Saudi Arabia’s $200 million a day fails to conquer Yemen: The Mighty Saudis are brought low

Saudi Arabia has essentially been booted from Yemen after four years of bankrolling mercenaries at the cost of $200 million a day to crush impoverished desert tribesmen.

As of mid-June, the Yemen Civil War that began in 2015 had seemingly settled into a stalemate after about 39,700 battles and the loss of about 91,600 lives, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). But even with much less military movement, there were 4,900 armed incidents and 11,900 dead in 2019.

Located in the southwest and comprising about 12 percent of the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen has a population of 28.7 million people and gross domestic product (GDP) of $31.3 billion, or about $2,500 per capita.

That compares to Saudi Arabia with 33.1 million residents and a GDP of $686.7 billion, or about $54,500 per capita, according to the CIA Factbook. Saudis are not known for their work ethic, with half getting substantial monthly welfare checks. The number of employed Saudis peaked in 2016 at 11.6 million, but shrank to 10.9 million last year.

The Zaidi Shia-Muslim Houthi insurgency began in 2004 when the Sunni-Muslim Yemeni government tried to arrest Houthi religious leader and parliamentarian Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi by putting a $55,000 reward on his head. But Houthis took the capital and President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi fled to the Saudi Arabian capital in 2015.

Yemen has very little natural resources or industry, but it controls the 31 miles long by 16 miles at its narrowest Bab el-Mandeb, known as the “Gate of Tears” that serves as the only southern Red Sea exit for Saudi Arabia’s oil tankers headed to Asia.

The Bab al-Mendab between Africa and the Yemen has always been very strategic. For the Royal Navy Aden was a sort of Hong Kong / Gibraltar lynchpin harbor (errr, “harbour”). My brother’s service with the sixth fleet in the late 1950’s took his destroyer and him regularly to Djibouti, just opposite Yemen. The ghutra he brought back as a gift for me, age about six, probably led to my interest in the Middle East and university major.

I’d call it their Vietnam, but it is in their backyard.

They also hired Raytheon to build a refugee and terrorist proof fence along their Yemen border. Couple thousand dollars a mile. But liberals say it isn’t possible to build such a fence on our border, and Raytheon refused to bid on OUR border fence.

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