Many of you probably think all the countries in the Arabian peninsula are insanely wealthy�
Right!?
I mean this is the region where Qatar, Dubai, and the rest of the oil rich monarchies are�
Nonetheless, right in this region of the planet is a country that is extremely poor.
A place with a GDP per capita lower than that of Tanzania or Senegal...
The name of this country is YEMEN and currently it is going through a civil war that has lasted
for two years.
And look, this is no small war... In fact, the War in Yemen is the Arabian equivalent
to the War in Vietnam.
Here we find two of the biggest powers in the Muslim world supporting different sides
of the conflict.
On the one hand, we have the Yemeni government, supported by Saudi Arabia and all their allies,
including United States.
And on the other side, there is the revolutionaries, backed by Iran.
And between these two sides, there is the Yemeni branch of DAESH, the so-called ANSAR-AL-SHARIA
movement.
If you've been subscribed to VisualPolitik for a while, you already know that Saudi Arabia
has the third best equipped army in the entire world.
Plus, they have the support of American drones and the armies of neighbouring countries.
They have more than 180 state of the art combat jets and 300,000 soldiers armed with the best
weapons.
On the other side, they have less than half the number of soldiers, and the weapons they
are armed with are far from modern...
It seems like a pretty unequal fight, right?!
Well, in that case, it might suprise you to learn that Saudi Arabia is losing this war...
Saudi Arabia says prepared for ceasefire in Yemen if Houthis agree.
And now you might wonder... How exactly is this possible?!
How is it possible to explain why one of the most advanced armies in the world can't
beat a bunch of guerillas?
Well, today we are going to answer this question.
But before we get into any of that, let's have a look at the history...
WHO IS WHO IN YEMEN
The first thing we need to understand is that this is not the first time Yemen has had a
civil war.
In fact, this is the third one in just 25 years.
Yemen is a country divided by both ideology and religion.
Indeed, before the 1990s, Yemen was split into two different countries.
We had South Yemen, with a communist government, and then there was North Yemen who had a pro-Saudi
government.
In 1990, these two halves merged into modern day Yemen.
And the guy you are seeing on the screen now, ALI ABDULLAH SALEH, who was the president
of the north, started ruling over the entire country from its capital: the city of SANA'A.
As you can imagine, Saleh is one of those politicians who considers democracy and human
rights as pretty 'optional'.
Four years into this new countries history, and former southern communist leaders started
an uprising against Saleh's government.
This war only lasted a few months, and the new government won with the assistance of
the Saudi's.
A decade later, in 2004, Yemen had further anti-government turmoil, this time, the opposition
was a rebel group of Shia muslims.
Remember their name because there are important for today's war: they are the HOUTHI REBELS.
Again, the Saleh government beat down this uprising.
But hold on a minute because we're not done yet...
In 2011, with the Arab spring in full-swing, the citizens rebelled against Saleh... again.
But this time, Saleh left power with his prime minister, MANSUR AL-HADI.
This new president found himself in the control of a terribly weak government.
Further, Al Qaeda was destroying the country.
And the protestors, well they kept protesting...
Now, remember those Houthi rebels?
Well, they came back, but this time they were far more powerful and had a lot of support.
And this explains why in 2014, they took over the government...
Alright, so now you might be wondering... What did AL HADI do?
Well, he left the capital and moved to the city of ADEN, in the South of the country,
to start a provisional government.
Now, remember here, that Saudi Arabia is a SUNNI muslim country.
And who is the biggest enemy of Sunni muslims?
Well, yep, that would be the SHIA muslims...
These are exactly the people who have conquered the capital of Yemen.
And THIS explains why the Saudi's are so keen on supporting Al Hadi and his provisional
government in ADEN.
The finally we also have DAESH, AKA Islamic State, in the mix as well (who are an enemy
of both sides).
Alright, so now we have, the Houthi rebels and their supporters.
The Houthis are Shia muslims, and therefore, they are friends with Iran.
On the other hand, AL HADI is in ADEN and he is supported by the Saudi's...
And the Saudi's will do whatever it takes to ensure that Iranian influence in Yemen
is minimised.
You probably remember from one of our previous videos that Saudi Arabia and Iran are die-hard
enemies.
And thus, in 2015, a new Yemeni civil war started...
A NATURAL FORTRESS
When we think about Saudi Arabia, we think of a big desert with clean sand and dunes.
Yemen is different.
It is a country full of mountains almost as high as the Rockies in the US.
Some peaks are higher than 3600 meters.
All of this makes it really hard to transport a big army, no matter how well equipped it
is.
For instance, the Saudis utilize a tank model called the M1A1 ABRAMS.
This is like the BMW of tanks.
Now imagine a convoy of these machines crossing a path where they have to in single file...
All you would need is just a couple of guerrilla warriors, with say an RPG 7 rocket launcher
and you could destroy the entire battalion.
The RPG 7 is that rocket launcher you can see on videogames like Call of Duty and it
has a market price of around $3000.
The M1A1 ABRAMS on the other hand, costs around $6 million.
But not only that!
As we said at the start of this video, the Saudi coalition has over 180 combat jets and
also American drones.
But there is a further problem...
In a landscape full of mountains and caves it is really easy to hide from these drones.
Not even the state of the art radars can see, in detail, what's inside the caves.
And, of course, the Houthi warriors know the battlefield like the back of their hands and
they know where all the good hiding places are.
In many cases, they can go from one village to another without being exposed to the drone
radars.
They can also hide their weapons inside the caves.
But that's not all... Even though these guerrillas have no Hummers or other modern
vehicle, they have something better... ANIMALS!
Yep, you heard that right.
In those high mountain areas, the most effective way to transport something is by using donkeys
or camels.
So, in other words, the only way of tracking the movements of these guerrilla warriors
is by having people behind their lines.
Now we're not exactly talking about 007-like spies here, but rather local citizens who
are willing to help or soldiers who are close to enemy lines.
Alright, so even with these problems, you might still be wondering how the Saudi's
are getting beat.
The scales still seemed to be tipped pretty far in their favour...
A DEMOTIVATED ARMY?
Many of you might think that the political system of a country has nothing to do with
the way they organize their army and conduct war...
Right?
Well, actually in a country like Saudi Arabia, they are REALLY connected.
In an absolute monarchy, like they have in Saudi Arabia, the royal house cannot trust
their army.
Their main obsession is keeping control over the entire military from the top to the bottom.
This is why the decision making is slower than in any other army...
Let's look at a hypothetical example... Imagine a soldier who discovers a machine
gun nest 300 meters out.
In a western army like the American or British, that soldier can easily ask for reinforcement
by radio.
Usually, that information would be passed onto the Air Force, who would give the exact
coordinates to a pilot nearby.
In a matter of minutes, a combat jet is bombing the machine gun nest.
But... What happens in the the Saudi army?
Well... that very same soldier would have to report to a sergeant, then that sergeant
talks to the higher officers and, finally, by the time the decision has worked it's
way up to someone who can actually make it... it's been longer than an hour.
The 60 minutes here are the difference between neutralizing an enemy position... or losing
a soldier.
And... the same goes for military training.
Most Saudi officials come from the Royal Houses and they didn't go through any academic
military training.
They got their position due to pure nepotism and this means a distinct lack of knowledge
and skills.
The same goes with for normal soldiers as well.
As you know, in these oil monarchies, most of the native citizens work as civil servants,
with sky high salaries.
They don't know anything about discipline and hard work...
Let's look at an example.
In the video here, you can see how they cannot even protect a tank with infantry.
Don't forget that inside the tank it is hard to see and hear the outside.
This is why, a basic principle of war is that you always want to have soldiers walking around
the tank so they can see if someone is firing.
This really is War 101.
Nonetheless, the Saudi's missed War 101, and this explains why it is so easy to destroy
their tanks with such cheap weaponry...
Just have a look at this other video.
Here you can see how someone get's close enough to a tank to put a bomb on it!
On the other hand, surprisingly, the Houthi rebels have a more western management system.
Small groups can react quickly and they don't need to go all the way up through the hierarchy.
Plus, their motivation is way higher because they just cannot retire.
Arguably, they are defending their home from a foreign army.
In summary, the war in Yemen is an excellent example of how strategy is more important
than weaponry, and that an authoritarian system makes for less efficient armies.
Sadly, the fact that the Saudi's are losing this war doesn't mean they are not killing
people.
In fact, the opposite is true...
Death toll in Yemen conflict passes 10,000
Unfortunately, what could have been solved in a peaceful, democratic, way, has become
a war of attrition that will leave a footprint on this country for generations to come.
And now the question is... Do you think Saudi's can turn the table on this conflict?
Or are we going to see this conflict last for a long time to come?
Please let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
We also like to thank YAGO RODRIGUEZ for suggesting the topic for this video.
Yago is a military expert from Spain.
If you know Spanish, you can follow his youtube channel, called Mister X by clicking the button
on screen nbow.
Also, don't forget to check out our friend podcast, RECONSIDER MEDIA, who provided the
vocals for this episode that are not mine.
And... of course, don't forget to subscribe to our channel,, if you haven't already
- we publish brand new videos every Monday and every Thursday.
And, as always, I'll see you in the next video.