5d ago

what are they bombing yemen for?

600 comments

- They're not exactly bastions of freedom-fighting rebels against tyranny, they are a dark-age group of bigots and legitimate threats to worldwide infrastructure by attacking shipping lanes. Shipping lanes keep food and medicine moving around the world, it's not just about the USA, most developed nations are supportive of responding to the Houthis with force.
  edit: The situation with the Houthis is more about Iran and US than it is about Gaza/israel, PLEASE I beg of you to read up on the timeline and history before trying to argue with me and understand that the world is more nuanced than you want it to be, and in fact I challenge you to read up on this story and its history and NOT be disappointed on some level. There is no “good guy” in this, everyone is shit. Also I am turning off inbox replies so I don’t have to argue with reactionaries. Save your energy.
  
  They stopped the blockade when there was a ceasefire in Gaza, then they started it up again when the ceasefire ended.
  They are doing whatever they can to stop a "a dark-age group of bigots" (israel) from continuing it's genocidal actions
  
  My friend, that was between US and Iran and had NOTHING to do with Gaza, the Houthis were proxy players and as a result were treated like pawns. Seriously, read up on events and understand that what we're told is never the truth.
  
  Then why did the blockade stop and start at the same time ceasefire started and ended
  Also: iran also wants the genocide to end
  The real "dark-age bigots" are the people who don't want to end the genocide
  
  Read up on the "blockade" and Houthis' history and you will see a performative stunt funded by Iran and Houthis willing to do anything to get international attention.
  NONE of them care about the genocide, if you believe they do, you've fallen for the whole pile of bullshit. There is a naive desire to seek out allies in the face of a horrific situation, but there are no allies. (I mean, unless all Americans decided to work together and marched on washington demanding action and removal of our current so-called administration, but we can't even get our own progressive side to stop arguing about if the Houthis are "bad or good" so I don't have much hope that anyone is going to do more than bitch at each other on the internet while people continue to die needlessly for no other reason than humans are too easily swayed by emotional appeals one way or another.)
  If you translate any of this as anti-semitism you are a moron who belongs on Trump's cabinet.
  
  Then WHY did the blockade stop and start at the same time ceasefire started and ended.
  Doing anything you can to bring international attention to a genocide is not only a good thing, it is every country's duty under international law
  
  Because Iran was paying them. Please read the actual story. I cannot be a current events professor here, repeating the same shit doesn't change the story, Houthis are not your heros.
  
  I don't care if Iran is paying them, the goal of both the Houthis and Iran is to stop the genocide which is not only a good thing, it is the duty of every country under international law
  
  I am saying Houthis are not your heros, and Russia is now funding both sides of our internal "debate" here in the USA about the Houthis, so whatever the fuck you're reading out there, it's probably wrong. They do this to poison the well so that people tune out and don't know what to think anymore.
  I am not engaging on this shit anymore because everyone is too locked-in and can't even have a conversation, it's just rabid frothing. Good work Russia.
  
  it's just rabid frothing. Good work Russia.
  "hmm. blaming iran didnt work. Maybe they will accept my bullshit if i blame russia this time"
  you have given zero substance or evidence in this entire thread. just rabid frothing.
  
  The US and Israel are committing a genocide and Iran and the Houthis are doing whatever they can to stop a genocide. That doesn't make anyone a hero but if you're favoring the US/Israel side over the Iran/Houthi side then you're fine with genocide
  
  This mf spittin.
  
  Then why did the blockade stop and start at the same time ceasefire started and ended
  LITERALLY specifically to fool low-information people like you.
  
  Source?
  
  Oh, honey
  
  Most credible liberal.
  
  Hahahahahaha what an argument you should run for office
  
  US and Iran and had NOTHING to do with Gaza
  Iran is US enemy only because it objects to Israel policies.
  
  That's not really true. The US staged a coup in Iran in the 50's to take their oil and give power to the shah, and during the Iranian revolution, Carter allowed the same shah to take refuge in the US (against the advice of foreign policy advisors like Kissinger). This outraged the Iranians who assumed that the US was preparing to reinstall him in another coup, leading them to seize the US embassy and take hostages, causing a breakdown of relations. The US went on to support Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war. Israel is a major factor, but there's a lot of bad blood besides that, mostly because of the CIA's actions (which were motivated by oil).
  
  Yeah the reason Iran hates us is we killed there democracy and overthrew there very popular president. Because of Communist Allegations which weren't true in the slightest.
  
  100%.
  Iran had no problem with America, it only had a problem with Britain, since they had been exploiting them as a colonial power. Truman actually forbid the CIA from doing what it wanted because he understood it to be a democratic, anti-colonial struggle. But the CIA and Eisenhower just had to wait for him to leave office, and Eisenhower came in not really understanding the situation and with both the CIA and Churchill asking him to sign off on it. It ended up being a bargaining chip, the US would overthrow Mossadegh to protect BP's profits, and in exchange the UK would join NATO and support the Korean War. The Iranians got completely fucked over, just for trying to get out from under the thumb of colonial exploitation and reassert control over their own resources (and they weren't the only ones). Part of the reason the coup succeeded was because Mossadegh trusted the US, and they exploited that trust to stab him in the back.
  And nowadays, Americans are not only completely ignorant of that history, but even have the audacity to say things like "Islam is incompatible with democracy." Like, motherfucker, you are incompatible with democracy.
  
  exactly.
  
  The current US-Iran relationship is independent of that history. It is PNAC neocon origins, and pure Israel designed policy. History has little to do with the sanctions and axis of hate towards Iran, and it is disingenuous to suggest that Iran's resistance is based on long irrelevant issues.
  
  Chill. I don't disagree with you that the current tensions are heavily impacted by the conflict with Israel, but I'm just supplying additional context that relations have also been bad for decades, for reasons not directly related to that. There's nothing "disingenuous" to providing historical context, and just because tensions currently are related to something else doesn't mean that history is irrelevant or that supplying context is "disingenuous." You don't get to just declare things to be "independent of history," that's not how anything works. If Iran was neutral on Israel, the bad blood would not just disappear overnight.
  I'm on your side here, I'm just trying to be accurate about things.
  
  If Iran was neutral on Israel, the bad blood would not just disappear overnight.
  Iran has offered to end its side of the bad blood with the "official western agreed solution" to Palestine.
  
  Isn't that a point for what I'm saying? I assume that the US did not accept, which doesn't make sense if the US was purely antagonistic because of Israel.
  
  US official position has always been a 2 state solution. It is Israel doing everything it can to avoid it, with US "unofficial" cover, that has Iran resisting. It is Israel not wanting peace, much more than, or central rather than, US devotion to Israel, the root of the problem.
  
  I promise you, there is a lot more between the US and Iran than Israel.
  
  Iran is US enemy only because it objects to Israel policies.
  My god the lack of historical awareness in this generation is going to give me an aneurism. I deeply hate you all. Get better.
  https://www.cfr.org/timeline/us-relations-iran-1953-2023
  Edit: don't bother replying with your nonsense, just read and learn more. I already blocked you and like, half the people here who have learning disabilities.
  
  The disingenous harrassment on this issue is that "The US must continue to hate Iran because of their successful coup on the Shah, and Iran never congratulated the US for the favour". Hate against Iran today, since 1999/2001, is pure and simple, part of service to Israel agenda.
  
  I know they have done horrible things and continue to do bad things but if the US would stop propping up all the other bad guys then this situation would resolve itself. We keep sticking our nose in that business and it will never bring about a resolution. The US hasn't won a single war since WWII. They didn't defeat the north Koreans the Vietnamize or the Taliban. They didn't win the domestic 'War on drugs' They won't win their war on freedom of body choice either. The truth is the US is losing and only ones winning are our enemies. Especially the ones we are helping.
  
  Wow crazy how they just attack shipping lanes for no reason other than that they're bigots, also crazy how their attacks just randomly happen to correspond with Israeli violence towards Palestinians and primarily target Israeli shipping. Almost as if they're rational actors acting in retaliation - but no, they're just crazy bigots doing terrorism for no reason other than "they hate us for our freedoms."
  It's wild what a childish picture of the world people have.
  
  I am against Israel's government also, but "anyone who attacks israel is my friend" is an even more childish picture, I am providing realistic nuance, not mindless hugboxes ineffectual armchair political strategists. You don't HAVE to have a black-and-white picture of the world, I promise it's okay to NOT take a side about some issues.
  
  I promise it’s okay to NOT take a side about some issues.
  Is that what you think you're doing? Not taking a side by justifying one side bombing the other?
  
  No, I'm saying the reality is more nuanced than you or I know, and if you're out cheering every time a Houthi sinks a shipping vessel you're as dumb as the right. The situation is complicated and not as cartoonishly simple as most people in this post are making it out to be. Don't view this as "good guys and bad guys" or you will be another mindless drone complicite in the agendas of powerful assholes.
  No, I'm not doing back and forth about it. Have a good one.
- They're attacking ships in international waters, killing sailors.
  They're not the good guys.
  
  That is where they are but not where they came from. If we didn't bomb and kill every person who opposes us and prop up the governments who kill and torture them then perhaps they wouldn't be attacking others. Millions of americans in the coming years are going to finally figure out what the rest knows. When the government treats people like criminals many will become criminal. Don't kid yourself about the brown part. If they were white there would be more talking.
  
  The sailors on these vessels will largely be foreign nationals, a lot of Philippinos, for example, and may not even be aware the vessel they're on is ultimately owned by Israeli interests.
  The ownership structure of ships can be quite complex.
  
  Why are they doing it?
  
  I'm sure they have what they think are very good reasons.
  
  If I was a sailor, I simply wouldn't work for a ship associated with Israel.
  They're not attacking Chinese ships, they're not attacking Turkish ships, they're not attacking South African ships.
  
  The Houthis literally attacked a ship taking Russian oil to China. They have managed to piss off just about everyone.
  
  Russia is also Israel's biggest supplier of oil.
  Like America, if they didn't want their tankers attacked, they shouldn't be facilitating genocide.
  
  How many sailors actually know who the vessel they work on is actually owned by? Bear in mind, it's not always a simple process, the vessel can be leased from a company that is in turn owned by another company that is part owned by...
  You get the idea.
  
  You're right, because the sailors might not know any better, everybody should just let them help Israel facilitate genocide.
  
  To add, this particular region isn't a country as that term is understood by anyone. It is lawless, unincorporated territory without anyone in charge.
  It's finders keepers. First country who can bring law and order to the territory gets to keep it, and the Republic of Yemen, has proved either unwilling and incapable.
  To be clear, it would be fine if the people in this territory wanted to live like it's the year 600 and kept to themselves, but that's not what they want. They want to be part of a new Islamic caliphate and rule the entire world.
  Not gonna happen ✅.
  
  Isn't that a bit... Islamophobic and colonialist? You're also making a lot of assumptions about Yemen here.
  
  No, not unless you don't know what those words mean.
  Places have to be good neighbors if they want security. Can't be belligerent and be safe. It's an either or thing. Nothing colonial about that.
  
  But aren't you saying that some countries can be disinfranchized because they don't abide by Western ideals and that some stronger nation can swoop in and colonize them and are right to do so?
  You also expressed the opinion thta generalized Yemeni people (predominantly Muslim) and shows them to be culturally defective... but you provide no evidence except for them being Yemeni.
  
  There's a handful of very vocal posters on here that are just cooked. They think that anyone fighting the US is automatically the good guy, and life just isn't that simple.
  
  They think that anyone fighting the US is automatically the good guy, and life just isn’t that simple.
  Actually, it kinda is. For the same reason the US, the UK, and the USSR were all allies during WWII, and were all "the good guys" in that conflict, despite having drastically different ideologies. Because the other side was committing a major genocide, and had to be stopped above all else.
  The genocide must be stopped, and neither US political party is willing to offer us a chance to vote against it. Therefore, it can only be stopped through military force, and we don't really have the luxury of waiting for some faction to suddenly emerge out of thin air that has the strength to fight and win while also being perfectly aligned ideologically. The very least we can do is offer our verbal support to the anti-genocide side, regardless of their reasons.
  But if I'm wrong, then enlighten me. How exactly do you envision stopping the genocide?
  
  The allies fought together in WWII because the axis attacked them. The genocide not only had nothing to do with it, war decisions were explicitly made to leave intact the concentration camp system (for example not bombing railroads that took people to the camps) because any whiff of supporting Jews would have damaged political support for the war. The people in the camps were only freed at the very end of the war.
  The allies were the same countries that crippled Germany's economy after WWI, leaving its society vulnerable to the demagogery of Hitler. I don't believe they can be black-and-white described as "the good guys".
  
  Yeah, that's the point. Many of the countries who were part of the Allies were doing it for their own interests, as world-dominating colonial powers. But whatever their motivations, they're still correctly regarded as "the good guys" because the other side was the fucking Nazis. Likewise, Ansar Allah and similar groups may have their own motivations, their own problems, their own sins, but the other side is committing genocide.
  And the reason that literally every single conflict from Korea to Vietnam to Iraq and so on is justified by comparing it to WWII is that virtually everyone was and is on the same page about it, for different reasons. Yeah the leadership was motivated more by maintaining power, but that doesn't mean that everyone fighting at the time or that everyone looking back on it supported/supports the Allies on the same motivation.
  Once Israel and the US have been defeated and the genocide has stopped, then sure, let's look at Ansar Allah's position on gay rights or whatever. Until then they are some of the only ones doing anything to keep Israel in check, and we desperately need someone to do that, because again, the genocide must stop.
  
  You didn't answer the question. The genocide must stop, how do you envision stopping it? If you denounce every actual, practical solution without offering any other option, then how is your position meaningfully different from just outright supporting it?
  That same line about how "they'd be even worse than us if they ever got power," has been used by virtually every colonialist project on earth. It's wild to watch an old school, 1800's style colonial project playing out in 2025 and to see all the same rhetoric being used, it's like getting in a time machine.
  
  I don't have an answer. I just know supporting Islamists is not the answer.
  
  You in 1940: "I don't know how we can stop the Nazis, I just know supporting Stalinists is not the answer."
  
  I mean...yeah. Those fuckers were as bad as the Nazis. Fuck Stalin, he's a genocidal monster too, he just happened to be on the winning side.
  
  Christ. Well then thank god you weren't president back then or we'd all be speaking German, and we wouldn't be discussing Israel because all the Jews would be dead.
  What the hell is wrong with liberals? Do you just enjoy losing?
  
  We don't owe you an answer to that question.
  
  Yeah, you kinda fucking do, actually, unless you're fine with the genocide continuing.
  
  I asked for an answer, not Hasbara propaganda and genocide apologia.
  Every claim Israel makes about Palestine is lies and projection. It's the IDF that uses human shields, not Hamas. It's the IDF that levels cities and shells hospitals, including those run by the UN. The IDF is a terrorist organization.
  Yes, the "war" would stop if Hamas surrendered, because then it would become even more of a one-sided slaughter, although the killing wouldn't even end when every Palestinian was dead because Israel also goes Lebensraum on neighbors like Syria and Lebanon. Israel is a blatantly expansionist apartheid state and the only way lasting peace will be achieved is when the system of apartheid is ended and Palestinians are given full and equal rights and the colonizer ethnostate goes the way of similar states like apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany.
  From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
  In the mean time, the terrorist rogue state of Israel cannot be reasoned with but can potentially be kept in check through force, the only language it understands.
  
  That is a very strange line of reasoning.
  
  What's strange about it? "The poor should be fed, but I oppose every practical solution to feeding them" is effectively the same as saying "The poor should not be fed." The only difference is rhetorical. Likewise, "I don't support the genocide, but I oppose every practical solution to ending it," is effectively the same as saying, "I support the genocide."
  I guess it's strange if you think words and rhetoric matter more than physical reality.
  
  Exactly what nazis would say if asked about why they tried to exterminate the jews.
  Good god you’re broken beyond repair.
  
  Except my solution is not to exterminate Israel. Fighting genocide by supporting a different group of genocidal maniacs is lunacy. Hamas is bad. Israel is bad. I can't even say who is worse, morally. Israel just happens to have greater capacity for inflicting their evil right now.
  Sometimes, there are no good guys.
  
  wow you are a nazi
  
  "Everyone who disagrees with me is a Nazi" is not only a dumb argument, it's a boring argument.
  
  til fighting against a genocide doesn't make someone a good guy
  we have to be respectful i guess
  
  If you still believe in slavery, treating women as property and making it illegal for them to have an education etc, then you're not the good guy.
  Awful people do occasionally end up on the right side of an issue.
  
  Child marriage is still legal in 38 states, you people kidnap students for having an opinion.
  Your rapist president is dismantling your department of education and slavery is still legal as per your constitution.
  You guys have killed millions and destroyed dozens of countries in the span of 50 years for economic gains, you have torture camps and trans aren’t even recognized anymore.
  stop with all this righteousness… maybe if the US stopped meddling in other countries things would change.
  
  You do realise I'm not American, right?
  
  Like I care, my statement still stand and I pity yours.
  
  you describe a decent chunk of the usa and its leaders if you just change "education" to "abortion" (although that's probably not far either), so it's kind of a not good guy doing a good thing vs a not good guy fighting the not good guy for the bad guy
  
  The US would still have chattel slavery if the slaves never resisted their chains. Women would still be the property of their husbands and not be allowed to vote or work if they did not fight for their rights. There is nothing about western "values" that made these things happen, they were not granted upon us by our holy and just rulers or even decided on by the masses in a vacuum. They were hard fought through decades of collective struggle and civil war.
  It would be a lot easier for the people of Yemen to do the same if they were allowed to experience the same peace as is experienced in the west, and their efforts weren't constantly thwarted by imperialist powers.
  
  They should probably stop fucking with our boats then.
  
  The west has had their hands in Yemen for much longer than the houthis have been firing on ships bound for Israel.
  
  degeneracy in plain sight.
  
  They are attacking Norwegian boats. The majority of the boats they are attacking aren’t even from the USA or going to the USA…
  
  Also false. The majority of boats when the US blockade was active had direct ties to the countries on the blockade list.
  Notable example True Confidence was owned by US Oaktree Capital until it was sold right before passing through the Red Sea. https://www.ft.com/content/7968438c-ec7c-424d-aaed-42d99e2a51a7
  
  They have not been operating with honesty for some ships but as someone else pointed out, the majority had ties to the US and Israel. They've also been very clear about why they do this. I'm not saying they are admirable, but they are not that wrong.
  I don't think it's bad to admit that they are generally doing something good while also committing bad mistakes.
  
  JD Vance was just quoted saying 90% of the traffic was headed to Europe. I’m sure he’s exaggerating as much as you. Not too long ago the United States had good sounds intelligence so…. Idk not my business anyway. Don’t fuck with civilian vessels. Hit real military targets and get hit back with military assets. All I see is a bunch of fucking terrorist and terrorist supporters to be honest.
  
  I can see why you think I might be exaggerating but at some point I checked the wikipedia page listing Houthi attacks on ships and spent a good amount of time checking each one more carefully.

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