"Allah is the Greatest, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam"

[Derec]

That is the official motto of the terrorist organization Ansar Allah aka The Houthis, which is wholly owned subsidiary of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, itself a recognized terrorist organization.

Biden administration is just fine with the Houthis and is about to remove their terrorist designation.
Biden administration to revoke terrorist designation of Yemen's Houthi rebels


It's yet another act of appeasement toward the Iranian theocracy.

 

[Patooka]

Did you even read the article you linked? It explained the reasoning behind it:

"This decision has nothing to do with our view of the Houthis and their reprehensible conduct, including attacks against civilians and the kidnapping of American citizens," the spokesperson added.

"This designation had no practical effect on the Houthis. All it did was cut off practically all food to much of Yemen - a death sentence for millions," he added.

So basically the Biden administration is making foreign policy based on substance over style. A refreshing improvement.

 

[Derec]

Did you even read the article you linked? It explained the reasoning behind it:

I do not buy their stated reason. It's all about abandoning Yemen to Iran.

"This decision has nothing to do with our view of the Houthis and their reprehensible conduct, including attacks against civilians and the kidnapping of American citizens," the spokesperson added.

So they admit that Houthis are terrorists, but are still revoking the designation anyway.

"This designation had no practical effect on the Houthis. All it did was cut off practically all food to much of Yemen - a death sentence for millions," he added.

Bullshit. There are waivers for just that purpose - to allow humanitarian organizations to operate regardless of status of the group holding territory.

So basically the Biden administration is making foreign policy based on substance over style. A refreshing improvement.

I do not buy their apologetics. They are shutting down arms exports to our allies Saudis and UAE because they are using them to fight Iranian proxies the Houthies in Yemen.
And now this. It's all about appeasing Iran. Food assistance can be ensured without revoking the well-deserved terrorist organization designation. I think it will go about as well as Chamberlain's appeasement of Nazi Germany went. Yemen is like Austria or Sudetenland. Will Saudi Arabia or UAE be like Czechoslovakia or like Poland?

 

[Patooka]

If I am forced to pick a side between the Saudi or the Iranian governments, I'm comfortable with, "fuck both your houses" as a response. Biden's decision appears to focused solely on the borderline genocide in Yemen, your Nazi hyperbole notwithstanding. Your assertion is based on a gut feeling and you'll forgive me if I don't unconditionally trust your instincts when it comes to the well being of brown people.

 

[bilby]

Shutting down arms exports to allies who are abusing them to fight people you are not at war with strikes me as an excellent idea.

If the US wants to declare war on Iran, then she can do so. If she doesn't (and she hasn't), then she has no business arming allies who are fighting Iranians. Much less allies who are fighting Iranian proxies. Particularly if that fighting is effectively shutting down humanitarian aid to people who genuinely need it.

Fuck the US and her proxy wars. You're big enough and bad enough to fight any dozen other armed forces on the whole fucking planet at the same time. So shit, or get off the pot. If you have a valid casus belli, go to war. If not, butt the fuck out.

The poor bloody Yemenis don't need your half-baked allies dropping 'made in USA' ordinance on their heads. If the Saudis want to bomb their neighbours, let them make their own fucking bombs.

 

[Jarhyn]

Maybe the fact that America and various other countries have been bankrolling the genocide in Yemen might influence the desire to see americans dead? Just a guess here.

The fact is, if we had focused on nation building and education instead of fueling massacres and violence, maybe the people there would be less willing and ready to participate in violence against us. Just a thought.

But at this point, the relationship is ruined. We have an entire nation that we CANNOT really do anything for because I doubt those families would now take aid and education from the same people who they got bombs and death from.

Best we can do is at least stop with the bombs and death and accept that people hate us and for good reason.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

Are you fine with children starving to death in Yemen? I guess you are.

Conservatives: "save the children!" (unless they're dying of starvation in war torn countries or being separated from their families at the border).

 

[Jarhyn]

Are you fine with children starving to death in Yemen? I guess you are.

Conservatives: "save the children!" (unless they're dying of starvation in war torn countries or being separated from their families at the border).

Are you talking to me? Or Derec.

Personally, I see the whole situation to be very similar to a social situation with my ex wife.

My ex wife hates me. She blames me for every awful thing happening in her life. We are like two countries existing in the same social-circle world.

We had a bad relationship. Lots of arguments and disagreements. There were shouting matches. Things were BAD. I'm not going to say I wasn't as awful for her as she was for me. It's like that between america and Yemen, too.

Anyway, occasionally she will engage in a social attack against me. Most recently, she called me a pedophile. Prior to that, it was her saying I needed to file court papers for her to file a change of name form. Other times she mentions how awful I was in the relationship, and sometimes it is absolutely true that I was awful.

While the social group I am in does not like these attacks and judges her heavily for engaging in them, to the point of censure, this has not happened and is seen as a last resort.

The thing is, I can't give her advice, or help directly. When I tried volunteering to pay for her court filing and to testify as to the correctness of her request for a name change (or to file a sworn statement) on her behalf, while also making it clear that I cannot legally file her court papers for her, all that did was confuse her temporarily until she fell back into "Jarhyn is to blame for everything bad in my life" mode.

Instead, the only support I can actually give her comes in the form of accepting the real things I have done, admitting to them, apologizing, and working with our mutual friends to support her. In this way, the rest of my friends won't see her attacks as justified, and I don't suffer social damage.

The fact is, america is not in a position to fix this directly. We may never be in a position to provide direct aid meaningfully ever again. At best, we can admit what happened, show remorse, give no more leverage to their hate, and contribute dollars and efforts to international groups who can offer this aid that they need.

 

[Swammerdami]

. . . . "Allah is the Greatest, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam"
Change this to
. . . . "Jesus is the Greatest, Death to Iran, Death to China, Curse on the Muslims, Victory to American Christianity"
and Trumpists would mostly think it the greatest slogan since "You can grab 'em by the pussy."

Is that what this thread is about? "Our God is better than your God"?

Saudi Arabia — which assassinated a Washington Post reporter in cold blood, apparently with the consent of the Trump Administration — and Netanyahu's Israel — which leaves 4+ million Palestinians in desperate poverty, largely because of a 3000 year-old fiction — are perhaps the two most evil governments in the MidEast. Trump's organizing a pact between these two heinous regimes was disgusting, and shows why many informed people around the world treated Trump's regime as also heinous. Those pacts contribute to the problem, not to a solution. Informed Americans should be grateful that the U.S. is making progress against such Trumpist hypocrisies and stupidities.

Do Iran and the Yemeni rebels support "terrorism"? Sure! Most countries in the MidEast "support terrorism", most notably Saudi and Israel. The U.S. GOP has become a big supporter of terrorism, not just in the MidEast but in the U.S. itself where they enabled insurrection by the Proud Boys.

Iran is a powerful rich country which is less evil than most of its neighbors. It is a real shame that the U.S. has not pursued rapprochement with this country: most of the Iranian people were eager to be friends with America. Obama moved strongly in the right direction, but then the Orange Dotard, allied with the Putin-Syria axis, did great damage. Kudos to Biden for helping the U.S. get back on track.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

Are you talking to me? Or Derec.

Was talking to Derec.

 

[Jarhyn]

Are you talking to me? Or Derec.

Was talking to Derec.

Oh. At any rate, I think my point still stands, that the US is not in a position to be able to directly get involved to any good effect anymore, on account of the dynamics of the relationship we have had.

 

[TomC]

Iran is a powerful rich country which is less evil than most of its neighbors. It is a real shame that the U.S. has not pursued rapprochement with this country: most of the Iranian people were eager to be friends with America. Obama moved strongly in the right direction, but then the Orange Dotard, allied with the Putin-Syria axis, did great damage. Kudos to Biden for helping the U.S. get back on track.

Totally this!

The USA has been attacking Iran pretty much ever since the Iranians took their country back. From proxy wars that killed about a million people to stealing their money to trade and tech sanctions...

During the Obama administration the U.S. made some serious efforts to end the attacks. Hillary was Secretary of State and Biden was VP. We finally had a chance to end the hostility. The TeaParty partisan obstructionist Republicans sabotaged that before it really happened, writing an open letter to the world making it known that the USA cannot be trusted for more than an election cycle. Trump followed through, proving that the USA cannot be trusted.
The Republicans demonstrated that world peace is no more than a political football to them.

Biden was nowhere near my ideal replacement for Trump. But this is one area where old school fogies like Biden could shine. Obama picked him for VP for a number of reasons. One was Biden's foreign policy experience.
I hope and believe that President Biden can do better at bringing peace to the middle East than his predecessors of the past 50 years.
Tom

 

[Elixir]

That is the official motto of the terrorist organization Ansar Allah aka The Houthis, which is wholly owned subsidiary of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, itself a recognized terrorist organization.

Biden administration is just fine with the Houthis and is about to remove their terrorist designation.
Biden administration to revoke terrorist designation of Yemen's Houthi rebels
View attachment 31779

It's yet another act of appeasement toward the Iranian theocracy.

Yeah! And that, after they ransacked the US Capitol and killed capitol police while attempting to find and murder elected officials in order to overthrow the US government! SHAME!

Oh wait - that was just 'Murkin pay-tree-yachts.
Never mind.

 

[laughing dog]

The OP writer's position is perfectly clear - the USA should be placating the Saudis, not the Iranians. Of course, a more humanitarian view of the matter is that this is placating the hungry and starving non-combatants of Yemen.

 

[RVonse]

I don't know if Biden is right or not because quite frankly over half the journalism I read and see is complete bull shit anyway.

But I am pretty sure about this. Gas just went up .23/ gallon where I live. Not .02/gallon but .23/gallon. And where I live, most of us are still driving gas cars. Biden is going to make it very expensive for middle class people to get to and from their jobs in the very near future. He just got rid of the keystone pipeline and now this.

He is doing a hell of a good job of taking even more money away from middle class workers and he has only been in office a short time.

 

[Patooka]

I don't know if Biden is right or not because quite frankly over half the journalism I read and see is complete bull shit anyway.

Don't worry, I'm certain most people would agree the news you read is bullshit.

But I am pretty sure about this. Gas just went up .23/ gallon where I live. Not .02/gallon but .23/gallon. And where I live, most of us are still driving gas cars. Biden is going to make it very expensive for middle class people to get to and from their jobs in the very near future. He just got rid of the keystone pipeline and now this.

He is doing a hell of a good job of taking even more money away from middle class workers and he has only been in office a short time.

Jesus Christ. Firstly, the price at your gas/petrol station has more to do with the oligopoly of fuel companies and the amount of oil refined. Not the fucking oil in Saudi Arabia itself. Secondly, the period when the United States was least dependent on foreign oil was during the Obama Administration, which if I remember correctly, Biden was a part of. And thirdly, your bullshit example isn't even proof of correlation much less causation.

 

[marc]

Jesus Christ. Firstly, the price at your gas/petrol station has more to do with the oligopoly of fuel companies and the amount of oil refined. Not the fucking oil in Saudi Arabia itself. Secondly, the period when the United States was least dependent on foreign oil was during the Obama Administration, which if I remember correctly, Biden was a part of. And thirdly, your bullshit example isn't even proof of correlation much less causation.

Left out the Keystone pipeline brings oil from Canada to the gulf coast to sell on the international market. It is not the US’s oil, and is not necessarily being sold to us.

 

[laughing dog]

Jesus Christ. Firstly, the price at your gas/petrol station has more to do with the oligopoly of fuel companies and the amount of oil refined. Not the fucking oil in Saudi Arabia itself. Secondly, the period when the United States was least dependent on foreign oil was during the Obama Administration, which if I remember correctly, Biden was a part of. And thirdly, your bullshit example isn't even proof of correlation much less causation.

Left out the Keystone pipeline brings oil from Canada to the gulf coast to sell on the international market. It is not the US’s oil, and is not necessarily being sold to us.

Yeah, but our gas prices went up - something that never happened under President Trump, so it must be Biden's fault!!!!!

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Here Saudi Arabia, made in the USA! Have more bombs and rockets! Kill more Yemeni children! Bomb hospitals, school and market places indiscriminately! The US keeps doing stuff like this and then, (people) complain when Moslems resent such actions and hate our guts. The Houthis aren't great people. Neither are the Saudis. But the killing of innocent children and civilians that are a grand feature of Saudi military practice using weapons and munitions supplied by the US will make the US hated for decades to come.

And (people) are too stupid to figure this all out.

 

[Jarhyn]

Here Saudi Arabia, made in the USA! Have more bombs and rockets! Kill more Yemeni children! Bomb hospitals, school and market places indiscriminately! The US keeps doing stuff like this and then, (people) complain when Moslems resent such actions and hate our guts. The Houthis aren't great people. Neither are the Saudis. But the killing of innocent children and civilians that are a grand feature of Saudi military practice using weapons and munitions supplied by the US will make the US hated for decades to come.

And (people) are too stupid to figure this all out..

This is why I bring the analogy in of a bad relationship in. They hate us and generally for reasons involving things that actually happened. The reality is that we cannot help them directly because they don't want our help. The best thing we can do is let people who CAN help them without issue do that, and to contribute through those secondary channels and be wise enough to admit that a lot of the damage is our fault.

Sometimes a relationship between two countries is just BAD, and can't be healed in any reasonable way. It will take generations of work, education, aid, and enforced peace by the international community to fix this.

The least we can do is stop facilitating and bankrolling the situations that got us here.