By Fred Kaplan
The Saudi air force commenced bombing on March 25—and has since been joined by the United Arab Emirates, with the United States providing logistics and intelligence—in an attempt to oust Houthi rebels, who have taken over the Yemeni capital of Sana after ousting President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. The Houthis are Shiite and have reportedly received some arms from Iran; Hadi is Sunni and thus was viewed as a “stabilizing” force—a bulwark against Iranian incursions—on Saudi Arabia’s southern border.
But in fact, this framework distorts the true picture—it’s a Procrustean bed that chops off the root causes, and plausible ways out, of Yemen’s conflicts—and we should abandon our role as enabler as quickly as possible. President Obama seems to be doing just that, pressuring the Saudis to halt the bombing. They briefly complied, putting out the cover story that they’d accomplished their military objectives—but soon after resumed the airstrikes.
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