When I read this post at RealClearWorld on U. S. policy with respect to Yemen:
Washington should also encourage partners to develop or restore relationships with individuals who have chosen to support the Houthis politically during the civil war but who might not entirely believe in their cause. Houthi adherents might include members of the former ruling party still in northern Yemen and northern-based families and tribes who have calculated that their political prospects and futures were better with the Houthis than with the loose-knit coalition opposing them. Splintering the Houthi movement in this fashion could begin to diminish the group’s influence in Yemen. Reducing the Houthis’ strengths would increase the prospects of an acceptable negotiated settlement to the war and a political resolution in Yemen.
I began to wonder about the relationship between the Houthi alliance with Iran and the feckless way in which the U. S. has conducted the War on Terror. Our first armed drone strike took place in 2002. Since then we’ve conducted 329 drone strikes, killing more than 1,200 people, many of them civilians.
Just as in Afghanistan we rely heavily on local governments for intelligence—we have very little human intelligence of our own in Yemen. How honest is the Yemeni government? I would suggest not very. They are highly motivated to point out enemies of the government (Houthis) as Al Qaeda whether they are or not.
Were the Iranians supplying the “Houthi rebels” prior to 2002? Or was the alliance created in self-defense?
