombing both Gaza and Yemen: as well as Ukraine. The question is how long can the American taxpayer sustain all these wars?