Yemen's Capital Falls To Shiite Militants, President Is Captured

Zankou

Zankou

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This has gotten amazingly little press. In the hellhole that is Yemen, the Shiite militants have just successfully taken over the capital city, Sanaa (one of the oldest centers of Islam), and the Yemen president (a staunch ally of the US) has been captured by the militants. The US is sending warships to the area.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/21/us-sends-navy-warships-into-red-sea-poised-for-emb/

People focus on Islamic State, but the reality is that Yemen is completely out of control, and now basically replicates the debacle to the North, being controlled by Shiite rebels, Al Qaeda Sunnis, and a brutal regime supported by the West and Saudi Arabia that is collapsing (well, pretty much collapsed yesterday) under the extremist assault.

So much is coming back to haunt Saudi Arabia ... they are surrounded by nightmare extremists to the North AND the South now. The US cannot solve this problem for them. Either the Saudis step up to the plate, or they are going to get systematically dismantled by the extremists within and without their country.
 
What are we to do if the House of Saud itself falls to an extremist group that propagates that their version of Islam is not quite righteous enough
 
The Saudis are caught in an ideological trap of their own making. If they fight seriously against the jihadi extremists, then they will essentially confirm their status as enemy of Sunni extremism. So, out of fear of militant Sunni extremism, they have relied on proxxies to do their combat, standard Middle Eastern style, particularly the US. But proxxy combat is generally shit unless you are just looking to create more chaos in a region -- if you are genuinely looking to solve regional problems, proxxy combat usually only multiplies them (like terrorism, another weapon that is good for fomenting chaos but terrible for imposing order).

The Saudis are so wealthy and corrupt that they can't possibly stomach the sort of nasty, sustained, Chechnya style intervention that would be required to impose order on Yemen. And the US won't do it for them.

I don't see any solution, I'm just glad the Shiites appear to be coming out on top here, since Al Qaeda in Yemen is possibly the worst of all Al Qaeda branches.
 
I read about this a day or two ago (not sure how recent it is) and i cant help but wonder how this news negatively affects me? From a geopolitical perspective i understand this creates instability in the region but that region is already a mess so why is Yemen and their president being captured so important?

I'm genuinely curious.
 
Hopefully the Shiites will gain more influence in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain as well. They are treated very poorly there.
 
Zankou said:
This has gotten amazingly little press. In the hellhole that is Yemen, the Shiite militants have just successfully taken over the capital city, Sanaa (one of the oldest centers of Islam), and the Yemen president (a staunch ally of the US) has been captured by the militants. The US is sending warships to the area.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/21/us-sends-navy-warships-into-red-sea-poised-for-emb/

People focus on Islamic State, but the reality is that Yemen is completely out of control, and now basically replicates the debacle to the North, being controlled by Shiite rebels, Al Qaeda Sunnis, and a brutal regime supported by the West and Saudi Arabia that is collapsing (well, pretty much collapsed yesterday) under the extremist assault.

So much is coming back to haunt Saudi Arabia ... they are surrounded by nightmare extremists to the North AND the South now. The US cannot solve this problem for them. Either the Saudis step up to the plate, or they are going to get systematically dismantled by the extremists within and without their country.
Click to expand...

thanks TS i hadn't seen this anywhere i normally check a wide range of news things didn't see it, crazy if true not sure but i think this is more a Saudi Arabia problem then ours..
 
Lee978 said:
I read about this a day or two ago (not sure how recent it is) and i cant help but wonder how this news negatively affects me? From a geopolitical perspective i understand this creates instability in the region but that region is already a mess so why is Yemen and their president being captured so important?

I'm genuinely curious.
Click to expand...

There are several reasons why Yemen is important in the grand scheme of things (the region has an incredibly fascinating history, but I suppose that's a different reason).

One is that the Sunni militants in Yemen are some of the worst jihadis on Earth, worse than ISIS, and that is in large part why the US is still keeping people in Guantanamo -- almost all the remaining prisoners are Yemeni Al Qaeda types who we are holding so that they don't go back and power up Al Qaeda there.

Another is that the entire Arabian peninsula stands exposed to these militants, which poses a serious threat to the global economy, and also threatens to drag foreign nations into the conflict. It is not at all impossible that the House of Saud could fall to extremists, just as ISIS in the North and Yemen in the South have fallen.

Another is that Saudi Arabia is the cornerstone of financing and promulgating Sunni fundamentalist ideology. If it turns even more extremist, then the poisonous ideology it is pumping across the globe will become even worse.

tl/dr version, Saudi Arabia's problems are the world's problems. Both economically and ideologically, since 1.6 billion Muslims pray towards Saudi Arabia 5x a day.
 
Uh, evacuate the embassy perhaps? I mean at least those who aren't spies.
 
Son of Jamin said:
Hopefully the Shiites will gain more influence in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain as well. They are treated very poorly there.
Click to expand...

The thing is, I don't see how "Gain more influence" will be achieved except through military means. The Houtis that have taken control of Yemen are good old Shiia fivers (as opposed to the twelvers in Iran) whom are pretty much an ally of Tehran. Iran has been funding them to achive just this. Now Yemen stands under Iran's sphere of influence. It's not out of the question that Iran now will do the same (or is already doing the same) with Shiites in Saudi Arabia or Bahrain. The Saudis response to this will of course be to propegate more Salafism in order to compat Shiism. Basically, a lot more people die and the region will be plunged into even more chaos.


I did read an article that said this is basically a power-play for the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Does anyone have any insight on that?


Btw, where does the Ibadi in Oman stand in all of this? I haven't read anything to indicate that they are friendly with either Riyadh or Tehran.
 
Fun fact, Yemen was controlled by the Sassanian Persians during Mohammed's own lifetime, so this is basically business-as-usual.

Another fun-fact, allegedly (according to traditional Islamic history) a 'false prophet' unified Yemen and kicked out the Sassanian Persians, but Mohammed then had the false prophet assassinated (!) and thereby took over Yemen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Aswad_Al-Ansi

Seriously, same old story, repeated 57829343824237x. But it's a good story, I'll give it that.
 
Zankou said:
Fun fact, Yemen was controlled by the Sassanian Persians during Mohammed's own lifetime, so this is basically business-as-usual.

Another fun-fact, allegedly (according to traditional Islamic history) a 'false prophet' unified Yemen and kicked out the Sassanian Persians, but Mohammed then had the false prophet assassinated (!) and thereby took over Yemen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Aswad_Al-Ansi

Seriously, same old story, repeated 57829343824237x. But it's a good story, I'll give it that.
Click to expand...

If the traditional Islamic narratives are correct, or at least based on some sort of historical events, then Muhammed kicked out a damn many Prophetic competators in his day. Aswad, Musaylimah, Sayyad, etc. And we think the job market is competitive today!:icon_chee
 
Yeah my pet theory is that all these 'false prophets' who teach monotheistic doctrines suspiciously similar to the Mohammed of Islamic tradition, at the same time, in essentially the same area, and which he allegedly overcame with military force, are actually remnants of *conflicting narratives about an Arabian prophet*, possibly associated with different communities, that effectively became denounced as heresies by claiming these stories referred to a different "false prophet" who the true prophet defeated.

In other words, what we have here is not an assload of actual historical faux Mohammed types, who all rather magically emerged from paganism at the same time, but rather an assload of circulating Arabian prophet narratives following and accompanying the Arab conquests, most of which eventually got excluded as heresies referring to false prophets during the period (centuries later) when the 'true' orthodox narrative about Mohammed's Sira was slowly codified and developed.

Even the names of these 'false prophets' are very suspicious. Musaylimah, for example, his name is literally "Muslim", and he comes from the "Hanifa" tribe of Arabians, teaching monotheism. How could that have happened in a pre-Islamic environment? Similarly, the false Yemeni prophet was allegedly teaching worship of "Rahman" (classic Muslim name for Allah) and expelling the idolatrous Persian rule. All of the false prophets are suspiciously like slight variations of the traditional Mohammed.
 
Saudis are terrible at the military thing, no? Doesn't bode well for them, and honestly, it feels like just comeuppance.

 
These developments are fascinating as hell. Timing is interesting too, taking into consideration the upcoming execution of Saudi ayatollah Nimr al-Nimr.. could this possibly lead to a new Shia uprising in SA?

Also, I can't help but notice the relative civilized warfare these guys are engaging, compared to the salafists. As far as I've seen, there has been no mention of beheadings, opression, suicide bombings or targeting of civilians. Their demands seem rational too.
 
Another interesting thing about the 'false prophets' and their followings. How did Mohammed establish the 'true Islam' against them?

He either killed them or they were forced to convert after he defeated them in battle. Mohammed himself had the Yemeni prophet Aswad al Ansi assassinated, and his first caliph killed Musaylimah in battle. Tulayha converted after his total defeat by the Muslim military, Sajah converted after her husband Musaylimah was killed. This is how the Arabian peninsula was unified under "Islam" by Mohammed and Abu Bakr, in the traditional account (probably all mythological, but still interesting).
 
How is this not front page news?
 
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