Originally published at: Angelina Jolie sheds light on the crisis in Yemen | Boing Boing
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So what is the nature of the humanitarian crisis? Read all over the post and the most information is pretty much in the headline
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I’m glad people are finally beginning to pay attention, but this has been going on for well over a decade now.
A book that sheds some light on this longer history…
Political and social collapse is the new mode of seeking to assert control over a country. It’s pretty clear that the Saudis are taking the lead on what’s happening in Yemen now, but the US has had a hand in this, too.
On going conflict causing mass starvation, mainly.
Some stuff from UNICEF on what’s happening…
But @dnealy is correct that most of us have just come to believe that “those people” are just natural prone to being in conflict… We ignore the reason why these countries are struggling - part of it stems from the longer history of colonialism in the region (from the interwar mandate period) and more recently to the struggle between the Saudis and the Iranians (which is partially, but not just a proxy war for the west vs. the “east”). This is often cast as just a religious conflict between incompatible Islamic sects, when it’s really a cold war for regional supremacy, with the Saudis as the predominant power with the ability to project it’s will much further than the Iranians, who tend to use funding smaller insurgent groups. I have no doubt that MBS and his rise to power has made this much worse.
I just ran across this article, in fact…
Another book to think about these conflicts more deeply - which brings some agency to the global south by focusing on the Third World movement:
And it’s a mass read, but it’s also an excellent recontextualization of the Cold War period that takes the actions of the global south seriously, especially the Middle East and SE Asia (especially the Islamic world):
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The Saudi’s war with Yemen, mostly. And Trump sold them a lot of weapons for it… I dunno if Biden has pulled back US support or not 
OPEC is fucking us right now, as Trump had them sign a 2 year agreement to keep oil production down so the price of oil didn’t completely tank during the pandemic. And now that the pandemic restrictions are lifting, and the demand will increase with the spring, and the turbulence of the war in Ukraine, we need them to produce more - but they won’t. Laughing all the way to the bank.
It’s a fucking shit show…
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Unfortunately, US direct support for the Saudi massacres in Yemen predate Donald Trump’s presidency. The last time I remember Yemen making national news was when Obama’s administration assassinated American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki there via drone strike, which sparked some tepid national debate on due process.
The bigger story, that was discussed a lot less, was how regularly innocent Yemeni civilians were getting caught in these strikes. Awlaki’s teenaged son was also killed a short time later in a separate strike that killed his cousins and several other Yemeni civilians – which strangely got a lot less coverage. There was also the infamous “wedding party” massacre. I remember reading that when Trump got into office, he simply removed the requirement to report on civilian deaths to start with.
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