Posted on 09/19/2026 11:05:28 PM PDT by Mount Athos
(VIDEO) Breakdown of the Houthi offensive on the Red Sea coast that led to the capture of the strategic town of Mocha {in Yemen}
0:00 Turning point in the Middle East
3:54 Background on Yemen’s civil war
7:13 Government offensive
11:48 Fall of Mocha
14:29 Houthi breakthrough explained
20:58 Strategic situation for Saudi Arabia
22:01 What happened after Fall of Mocha
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I don’t know how credible this is, but I have questions re how the Houthis arrange logistical support for weapons, ammo, food, and fuel. How that area supports so many people I don’t understand. It doesn’t look like there is any farming in that region.
Weapons and ammo I can rationalize in terms of booty taken. It’s the food and fuel supplies I don’t understand. That suggests someone is shipping it in.
Who? How does it get there? How do they move it? Do these guys just survive on what they can steal?
I had no idea Yemen was such a populated country: 43 million. Saudi Arabia has only 32 million. HALF of Yemen’s population is 15yo or less.
USAID has morphed? We continue to see that the Swamp has survival instinct and they’d do whatever it takes.
Here are the Shia Houthi tribe with their 600 year old daggers in their belts
Just read the Wikipedia article on the country. From what I can tell, it’s been at war off and on for over a 1,000 years.
Interestingly it once had a global monopoly on coffee!
From what I can tell, there’s no reasonable way for the Saudis to impress order on it. The best anyone can do without a total genocide is to police the few ports along the Red Sea until they’ve used up their weapons. At this point, one wonders how Iran is managing to resupply them.
I would assume China/Russia are keeping both the IRGC and Houthis supplied with weponary. Despite blockades and sanctions, I don't think Trump is willing to escalate the situation with direct interdiction of Xi's or Putin's assets.
Looks like Toyota does a brisk business selling small trucks there. The bungie cord securing the truck bed weapon is a nice touch.
Bkmk
The IRGC has more enthusiastic support within Yemen with the Shia Houthis than it has within Iran. Hence it has been able to wage successful asymetrical warfare that has choked the world’s energy supplies. The 9/11 Saudis are useless military partners.
The Saudis could carpet-bomb them, and no one would care but Iran.
1. Neither the Saudis, nor anyone else, has the capacity to do carpet bombing these days.
2. The next time a warrior people who are barely into the Iron Age are bombed into submission will be the first time.
“Neither the Saudis, nor anyone else, has the capacity to do carpet bombing these days.”
Er, I guess you’re not aware of the US Air Force...?
The Saudis don’t need to carpet bomb, since:
1) Their enemy is in plain sight, not hiding in a jungle
and, more importantly
2) The Saudis have precision weapons that can take out any target they can see.
I’m pretty sure the Saudi F-15s could handily take care of any Houthi military forces threatening the Saudis ability to ship oil. I’m not sure why more of that isn’t happening...
“The next time a warrior people who are barely into the Iron Age are bombed into submission will be the first time.”
I seem to recall an old saying... “There’s a first time for everything.”
(By the way, they don’t need to be ‘bombed into submission’, their military adjacent to the strait just needs to be decimated.)
My impression is that the western portion of Yemen (where the Houthis are in control and where most of the population is) gets somewhat more precipitation and is not so bad off compared to the rest of the Arabian peninsula. I've also heard they have world-class trout fishing there, surprisingly.
Correction: After some quick searches, apparently there are no trout in Yemen. Someone made up a romantic comedy regarding fishing in Yemen some years ago that has grown into a misleading joke/meme, apparently. My bad!
I scanned the Wikipedia article. Most of the Arabian Peninsula is in the rain shadow of the mountains along the western edge where most Yemenis live. There the rain can get up to 36 inches in the mountains but quite a bit less along the coast. It's enough to supply irrigation. Nevertheless, the demographics did surprise me and explain why the Saudis are having a hard time quelling the dispute. 43 million people with half under 16yo is not to be discounted.
If you think the U.S. Air Force has the ability to carpet bomb anything in 2026, well bless your heart.
And why don’t you post a list of all the non conventional wars the U.S. Air Force has won by bombing of any sorts.
Go on. I’ll wait.
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