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

[Zankou]

I mean look at this craziness.

 

[MadSquabbles500]

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.

Who is supporting these Shiite militants? Is it the Iranians badass Quds force? Well at least they are winning something. Is this ousted Prez a Sunni or a Shiite? I did not know there were fundamentalist and extreme Shiites.

How come there are some countries like Jordan or Oman, Algeria, Morocco that have avoided this insurgent problem?

 

[MadSquabbles500]

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.

The House of Saud should stop messing with oil prices in exchange for Putin handling this mess.

 

[Kalmah]

Yemen Rebels Reach Deal With President, to Pull Back From Palace

Spoiler

Shiite rebels in Yemen reached an accord with President Abdurabuh Mansur Hadi and will pull back from his palace after seizing it yesterday, the country’s official news agency said.

Hadi has agreed to demands including redrafting the constitution to specify that Yemen is a federal state, the Saba news agency said. The rebels, known as Houthis, have pledged to pull back from the presidential palace and Hadi’s residence, and other locations including checkpoints set up on Jan. 19 when the latest fighting flared up, Saba said.

 

[MadSquabbles500]

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).

Christians have done the same. Heck everyone in power back then religiously or not, came into power by killing someone.

 

[Rod1]

Christians have done the same. Heck everyone in power back then religiously or not, came into power by killing someone.

No, Christianity spread mainly through conversions.

Or do you think some jewish refugees established christianism in Rome through conquest?

 

[MadSquabbles500]

No, Christianity spread mainly through conversions.

Or do you think some jewish refugees established christianism in Rome through conquest?

Christians have killed in the name of religion. Islam has also spread through conversions as well. All I am saying, yeh, back then everyone was violent.

 

[KOQ24]

Who is supporting these Shiite militants? Is it the Iranians badass Quds force? Well at least they are winning something. Is this ousted Prez a Sunni or a Shiite? I did not know there were fundamentalist and extreme Shiites.

How come there are some countries like Jordan or Oman, Algeria, Morocco that have avoided this insurgent problem?

houthis get financial support from iran and training from hezbollah.
houthis are neither extreme nor fundamentalist.
The prez is still in office but is entirely dependant on what the houthis decide to dowith him.

algeria has a brutal military junta but has had an islamic insurgent problem since the 50s.
a french tour guide was recently beheaded.
morocco has a king whos repressive.
Jordan has a King and probably the most badass arab secret agency,they still have plenty of citizens who fled the country and joined AQ/IS.
Omans king does a decent job of keeping the peasants happy with govt jobs and broad education,circumventing extremists who are mostly fed by poverty and stupidity

 

[Zankou]

Christians have done the same. Heck everyone in power back then religiously or not, came into power by killing someone.

They have, but few other religions were so proud about it from the get-go. Muhammad's status as the True Prophet of Arabia was allegedly proven by his military victory over the False Prophets of Arabia ... not by conversion, eloquence, miracles, etc., but by just beating everybody down with a sword, per the traditional Islamic histories.

Christianity and Judaism, by contrast, both spread at least initially by true free conversions (back in the day, Judaism used to be a fiercely proselytizing religion, trying to convert everybody). Little military force was involved because these were not initially state religions. It wasn't until the 300s where you see state Christianity emerging, and forcibly converting the populace with repression. Until then, it was hardly spread by the sword. After it became a state religion, absolutely, the Christian states were truly ruthless against the infidels, and vice versa.

Judaism was only really imposed by the sword in Judaea, in Edom/Samaria under the Hasmoneans, and (interestingly) in Yemen itself, when the brutal Jewish Himyarite King Dhu Nuwas was busily massacring Christians by the tens of thousands. The region's history is, unfortunately, much too interesting for its own good.

 

[Snackbar]

These are the kinds of threads the wr needs more of.

Great information on something I had no idea was going on.

I have a few colleagues who worked in Yemen up until 5 or 6 years ago, they say its an experience they will never forget, sadly not in a good way.

 

[Anung Un Rama]

Bookmarked - good read

 

[Ippwnage]

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.

i say lets give the whole middle east to the kurds

 

[scoopj]

...

What inspired the signature?

 

[SolidIce]

Every country in the region is corrupt and despotic. I have no sympathy for any of them, let em all burn. Reaping what they sowed. The onky way to govern in those countries is authoritarianism.

 

[Kantian_relativist]

I read once that the Saudi's had invested somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 billion in spreading Wahabbism throughout the area. My sense is, and correct me if I am wrong, that the Saudis have a lot less to fear from ISIS than they do the Shi'ites in Yemen, due to the similarities the Sunni driven ISIS members have to the royals in Saudi Arabia. I am also wondering how long it will be until there is a full out civil war between Al-Qaeda in Yemen and the Shi- ite rebels.

 

[Perfidious]

Every country in the region is corrupt and despotic. I have no sympathy for any of them, let em all burn. Reaping what they sowed. The onky way to govern in those countries is authoritarianism.

Including Israel

 

[zulqarnayn]

This story is so hush hush because the US is behind it. The fact that there was no reaction from them; no embassy evacuation, no condemnation, no intervention, is because this was orchestrated by the US and Iran behind the scenes. The US is secretly helping the Shia's gain control over the ME. The Houthis in Yemen, Assad in Syria (even though people will refute this due to America's support of the rebels. Truthfully the support is in shambles and is purely symbolic; if they really wanted Assad gone, he would've been gone) Shias in Iraq with full cooperation with Iran.

The US sees Al Saud lately as fragile and corrupt. Their control over Saudi Arabia and their influence in the ME is waning. They have become a liability; especially with an ailing King Abdullah and possbily even dead but the Saudi's are keeping it quite as to not stir dissension within Al Saud. The US sees an Iranian controlled and influenced ME is far more predictable and stable, than Sunni extremists control over the region. Which is most likely the only other option due to the current instability and the rise of ISIS. Israel sees Assad and Shias in general as good neighbours and far less of a threat than the alternative. The current ongoing geopolitical shifts are to protect Israel and to keep Sunni extremism in check. And the answer is to support the Shiites.

 

[Zankou]

This story is so hush hush because the US is behind it. The fact that there was no reaction from them; no embassy evacuation, no condemnation, no intervention, is because this was orchestrated by the US and Iran behind the scenes. The US is secretly helping the Shia's gain control over the ME. The Houthis in Yemen, Assad in Syria (even though people will refute this due to America's support of the rebels. Truthfully the support is in shambles and is purely symbolic; if they really wanted Assad gone, he would've been gone) Shias in Iraq with full cooperation with Iran.

The US sees Al Saud lately as fragile and corrupt. Their control over Saudi Arabia and their influence in the ME is waning. They have become a liability; especially with an ailing King Abdullah and possbily even dead but the Saudi's are keeping it quite as to not stir dissension within Al Saud. The US sees an Iranian controlled and influenced ME is far more predictable and stable, than Sunni extremists control over the region. Which is most likely the only other option due to the current instability and the rise of ISIS. Israel sees Assad and Shias in general as good neighbours and far less of a threat than the alternative. The current ongoing geopolitical shifts are to protect Israel and to keep Sunni extremism in check. And the answer is to support the Shiites.

Nonsense, what you are seeing is a power shift from the US being insanely 1000% rabidly anti-Shiite to being only about 70-80% anti-Shiite. You also see the US being much less supportive of Israel. Witness the recent fracture in the US government over Iran, with Obama (rightly) being far less critical of Iran and far less supportive of Israel than the GOP, which foams at the mouth with Iranian hatred and to-the-end-of-time Israeli support.

So the US has finally shown some balls to stand up against the foreign policy demands of Israel and Saudi Arabia. Why did we grow those balls? Three primary reasons. One, the rise of fracking allows us to give the finger to the Gulf Arabs, and makes their cooperation on oil production far less significant (OPEC can't do shit to halt global production now). Two, the explosive spread of Sunni extremism and Islamism has given the lie to the idea that countries like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan are the 'good Muslim nations' who can be relied upon as allies, and whose governments can successfully manage their extremist factions. Three, Israel has been acting increasingly out-of-line, and has finally managed to piss the US off.

Factions in the US government, exemplified by McCain, are still pushing the old 'support Sunni militants against the Shiiites till you die' party line, but those factions look increasingly insane and foolish. The more dominant faction now is 'they are all fanatics, none should be supported, and there's no real resolution besides walling them off, which fracking fortunately allows us to do.'

 

[OldGoat]

I'm confused. If the government is the source of all power how did it fall?

 

[Zankou]

What inspired the signature?

I was actually reading a book on Vedic Indian sacrificial rites, and the author was comparing them to the sacrificial rites set forth in the Torah, specifically the book of Leviticus.

When he quoted that Leviticus verse that is now my signature, I thought 'man, that verse is incredibly metal, like something the JBG would love.' Makes a perfect MMA website signature.

The whole concept of blood atonement is super-metal. Christianity is a religion that is premised on the crucifixion of God, whose blood and body you ritually consume with the community of believers, and thereby achieve salvation. If that's not truly metal, truly JBG, I don't know what is. I mean the central symbol of the religion is a cross on which the believers' God was slain, and then he rose from the dead. Epic ....