{"id":606,"date":"2015-04-03T23:00:24","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T23:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/?p=606"},"modified":"2015-04-03T23:55:52","modified_gmt":"2015-04-03T23:55:52","slug":"saudi-arabias-trail-of-foolishness-hypocrisy-and-mistakes-from-syria-to-yemen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2015\/04\/saudi-arabias-trail-of-foolishness-hypocrisy-and-mistakes-from-syria-to-yemen.html","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Arabia’s trail of foolishness, hypocrisy and mistakes from Syria to Yemen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Les hommes de guerre sont des fl\u00e9aux du monde.<\/em><\/p>\n

Men of war are the scourge of the world.<\/p>\n

Guy de Maupassant<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

The Saudis and their allies are usually\u00a0a puzzle when it comes to foreign policy. In their reaction to events in Yemen, they just look like bumbling fools.<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The\u00a0cartoon from Sputnik News<\/a> mocking former Yemeni President Hadi, who is\u00a0cowering in the Saudi capital Riyadh<\/em><\/p>\n

After the Saudis and their allies spent multiple years pushing and pushing earnestly to bring down Bashar al Assad’s regime in Syria, he is still in power and stronger than ever, gaining an increasing advantage over the Saudi-backed insurgents. Even as\u00a0the Saudis meddled in Syria (and even Iraq and Lebanon, according to some reports on their relationship with ISIS), their own walls have started to fall down on them, with the pro-Saudi government of former president Hadi in Yemen collapsing. In other words, the plan that Saudi Arabia wrote\u00a0for Iraq, Lebanon and Syria has happened to Yemen and destroyed one of Saudi Arabia’s own friends.<\/p>\n

Most amusing is the fact that the Saudis and their ideologues in the Arabic media are convinced that Iran is behind the fall of the Yemeni government and the success of the Houthi Movement’s Ansarullah paramilitary wing, effectively “taking over” Yemen. However, as reported in an analysis at Stratfor<\/a>, Iran is simply too far away to really have any meaningful involvement in the conflict in Yemen. There is no evidence that Iran has provided any money, training or weapons to any of the parties fighting in Yemen. However,\u00a0Iran’s alleged disrespect for Yemen’s “sovereignty” (according to Hadi and his Saudi freinds,\u00a0that is something to be\u00a0determined\u00a0by foreign armies and planes rather than the Yemeni people) is argued to be the reason for the violent campaign now being waged against Yemen.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia, unlike Iran, has been bombing the factions\u00a0it disagrees with\u00a0in Yemen, killing hundreds of civilian bystanders, and has been airdropping\u00a0weapons to the groups it wants to kill its enemies in the country. In sum, Saudi Arabia wants you to think some kind of invisible, unproven specter of Iranian connections\u00a0in the\u00a0sovereign country of Yemen is an\u00a0“aggression”; lunatics like US Senator John McCain (see his remarks at the Munich Security Conference) and other anti-Iran maniacs also see Iranian influence in Yemen as aggression… but Saudi Arabia’s blatant airstrikes\u00a0and airdrops of guns into the country are seen as necessary countermeasures\u00a0to protect Yemen’s “sovereignty” from Iran.<\/p>\n

In reality, Iran has not done anything hostile in Yemen, while Saudi Arabia has committed acts of blatant aggression and is sending weapons to\u00a0factions in the country.<\/h2>\n

What is astonishing is that Saudi Arabia and its allies are crazy enough to simultaneously claim to be intervening in countries to keep\u00a0“legitimate” presidents in power (like Yemen’s Hadi) and intervening in other countries to remove “illegitimate” presidents from power (as in Syria).<\/p>\n

Former president Hadi and the so-called Syrian opposition are \u00a0not legitimate rulers of anything, but they do have one striking similarity: both are cowering\u00a0in foreign capitals and suckling on foreign promises, while\u00a0pretending to rule over their respective countries\u00a0and denying\u00a0that their people have rejected them. Cowering in Riyadh\u00a0is what passes for being a “legitimate” ruler for Yemen in the eyes of Riyadh.<\/p>\n

\n

By\u00a0Harry J. Bentham<\/a><\/p>\n

\"HJB<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Les hommes de guerre sont des fl\u00e9aux du monde. Men of war are the scourge of the world. Guy de Maupassant The Saudis and their allies are usually\u00a0a puzzle when it comes to foreign policy. In their reaction to events in Yemen, they just look like bumbling fools. The\u00a0cartoon from Sputnik News mocking former Yemeni…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":577,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,71,72,127,153,67,66,69],"tags":[87,615,489,614,509,618,619,616,617,73,613],"class_list":["post-606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conflict-2","category-conflict-resolution","category-international-relations","category-journalism","category-lordre-2","category-middle-east","category-politics-2","category-violence","tag-aggression","tag-ansarullah","tag-bashar-al-assad","tag-houthi-movement","tag-iran","tag-president-hadi","tag-saudi-aggression-against-yemen","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-saudis","tag-syria","tag-yemen"],"yoast_head":"\nSaudi Arabia's trail of foolishness, hypocrisy and mistakes from Syria to Yemen - L'Ordre<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2015\/04\/saudi-arabias-trail-of-foolishness-hypocrisy-and-mistakes-from-syria-to-yemen.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Saudi Arabia's trail of foolishness, hypocrisy and mistakes from Syria to Yemen - L'Ordre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Les hommes de guerre sont des fl\u00e9aux du monde. Men of war are the scourge of the world. Guy de Maupassant The Saudis and their allies are usually\u00a0a puzzle when it comes to foreign policy. In their reaction to events in Yemen, they just look like bumbling fools. The\u00a0cartoon from Sputnik News mocking former Yemeni…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2015\/04\/saudi-arabias-trail-of-foolishness-hypocrisy-and-mistakes-from-syria-to-yemen.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"L'Ordre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-04-03T23:00:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-04-03T23:55:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/CBNA795UsAMv7eA.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Harry J. Bentham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Saudi Arabia's trail of foolishness, hypocrisy and mistakes from Syria to Yemen - L'Ordre","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2015\/04\/saudi-arabias-trail-of-foolishness-hypocrisy-and-mistakes-from-syria-to-yemen.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Saudi Arabia's trail of foolishness, hypocrisy and mistakes from Syria to Yemen - L'Ordre","og_description":"Les hommes de guerre sont des fl\u00e9aux du monde. Men of war are the scourge of the world. Guy de Maupassant The Saudis and their allies are usually\u00a0a puzzle when it comes to foreign policy. In their reaction to events in Yemen, they just look like bumbling fools. 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