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Comment by navigator01 | Hacker News Reader

I'd say more direct causes are the destruction caused by the Yemeni civil wars, religious opposition to modernization efforts and ongoing terrorism and violence perpetrated by extremists and separatist groups... Sure the West shoulders some blame but internal problems in Yemen itself have prevented it from developing.

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You could say that, but you'd be ignoring the fact that the Yemeni civil war is a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and that the U.S. is the one backing, funding, and selling arms to Saudi Arabia to use in the war. It is also providing ongoing logistical support.

How would Iran fighting Saudi Arabia be any better for Yemen without US involvement?

Yes Iran and Saudi Arabia are also exacerbating the conflict. The US has been providing support to Saudi long before the Yemen war began.

One does wonder what Saudi Arabia would have to do before it lost the support of the US.

They can send the majority of the 9/11 attackers to the US and the US did nothing to Saudi Arabia, so of course our government is now more friendly with Saudi Arabia than any other country on earth. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/analyses...

Ah yes, let's pull support from one of the most stable nations in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia has their hands in some bad stuff but they are far preferable to ISIS or a prolonged civil war.

I don’t think ‘stable’ has the same meaning for me as it does for you.

Maybe you aren't using the accepted definition of stable? What fills the void when nations in the Middle East fall is chaos.

Below is the first google hit I get for “Saudi Arabia Politics”. They fund terrorism, attack allies, export Wahhabism, oppress, torture and kill political dissent, exclude women from everything and that’s just just scratching the surface. Why do you think Saudi Arabia is stable? Condemning them and pulling them into line doesn’t mean they become a failed state. Even just stopping exporting billions of dollars of arms to them would be a start.

www.forbes.com/sites/dougbandow/2017/06/24/with-new-crown-prince-saudi-arabia-doubles-down-on-political-repression-and-regional-aggression/amp/

Simple: run out of oil.

Western powers have a lot of responsibility for those internal problems.

Next month will mark fifty years since the end of the British occupation of Aden. That led to Yemen becoming a Cold War battleground.

Then the Gulf war, where their opposite to the US running Arabian politics led to a drastic cut in aid and the deportation of 800,000 Yemenis. The opposition seems justified when you consider the 10% drop in GDP and l food shortages the unrest caused. Tack on another civil war where the US and Saudis sent military forces to Yemen, and the War on Terror killing more Yemeni civilians.

Hezbollah's slogan mentions "Death to the US" for a reason, the Western involvement in the area has not gone well for them.

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