The deafening silence on the war against Yemen

By Sara Yasmin Anwar

Since the start of the coalition airstrikes led by Saudi Arabia on Yemen, the media has been silent in reporting the barbarity of the war. Why? Because the corporate media are silent collaborators in crimes against humanity when the perpetrator is a wealthy ally.

While Syria is subject to intense media scrutiny and the propaganda continues unabated – the Saudis have a license to carry out their indiscriminate bombing campaign – killing, maiming, destroying homes and hospitals in the process.

What has the Arab world’s poorest country done to incur the wrath of the wealthiest oil rich countries? The Houthis, who represent a broad section of Yemen’s population, including Sunnis and Shias won’t accept the will of Abd-Rabbuh Mansour Al-Hadi, an American – Saudi backed puppet.

Hadi with the backing of the Saudis long persecuted the Houthis and worked against the interests of the Yemeni people. When the rebellion broke out he was forced to Aden.

The Houthis later rejected Hadi’s offer of a power sharing government due to his constant pandering to America and Saudi Arabia. The Houthis stand against America, Saudi Arabia and Israel, hence the military support from the three countries against the movement.

Indeed, this isn’t the first time Israel has militarily intervened in Yemen’s internal affairs. Neither is it the first time Yemenis’ have been engaged in fighting imperialist powers.

In the 1960’s after overthrowing the totalitarian Imam Ahmad – the Saudis financed a mercenary army against the republicans. Egypt’s Colonel Nasser who supported pan-Arabism and socialism supported the republicans. To counter the popular current, which went against British interests for the region, they compelled the Saudis to arm and finance remnants of the Imam’s supporters. At the behest of the British, Israel airdropped arms for the proxies 14 times.

Whose side are the Houthis on?

Once again Iran is being vilified and held responsible for the backing of the Houthis, even though there is no evidence that Iran is arming the insurgency. However, as the movement is revolutionary and doesn’t fall into the fold of western/GCC hegemony, the Houthis are considered to be the aggressors.

The airstrikes on the impoverished country include the use of banned weapons and substances. Yet, no condemnations from the media, NGOs or the international community who usually wave the flag of human rights.

Yemen, while being poor in resources, is strategically located making it a goldmine for America. The retreat of Hadi posed a serious problem to American interests who were forced to cease operations carried out by the CIA, the Pentagon and the military. In March last year the Los Angeles Times reported that when the Houthis retrieved secret documents from the Yemeni National Security Bureau highlighting the extent of CIA operations, US officials said the takeover compromised their interests.

The war on Yemen has largely gone unnoticed by Muslims too, who have failed to condemn it. This is because of the Sunni/Shia schism that is being peddled by the media and promoted by Saudi Arabia.

It’s a sad state of affairs when Muslims act in accordance with what American journalist Seymour Hersh calls the ‘redirection’ policy of Washington. In order to pit Muslims against each other, Washington has covertly armed and funded radical Sunni groups to sow sectarian discontent in the aim of rolling back Iranian influence in the region.

It’s not because Iran is the enemy of Sunnis, it’s because the country doesn’t take orders from America, has the region’s second largest oil reserves and is a friend of Palestine.

Following in the footsteps of Iran, Syria and Hezbollah the Houthis too are part of the non-sectarian axis of resistance. http://www.geopolmonitor.com/deafening-silence-war-yemen/