Lessons from Saudi War on Yemen

 

Although the war did not stop, we are almost all certain how its end will be, which is the ultimate defeat, shame and humiliation of the aggressor. What does Saudi Arabia benefit from this bitter experience, which is nearing its end?! Was anyone expected that Riyadh will be defeated in Yemen?

Most material data, if not all, says that Saudi Arabia is a formidable military force, that can resolve the military situation and defeat Ansarullah, so how about it if it is supported by international alliances that cover it politically? And how if a military alliance with ten or more countries participated with it? Where is the error? And where is the lesson?

Riyadh expected that the apparent military force was able to resolve the matter in favor of the aggressor. On this basis the estimate of the duration of the war was only weeks, it took steps to completely block Yemen and bomb it from all directions!

 

All indicators are successful!

The lesson is: there are limits to what the apparent force can do. Riyadh may not have exaggerated its material military power when the war began. It may not have been mistaken in setting a high targets, to the extent of saying it will install gallows in Sana’a for Sayyed Abdulmalik Al-Houthi and former President Ali Abdullah Saleh! But, without a doubt, Saudi Arabia and its allies, including the Americans, have misunderstood the meaning of power Individuals as well as peoples, governments and power-owners fall in such misunderstanding.

One of power theories in the West says that it has a liquid state, so that it cannot be confined to anyone’s hand or a specific party. It means power is mobile, it can be yours today and it will be in others’ hands tomorrow.

Power, according to this theory also, is cumulative, which means the ability to collect it, or collect its sources, although it is not possible to take possession of it completely because of the multiplicity of these sources. Because it is cumulative, just as money accumulates, for example, everyone can collect it!

Indeed, the Saudis, in their reading of the post-war situation, estimated that the Yemeni people would revolt against Ansarullah, and would overthrow them, as soon as they see that the other side is Saudi Arabia, the US and their tolls and once they felt the effects of the siege, starvation, disease and lethality by aerial bombing and cluster bombs.

Here they also made a mistake. We believe that there are two powers: (Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power) and the other (If there are among you twenty [who are] steadfast, they will overcome two hundred…). Physical strength is not a substitute for moral. The moral strength is largely compensated for by the lack of material ability.

But for Al Saud it is like what the holy Qoran says in Surah Al-Anfal, verse 48, (when Satan made their deeds pleasing to them and said, “No one can overcome you today from among the people.”)

In the theory of force, it is usually cited with an Israeli addition in political science, that came from the inspiration of the Zionist experience in Palestine, saying, physical power is able to subjugate the opponent forever. Which means, we are the strongest, armed, allied, informative and secure.. Whatever the objection of the Palestinian, we can subdue it.

It is not a novelty in history for weak people to triumph, or forces that are much less than the opponent’s power, in material terms or the apparent powers.

The durability of losses (patience for starvation, cholera, bombing, etc.) is a force for the people of Yemen. If the estimating the religious morale of the opponent is not correct, the hundred Saudi fighters may be defeated by one Yemeni!

The Yemeni did not say: (“This day We cannot cope with Goliath and his forces.” but those who were convinced that they must meet Allah, said: “How oft, by Allah’s will, Hath a small force vanquished a big one? Allah is with those who steadfastly persevere.” Al-Baqarah 249 (By Allah’s will they routed them; and David slew Goliath..) Al-Baqarah 251.

Saudi Arabia’s mistakes in estimating the size of the opponent’s material and moral strength led them to a murderous ego that was the same arrogance that caused the Zionists in the 2006 defeat in Lebanon, so that Lebanon the weakest militarily among the Arab countries became the only force that can confront the Zionists.

This experience is what made the Zionist defeat in Gaza. The balance of power between the Zionist and Palestinian sides continues to shrink day after day. If the Israeli has defeated seven Arab armies and established his state on the land of others, the same criteria are usable to all peoples without exception.

Riyadh used to underestimate the power of the opponent in Yemen and elsewhere. To this day, expressions of diminution, contempt and degradation of the Yemenis (are still valid in the Saudi media. However, these same expressions today turn against the Saud family and their forces psychologically and morally. The opponents of the Al Saud must realize the balance of power in its essence.

Al Saud have arms, money, American support, etc. But these forces are not fixed, nor are they necessarily usable at all times, nor their use necessarily brings victory, it may lead to the exact opposite.

Do not be fascinated of Al Saud’s strength! Do not feel the weakness because you are few. It should not leak into you displays of their power on television screens.

Know yourselves and your strengths then you will win half the battle. Know your opponent and evaluate it, you will win the other half of it. If the regime is strong, then where are its weaknesses. If we, as opponents, are weak, let us look for weaknesses to bridge them as possible. Power can be assembled with understanding, cooperation and alliance.

If the regime’s strength is in its arms and money, let us win the people, then it is stronger than it has. If it has an empire of media, it will lose to the truth! The regime’s multiple weapons can be confronted, if we know where, when and how to break them in their areas of weakness.

Withdrawing from the scene on the pretext that the regime is strong, makes it victorious because no one faces it and tests the strength it claims.

This is the power of Riyadh in Yemen evaporates! And these political alliances dissipate! This money does not substitute for  Saudis anything! This is its media, the largest media network in the Middle East, on which billions of dollars are spent, yet, the reputation of the Al Saud is trickling between Arabs, Muslims and all the peoples of the world, including the Saudi people. Every day is worse than before!

The US, which some have seen capable of everything, has been defeated again and again! Israel, whose rulers claimed to be the strongest in the 2000-mile orbit of its surroundings, became fearful of the West from splitters and gangs or as they say militia !! It is no longer that power that they rely on to intimidate others!

Power has multiple material and moral credentials, neither Riyadh nor Washington and others can prevent people from reaching it.

When the damned war in Yemen started, pride and snobbery dominated the majority, who applauded for the war, some of them considered that it made them wake up to a beautiful homeland!

Ask them and ask yourselves also, why did your stances on war change? In the answer are elements of strength that you may not realize. Who was misled in media, discover misinformation!

This means that there are limits to the Saudi media power, which claimed victory a million times, until everyone was certain that what is happening is nothing but defeat!
Those who were convinced that the war of aggression was in the interest of the Yemenis, discovered that the Yemenis were the last of the Al Saud concern. Their claim fell under the bombing, bloodshed, starvation and cholera!

Whoever considered war as a self-defense, discovered the error of his opinion. Whoever thought it was a victory for legitimacy discovered late that legitimacy lacked legitimacy.
Whoever defended the war to create a homeland with prestige, he saw the humiliation Al Saud suffers with their multiple defeats.

Whoever thinks that his support for the war is an obligatory obedience to the guardian, and that he is the most knowledgeable in understanding the affairs of politics, discovered that the guardian is merely foolish, incandescent and far from religion, but is hypocritical in the name of religion.

Everyone discovered the size of the Saudi military force, the size of the fragile alliances they made in support of and participation in the war. We discovered the extent of misinformation and arrogance. We discovered the high costs and losses and why do they hate us?
We discovered that the Yemen war is not our war, or what should have been our war. The regime and the Al Saud have diminished in our eyes. Everything looked like emptiness, delusions and falsehoods, not a real force.

Why and how did the Yemeni resisted Al Saud? How did Houthis win against the Al Saud and their American allies, with them all the support of the world and the latest innovations in armament?

How was the ignorant person able to manufacture his weapons? How did the unorganized become organized? How did he manage 20 million Yemenis in wartime? How did he provide more security in Sana’a and elsewhere than in Aden and its suburbs?

How did he provide food, improve the condition of agriculture and alleviate some pain in the field of health and in the face of cholera?

How has Houthi conducted its internal and external political dialogues with regional and international powers?

That was possible by assembling the force, accumulating it, and investing the elements of the technical and scientific self-power, including regional alliances and internal alliances, as well as emphasizing the moral and religious aspects.

Who is the sprinkling and who is the minority? How did it start and where did it end?

Translated article written by: Hamza Al-Hassan