Green Berets on the ground at war with the Houthis

We've deployed special forces in Yemen at times to fight al-Qaeda.
That isn't a secret.
We've been assisting the Saudis and UAE with logistics for their horrific war crimes against the Houthis in Yemen.
That also isn't a secret.
But this is news.

The Pentagon and the Trump administration apparently have misled Americans about growing military involvement in a war in Yemen that we should have nothing to do with.

In the latest expansion of America’s secret wars, about a dozen Army commandos have been on Saudi Arabia’s border with Yemen since late last year, according to an exclusive report by The Times. The commandos are helping to locate and destroy missiles and launch sites used by indigenous Houthi rebels in Yemen to attack Saudi cities.

This involvement puts the lie to Pentagon statements that American military aid to the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen is limited to aircraft refueling, logistics and intelligence, and is not related to combat.

When senators at a hearing in March demanded to know whether American troops were at risk of entering hostilities with the Houthis, Gen. Joseph Votel, head of the Central Command, assured them, “We’re not parties to this conflict.”

In at least 14 countries, American troops are fighting extremist groups that are professed enemies of the United States or are connected, sometimes quite tenuously, to such militants. The Houthis pose no such threat to the United States.

OK. There are several problems with this.
First of all, 14 countries!
Is there a list out there somewhere, because I'm missing a few?
Based on the linked article, these include "Yemen, the Philippines, Kenya, Eritrea and Niger, Syria, Somalia and Libya".

So they also lied. What is the justification used here?

“We are authorised to help the Saudis defend their border,” General Joseph L. Votel, the head of United States Central Command said.

If the Saudis can't defend their border, then maybe they shouldn't be starting wars.
Notice how we aren't even calling the Houthis "terrorists".
Instead we are simply taking a side in a sectarian conflict, to defend a corrupt, tyrannical monarchy.
USA! USA!

Let's not forget that having a small number of troops in a war zone, with drones, can get themselves in trouble very quickly.

The Pentagon is interested in having contractors provide two fixed-wing aircraft and two helicopters on call to rescue wounded American special operators in and around Yemen if necessary, as well as to perform various other missions. The announcement comes as it becomes increasingly clear that the U.S. military’s own aerial casualty evacuation capabilities are stretched thin and just months after it weathered serious criticism over relying heavily on private companies for these services following a deadly ambush in Niger.

U.S. Transportation Command, acting on behalf of U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations across the Middle East and Central Asia, posted the notice on FedBizOpps, the U.S. government’s main contracting website, on April 30, 2018. The draft documents say the basic requirements are for the four contractor-operated aircraft to provide casualty and medical evacuation, personnel recovery, and passenger and cargo services.

Oh goody. More mercenaries.
I seem to remember some line about never leaving a GI behind...for private contractors to save.

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dreams of empire

A first meeting between a Saudi delegation and representatives of the Yemeni government on the Yemeni island of Socotra has ended without results, a Yemeni source told Al Jazeera.

The delegation met Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr, Yemen's prime minister, on Friday after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) deployed four military craft and more than 100 troops to Socotra, reportedly without first consulting Yemen's government.

On Friday, a Yemeni government official said UAE forces had occupied sea and airports on Socotra, in a move the official called an "act of aggression".

A Yemeni minister told Anadolu news agency on Friday that the Yemeni people would not give up any sovereign territory.

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detroitmechworks's picture

in anything but the most banal and "justified" manner.

Fucking money talks and it pisses me off every time I see a goddamn celeb being feted by royalists. I honestly think that many of the rich would be perfectly happy with a king at this time, provided of course they got to be noble.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Lily O Lady's picture

@detroitmechworks

Consider all the reports on the activities of the royals. Why should we even care? Yet the media continue to report on royal marriages and babies, etc.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

detroitmechworks's picture

@Lily O Lady Add in the separation of those people from the general populace, and you have the embryonic state of a Caste system.

At least with royalty you can always use a guillotine.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

@detroitmechworks This is born halfway between third and home and the homeplate umpire is a family 'friend'.
Fuck them. Fuck all of them.
Sorry if this offends....

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for this? I hate these people. Not a one of them believe in service to the country, paying it back. All they want is money, money, money.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Lookout's picture

While top American officials and media outlets praise Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as a "revolutionary," 12 people are beheaded per month. Professor Asad AbuKhalil says the Saudi monarchy "has become far more repressive than it has ever been."
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21707:US-Gov.-and-Media-Whitewash-%27Ref... (6 min or text)

CIA Director turned Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Saudi Arabia and Israel as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman abandons the Palestinians. Professor Asad AbuKhalil says this alliance has never been closer, noting Israel's political allies have frequently been anti-Semites (9 min or text)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21714:Saudi-Crown-Prince-Tells-Palestini...

So Saudis throws the Palestinians under the bus....and we all blow up the world so we can get more oil and extinguish our species. Sounds like a plan.

Thanks for letting us know about our boots on the ground gjohnsit.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Outsourcing Is Treason's picture

What role do you think the petrodollar plays in our subservience to the Saudi royals?

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"Please clap." -- Jeb Bush

@Outsourcing Is Treason
How big of a role is anyone's guess.

I think the Saudi's legal bribes to Washington play an even bigger role.

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gulfgal98's picture

@Outsourcing Is Treason Everything

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Pluto's Republic's picture

@gulfgal98 @gulfgal98

Indeed. Everything. It cannot be overstated.

@Outsourcing Is Treason :

Without the Petrodollar, there is no global mandate for a nation's central bank to hold large reserves of the US Dollar.

Without the Petrodollar (forcing nations to use Dollars to purchase oil) there is no global demand for US Dollars, which once supported its relative value each time an oil purchase was made.

Without the Petrodollar, there is no petrodollar recycling (where oil-rich nations can use petrodollars to buy cutting-edge US weapons systems), which means the US weapons industry loses its insider money-pump and the US economy takes a major hit.

Without the Petrodollar, nations can now dump their dollar reserves, flooding the US with a monumental excess, and no foreign appetite for US bonds.

Without the Petrodollar, there are no more US sanctions, an act of war against other sovereigns nations.

Without the Petrodollar, the Saudis are free to cater to and service their largest oil and gas customer, China. Instead of murder weapons China is bringing an ultra-modern transportation infrastructure to Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. High-speed rail trade and travel inside the Middle East and Africa will transform them. The dominion of the old world will slide away.

The world can do just fine in the 21st century without a dominant reserve currency. It just so happens that while the US Dollar was the Reserve currency, the calculator was invented and instantaneous electronic communications were perfected. Thus, the world is perfectly capable of managing and hedging their own trades and exchanges from a wide array of agreed-upon currency- and asset-swaps — without paying an expensive premium to exchange into Dollars first.

The desperate Dollar bulls are trying to find relevance in a world that has already moved into a very different future.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

@Pluto's Republic ever relinquishing US dollar hegemony over the entire globe. These assholes are probably just stupid enough to let the nukes fly instead of losing that. And any thoughts the Rump may supposedly have about pulling us out of these wars are completely mooted by just that fact. I for one would bet money on Trump being given a "briefing" on just what it would mean for the US to lose the dollar and especially what it would do to his "legacy" as POTUS. Don't want to be the one to lose US dollar hegemony over the world, then best be ready to go to war all over the globe to ensure that does not happen. USA, USA, USA!!!

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

Pluto's Republic's picture

@lizzyh7

Many of them are key Members of the Council on Foreign Relations. The anti-Russian sentiment of "better dead than red" is smetimes visible at the CFR, but their purpose, since the 1920s, is to establish a global Empire with the US as the Supreme Ruler over all other nations. Since WWII, the CFR has called the shots on foreign affairs both at the White House and at the State Departments. Thus, most 20th and 21st century Presidents and Secretaries of State are CFR Members or they are from CFR Member families, which is where candidates from both Parties are selected and prepped for the job. That includes both Obama and Hillary.

Donald Trump is a problem for them, even though they surreptitiously selected his cabinet and stacked it with CFR friends and Neocons. The Pentagon is the third leg of the stool at the CFR that keeps Empire on track for the Families, the American oligarchs. They and their corporations are founding members of the Council on Foreign Relations. Israel is the glue that holds it together. All six media monopolies and their starring newscasters are key Members of CFR, whose headquarters are not in Washington DC but located in the midst of the television Networks in New York. The two-party kabuki ends at the door to CFR headquarters, just as it does at the door to AIPAC.

I bring this up to suggest that Donald Trump is in their way. It's got to be a cosmic joke. He stands between a vaporized North Korea, or Russia, or Syria, and us. His Neocon handlers bamboozle him into crazy economic brinksmanship and bizarre war crimes because he does not know that he doesn't know how this works. One way or another, they will get rid of him — and then with Pence at the helm, we may be swept up in some deep-shit rush to war.

AS for the loss of dollar hegemony, that's completely out of our hands. The world has spent nearly two decades preparing for this moment, but I doubt there will be a direct confrontation over it. At some point there will be a rush to the door to dump US Dollars, but the world has been showing great restraint and self-control. Nonetheless, when it does begin, it may happen fast. There will be many false bottoms on the way down, many opportunities to divest.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
earthling1's picture

@lizzyh7
what his legacy will look like. He will lose everything. His personal empire would collapse along with the dollar. Which is the scary part.
The One Belt One Road plan is the key to the future. High speed rail and highways linking all of Europe, Russia, China , the Middle East, and Africa will render Americas dominance of the sealanes moot. The largest navy ever floated made obsolete overnite.
Goods and services would move between continents without ever touching water.
A couple more islets in the South China sea could safely tie the Austrailian continent in with the whole, leaving the Americas isolated and bankrupt over a collapsed dollar.
This is what our rulers are panicing over. Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Lebenon will tie Africa into the web.
It is entirely possible Trump and the neocons will panic and blow up the whole Middle East to stop infrastructure being built through there.
IMHO

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

gulfgal98's picture

Did he really say this with a straight face? Shok

“We are authorised to help the Saudis defend their border,” General Joseph L. Votel, the head of United States Central Command said.

The freaking Saudis have the world's third largest military budget, behind the US and China. The Saudi's military budget is bigger than that of freakin' Russia. And the Saudis cannot control their border against a rag tag bunch of Houthis? Give me a break, General Votel.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy