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Comment by sealeck | Hacker News Reader

The Houthis want conflict to remain in power domestically.

That logic could be applied to all belligerents in the conflict, can you name a country that doesnt apply to?

Did FDR want to join WW2 to stay in power at home?

Autocracies work very differently. War gives them an excuse to crack down on dissent, e.g. criminalizing opponents. Also, the foundational reason for the existence of the autocracy is often an unresolved conflict or grievance, for example North Korea, so they need to perpetuate the grievance.

Yes, we never had to be involved. In fact, the holocaust started after we declated war, and we kept it a secret that we sunk a japanese submarine that was near Hawaii because it would have tipped off the forces there that they needed to be ready to defend themselves. Pearl harbor was allowed to happen to justify going to war, soldiers and sailors killed for what exactly?

What nonsense is this, At the Babi Yar ravine just outside Kyiv, 33,771 Jews were massacred on September 29 and 30, 1941. Months before the US entered the war. Additionally there were Jews being slaughtered from 1939.

> we never had to be involved [in WWII]

Ffs, can we have someone defending Arab interests who doesn’t pivot to de facto defending the literal Nazis?

Any chain of comments longer than 7…

We didn't get involved because of the holocaust. At the time many favored it in the US. Only near the end did se realise how horrible it was

> We didn't get involved because of the holocaust

Nobody claimed we did!

The Holocaust started in 1933

It’s classically held to have occurred between 1941 and 1945 [1], beginning around the attack on Pearl Harbor.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust

"The Nazis developed their ideology based on racism and pursuit of "living space", and seized power in early 1933. In an attempt to force all German Jews to emigrate, the regime passed anti-Jewish laws and orchestrated a nationwide pogrom in November 1938. After Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, occupation authorities began to establish ghettos to segregate Jews. Following the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, 1.5 to 2 million Jews were shot by German forces and local collaborators."

People lived in ghettos and were executed before. I guess it depends how you define Holocaust tho

> guess it depends how you define Holocaust

True. I think it’s most broadly held as the industrial liquidation of the Jewish people (alongside other undesirables). Everything else was sadly precedented.

They're not really Houthis, they are followers of Hussein al-Houthi.

I don't know why the Western media insists on giving them this name. Hussein al-Houthi was a Houthi, but most of his supporters are not. Would you call all Barak Obama supporters "Obamas"?

> Would you call all Barak Obama supporters "Obamas"?

If they engaged in a rebellion under his leadership/memory separately from the rest of the Democrats, we probably would.

Caesarians, Pompeiians, Marxists, Reagan Republicans…

Probably Obamists, along the lines of Trumpists, Stalinists, Maoists, etc.

> Would you call all Barak Obama supporters "Obamas"?

Not really, but if they were referred to as “Obamites” it wouldn’t be that jarring.

Are they referred to by something different in Arabic-language media?

When they start pirating around, maybe

Trumpers, Reaganites, Maoists, etc. It’s a standard political demonym structure in English.

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