4 ms·
Maybe that's their secret goal. They've formed a government with representatives from other groups and explicitly draw politics and rhetoric from historic socia
by cess11 2y ago
Maybe that's their secret goal. They've formed a government with representatives from other groups and explicitly draw politics and rhetoric from historic socialist anticolonial movements, including the socialist South Yemen. al-Bukhaiti is the most outspoken of their leaders in this regard.
Old Saleh loyalists have during the last year warmed up to the Ansar Allah-led regime as well.
If my homeland was under attack by the US and Janjaweed I'd expect many local kids to join the effort.
- tptacek 2y agoI don't understand how you can read anything about Ansar Allah and conclude that Zaydi revivalism is their "secret" goal. The kids get sent to kill Sunnis, for what it's worth; there aren't US and Israelis there for them to kill. Not that it would matter! They're children!
- cess11 2y agoHow does this idea of an imamate vision inform your view on the Ansar Allah treatment of the Hadi government? Why has the movement assembled a sort of unity government now? How come they've made deals with and stopped fighting some sunni salafi militant groups? Why have they recruited fighters much more broadly than along sectarian lines? What the saudis, americans and british have done in Yemen is much worse than what the Ansar Allah has done. They're repressive for sure and they'll likely never agree with me on issues like queer people, but that's not unexpected after large amounts of colonial and later genocidal violence, it tends to see to it that only the hardest, least compromising people can survive and rise to leadership positions. The yemeni army under the Sana'a government has managed to drive away US ships, so they very much try to kill americans that are there to protect US occupation and genocide. Eventually they'll likely get good at it, like they got good at building mobile radar systems and taking down MQ-9 drones.
- tptacek 2y agoI wrote a long comment here but I don't think detail is helping. So: * There is no unified government of Yemen, no central organization controls all Yemeni territory, Ansar Allah continues to fight for territorial control, particularly in Marib and around Taizz. * There are no Americans in Yemen for Ansar Allah to fight, there are no Israelis there to fight, and the British haven't been in Aden for over 50 years. * Ansar Allah adopted the Khomeinist "Death To America" chant to galvanize supporters for their Zaydi Rivalist movement, but their actual military targets are all Yemenis inside of Yemen. Far from unifying the different factions in the areas they control, they make government employees sign pledges to support the revival of the Imamate and its Sada caste system. (also: an MQ-9 is a slow-moving turboprop)
- kasey_junk 2y agoThere have been lots of reports that Israel is ‘advising’ the UAE in building their airbase in Socotra. Though I’ve not seen any admission of it outside of conservative Israeli or anti-Israeli media. The White House told Congress of boots on the ground in Yemen about a year ago (but the DoD walked that back). I’d probably not try to argue there are no Israeli or American intelligence or military officers in Yemen. Whether they are in range of Ansar Allah or qualify as an occupation force is probably a semantic argument where each side can reasonably claim honesty.
- tptacek 2y agoI don't think Socotra is salient to anything happening inside Yemen. I'm pretty confident Ansar Allah isn't fighting Americans and Israelis! Or, for the last several years, for that matter, Saudis or Emiratis.
- underdeserver 2y agoWell, they've been firing ballistic missiles multiple times a week at Tel Aviv for a few weeks now.
- 2y ago