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Bulletins and News Discussion from December 18th to December 24th, 2023 - Chad el-Mandeb - COTW: Yemen

Image is of Yemen seizing the first ship in its blockade of Israel (the Galaxy Leader) with a helicopter raid.

Alternate title: What If It Was The Bab El-Womandeb And It Was Just For The Ladies?

Ansarallah is a key component of the broader Resistance movement, backed by Iran, and has been a stalwart member in engineering the ongoing collapse of Zionism. It has steadily escalated both its rhetoric and, rarely nowadays, its actions, proving that the mythical "red line" might actually exist in the world after all, after going MIA in both Russia and China. It has been striking first Israel-owned ships heading through the Bab el-Mandeb - the strait that leads into the Red Sea and then to the Suez Canal - and, recently, has demonstrated its promise that any ships that intend to dock in Israel will be attacked. While this is really only half a blockade, the cost of going around Africa is significant, and Western insurance companies really don't like it when their ships get blasted by missiles and drones. Several shipping companies have already stated their intention to alter/stop shipping routes through the Red Sea, trying to prompt the West to find a "solution".

Despite US naval presence in the area, Yemen possesses the ability to strike the oil refining facilities of the Gulf monarchies, leaving the US in a very difficult position. If they attack Yemen, then not only do Western ships risk being attacked directly, but those oil refineries may go up in smoke depending on if they help the West - and global oil prices will skyrocket, in an already declining world economy - and it might cost several Western leaders their leadership positions, including Biden himself. A regional war could ultimately tumble into worldwide chaos.

Equally, however, the US cannot afford to lose Israel. It is the single most important American imperial outpost, perhaps alongside Taiwan. If Zionism is destroyed as a local destabilizing influence, then the Russia-China-Iran axis will find itself in a leadership position over the region. Israeli military losses in Gaza increase every single day as they advance further into the labyrinth death trap under the obligation to show some kind of military victory, with Hamas' strategy of attrition taking its toll. And Hezbollah sits there, having destroyed most of the border infrastructure, silently threatening the obliteration of Israel's infrastructure under the rain of a hundred thousand missiles.

As world attention gradually shifts away from the Gaza genocide, we continue to approach the brink.

The weekly update is here on the website.
Your Tuesday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Thursday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Saturday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.

The Country of the Week is Yemen! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.

::: spoiler Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Sources:

Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful. Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:

Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.

1.4K comments

  • Logged in here again after a few days of being forced to deal with stuff in a place called the "real world" for nerds or something.

    Was happy to see hexbear.net/u/ThomasMuentzner remembering my existence. We're all mostly unemployed daydreamers here, but it still warms my dead heart that I've made a miniscule impact on someone's life.

    I'm preparing a little effortpost to celebrate the COTW being Yemen this week. It has barely anything to do with politics, but I'll give you guys three hint words: Jews, Music, Poetry. I also have a really interesting political story about northern Yemen's transition from the Imamate to modern chaos that I have written somewhere in Arabic, gotta translate it and post it here during this week.

  • Operation Prosperity Guardian is not going well for the US:

    • Iran fired at Israeli tanker in the Indian Ocean
    • Spain wont participate at all without UN or Nato running the show, so Spain is out for now
    • Italy is sending just 1 frigate, and not as part of the operation
    • France is still in, but not under US command
    • Netherlands, Norway, and Denmark are sending no ships. Sending liason officers only.
    • Currently, the operation consists if 7 US ships, Incl. 1 carrier, 1 British warship, and 1 Greek warship
    • Permanent ceasefire called in Yemeni Civil War.

    Yemen has apparently come out of an impending war with half of the west even stronger than it started. This might be the best day for the resistance since Oct 7th

  • To shoot or not to shoot: Chinese-developed ‘golden veil’ could make deadly missiles look like passenger planes

    A gold-plated camouflage veil that can make a cruise missile look like a passenger plane on a radar screen could “change the face of war”, according to the team of Chinese scientists behind the design.

    The low-cost technology can confuse expensive air defence systems and significantly reduce the time available for military commanders to respond – if at all.

    Developed by a research team in northwest China, the project is part of an ongoing effort by China to build up a wide range of ways it can penetrate air defence systems in the first island chain, Guam or even the US homeland.

    I can see a major problem with this - you're assuming that the United States is above shooting down passenger planes.

  • Milei takes refuge inside the federal police HQ.

    The President of Argentina, Javier Milei, and the Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, monitor the protests in the city of Buenos Aires, at the headquarters of the Argentine Federal Police.

    Police block streets during protest against roadblock ban in Argentina.

  • Critical support to the Senate staffer who posted videos of himself having anal sex in the Senate Judiciary hearing room. Apparently, the top used to work for the German government.

    Said staffer worked for Senator Ben Cardin (D-Maryland).

  • Testimony by 2 released prisoners from Gaza:

    The resistance allowed us to play sports and taught children new games, including "Warq Al-Shadah" (playing cards). They nicknamed one of us "Salsabeel," and women are considered sacred queens among them.

    One person even placed a towel on his hands so as not to touch me when we played "hand-to-hand combat."

    Mental image of a Hamas fighter hoverhanding a woman hostage

  • Lol. And perhaps Lmao:

    "I was one of those who expected Ukraine to break through to the Sea of Azov, a move that might well have ended the war,” Hannan writes in a passage I find amusing. “Why did I get it wrong? I had been talking not only to Ukrainians, but to British military observers with direct knowledge of the battlefield.

    Isn't there somebody you forgot to ask?

    From here. 10 min read

  • Nobody is really impressed with the United States Operation , Including a US Flagged ship called Liberty.. UAE and Saudis allready said "oh Fuck no." And we have the First Shipper that complies with Yemens Demands

    USA now has Apperently Ordered THE NEXT Carrier Strike group "Carl Vinson " from the freaking Singapour ... and Still the Shipping companies dont "Bet" on it beeing cleared anytime soon...

    Bonus

  • Very interesting story about the massive political changes in Yemen in the 1940s. Had this saved in Arabic somewhere, so I translated this for you homies and cleaned it up with comrade ChatGPT.

    Until the mid-twentieth century, Yemen in the 1700s retained a sense of enduring stability, seemingly impervious to the transformative winds of change. To external observers, Yemen appeared motionless and resistant to evolution. In the northern part of the country, the Zaydi Imamate stood as an institution with an eleven-century legacy, interrupted only briefly on two occasions. The entrenched divides, passed down through generations, manifested predictably in various relationships: Zaydis versus Shafi’is, Zaydis versus the diminishing Isma'ilis, Qahtanis and Seyyids, Upland tribes versus the villages and plantations of Lower Yemen, and coastal towns versus inland towns, among others. Although change had the potential to manifest, the fundamental structure remained steadfast.

    Remarkably, Aden, under British administration, thrived as the world's second-busiest port at times, trailing only behind New York City. Meanwhile, families from Hadhramut sought prosperity in far-flung places such as Singapore and Indonesia. International trade in coffee flourished, sustaining activity in the western uplands and a few Red Sea ports, despite a decline initiated by evolving commercial and global cultivation patterns by the mid-eighteenth century. However, these shifts failed to shake the foundations of deeper traditions.

    One might have anticipated that Aden, as a bustling port, could become a breeding ground for ideological shifts. It seemed plausible that subversive ideas could disseminate among the diverse migrant labor population, originating from all corners of Yemen, and subsequently find their way back to their respective homelands. Alternatively, returning Hadhramis might import provocative notions from their experiences abroad. Yet, when disruption eventually unfolded, it did so unexpectedly, emanating from a source that caught everyone off guard.

    In the aftermath of World War II, the Kingdoms of Iraq and Saudi Arabia identified in Yemen a kindred, traditionalist state, deserving of reinforcement. This was particularly crucial as the Yemeni Imamate was undergoing a significant shift towards hereditary rule, mirroring the established royal traditions in Saudi Arabia and Iraq, in stark contrast to the Zaydi Shia tradition. A strategic plan was devised to enhance and modernize the Yemeni military. In 1940, Iraq implemented a multifaceted approach, flying in Yemeni students for enrollment in its military academy while concurrently dispatching a training mission to Yemen. This mission included Jamil Jamal, a young officer from Mosul, a decision that would prove to have profound consequences.

    Merely four years earlier, Jamal had served as the aide-de-camp to the leader of the 1936 coup, directly implicated in the murder of the Iraqi Army's 'founder.' Despite the coup's failure and the demise of its leader, authorities sought to rehabilitate Jamal, consigning him to career exile as an officer in the riverine police. Unexpectedly, he found himself attached to the Yemen training mission, offering an opportunity for redemption. The mission concluded in 1943, yet Jamal chose to remain in Yemen. Five years later, he employed his coup-making skills, aligning with a plot to assassinate the ruling Imam. A new Imam briefly ruled in Sana’a before being overpowered by the slain Imam’s son and Jamal was executed soon after. This event triggered a series of complex local wars in both northern and southern Yemen, financially and logistically supported by regional powers. The ensuing two decades, spanning the 1960s and 1970s, witnessed a convoluted interplay of old cleavages, with Aden losing its significance due to geopolitical shifts brought about by the Arab-Israeli conflict.

    Aden, once a bustling maritime destination, diminished in importance as the Suez Canal blockade during the Arab-Israeli conflict rendered it largely irrelevant. By the time the canal reopened, technological advancements allowed ships to travel longer distances without the need for restocking, further diminishing Aden's strategic value. In the late 1970s, a substantial portion of Yemen's male population sought employment as migrant laborers in the oil-rich Persian Gulf countries, reshaping the nation's economic landscape. As remittances from abroad became the primary source of income, Aden and traditional coffee cultivation ceded their prominence. The societal fabric in Yemen began to unravel swiftly, and the dissolution of long-standing structures occurred surprisingly rapidly. This tumultuous period prompted adventurous figures, such as the late President Ali Abdullah Saleh, to actively participate in reshaping Yemen's destiny.

  • This vile fucker...

    Ceasefire would ‘validate’ Hamas attacks: Kirby

    The White House National Security Council spokesman again reiterated Washington’s opposition to a comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza.

    However, he denied the US was out of step with other Western powers on the issue. The foreign ministers of the UK and Germany said over the weekend said the need for a ceasefire was “urgent” but that it was not yet time to call for one.

    Kirby said a ceasefire “would simply validate what Hamas did on the 7th of October.

    “It would leave them in power in Gaza, which is unacceptable to us and to our Israeli friends,” he added. “And of course, it would give them a much longer timeline to prepare and plan additional attacks. We do support smaller, more localised, more targeted humanitarian pauses to get hostages out and to get more aid in.”

    Kirby added that eight US captives are thought to still be held in Gaza.

    Al Jazeera

  • Checkmate anarchists. You claim to hate the state, yet you look on horrified as Milei presents the most complete destruction of a state since Carthage.

  • It seems that Milei has ordered public transport to stop today. He really doesn't want people to protest, but that will only delay the protest, not stop it.

    The situation will get worse very soon, and I doubt that the police and military forces will be on Milei's side when he stops paying them.

  • 🇺🇲🇾🇪 The US is concerned that Houthi-led Yemen will attack or even sink American ships, according to US officials who spoke to The New York Times. They fear that the war that could break out again between the Gulf states and the Houthis if the US reacts to it will have more serious consequences. For this reason, they abandoned attempts to directly attack the Houthis.

    Iranian Foreign Minister Abdullahian also said the US has requested assistance in combating the Houthi attacks. Iran said it could not help because the United States was a party to the war. After the collapse of the anti-Houthi coalition, it turned out that the United States feared that the Houthis would sink their ships, and then they had to ask Iran for help.

    The Houthis managed to inflict one of the biggest strategic and tactical defeats on the US this century without even hitting them directly with a handful of missiles and drones.

    -intel slava z

  • Argentinian Congress at 2AM, people are getting more and more frustrated with the current government. I honestly didn't expect this kind of reaction so soon, almost the entire city of Buenos Aires erupted in protest mere minutes after milei's announcement of total economic deregulation.

    Javier Milei outlines chainsaw deregulation plan for Argentina’s economy. The President plans to strike down or modify at least 300 pieces of “collectivist” legislation that he claims have “impeded, hindered an stopped” the country’s growth. . Pay close attention to the language he uses, apart from average neoliberal bullshit like "state persecution of businesses", he uses the word "collectivist", cold-war era shit. He's stuck in cold war mentality.

    Milei's top 30: Economic reforms outlined by president in speech. President Javier Milei outlines 30 key reforms he proposes to deliver in a sweeping reform blitz aimed at deregulating Argentina's economy and modifying labour and rent legislation.

    Some very important shit in there. Some are already saying this is outright illegal, but he's willing to push through with it. A few things: Rent Law is extremely important, because it gives tenants some protection against landlords. Without this law, landlords can set the value of rent as high as they want and renting becomes a mere "negotiation in the free market" between two completely unequal actors.

    The elimination of the Land Law is very important as well, this law establishes that only 15% of the total productive lands in the country can be owned by foreigners and only a maximum of 1,000 hectares can be owned by individuals or corporations. This means that now foreign capitals can buy immense territories for very cheap for "investment", like they did under the presidency of Roca with almost the entire Patagonia in the late 19th Century. This goes in hand with the amendments done to the Firefighting Law, which deregulates it. Yes, he wants to deregulate firefighting. Maybe huge swaths of land can be set on fire on purpose, then declared "useless" by the state and sold for very cheap to some oil billionaire...

    Labour reforms are pure neoliberalism: no indemnizations to fired workers, restricted strike rights and "test periods" for new workers goes from three months to eight months, which means people can get employed for eight months, fired and nothing will happen to the employers. The "test period" is basically when you work without a proper contract, and few rights.

    All state companies and assets will be privatised, but first they will be converted into S.A.'s.

    Healthcare will have no price controls, they can set it to whatever they want. Football clubs are now free to privatise: For the most part, football clubs in Argentina are owned by their own fans who pay a monthly subscription to the club's facilities and services, these fans also have a right to elect their representatives within the club, thus creating a (somewhat) democratic system. Football clubs in some countries of Europe, like England, are privately owned and operated as mere corporations, they hold no elections because they have no democratic institutions, see Manchester United or Manchester City, owned by big capitals from the US and UAE respectively. He wants to do away with this, because privatisation is a doctrine that is to be applied to EVERY aspect of society.

    And more. But it's not all defeats after defeats. Today we were victorious against their "security protocol" as protests and blockades took place all around the country, and yours truly was involved in organizing some protesting. More on that tomorrow.

    Tough months ahead. January and February are going to be incredibly hard. But we must count on our strenghts and our knowledge for today I saw people uniting and chanting together, even people who voted for milei and immediately felt betrayed. It's okay, they are victims too. We will find ways and mechanisms to survive and create solidarity. Capitalism is dying and we refuse to die with it.

1431 comments