An Unwinnable War

By Muhammad James Sutton

It was around 1 a.m. on the night of March 25, 2015, when all hell seemed to break loose in
Yemen. Not like all hell had not already broken loose in September 2014, but this hell was a
different type of hell. This hell would cause the displacement of millions of citizens and the
deaths of thousands of others. This hell would become the opening of the door to disease and
severe poverty. This hell changed the lives of all the citizenry of the country called Yemen.
I spent the week before the war started hearing constant rumors of the pending doom that
floated over Yemen like a dark lightening cloud. Being quite accustomed to these rumors, I sort
of shrugged them off like many of the rumors that preceded these. I am no different from the
rest of the population as I am sure they were doing the same. However, those rumors became
reality as the countdown to midnight approached. On a night that my family and I were finding it
difficult to sleep, we decided to arise from our beds to view that which was causing our grief.
During the beginning of the war, we were far from the main military targets, so we relaxed a bit
knowing that no danger was close to us. However, as the days passed, the missiles were getting
closer and closer until they were right down the street from our residence in Sanaa. Living less
than a mile away from the Presidential Palace was definitely no consolation for us, as the Palace
became one of the military targets of the Saudi coalition.
We took a different approach from the common people that had the means to escape the
country and its pending doom. We decided that we were going to be patient and ride the storm
to the end. We had already been through so much, so what does it matter if we decide to wait a
month or two until things get better? We were dead wrong. Not dead wrong for being patient,
but dead wrong for believing that the Saudi coalition had the ability to uproot the Houthis and
Ali Abdullah Saleh from Yemen in such a short time span. Now here I am, more than two years
later, and the end seems further now than it did in 2015. In fact, I do not see a happing ending
at all anymore.
Therefore, after five months of extremely difficult patience, we decided that we had to leave for
our family’s survival. We boarded a bus and drove through the belly of the beast until we came
out into what we would learn would be a completely new beast. We might have found some
form of solace from the bombs that were constantly shaking the house and rattling the windows,
but we still have not attained any form of inner peace knowing that the country that we once
called home has now been destroyed.
The main question that comes to my mind would have to be “why did such a simple military
operation in the eyes of the planners turn into the next Vietnam for the Arabian Peninsula?”
That question has yet to be answered by those in authority. In fact, that question has been
utterly ignored by those that have the power to answer it. I remember being in Yemen and
hearing about how the war is going to be over in two weeks, so was that really what they were
planning. If they were planning for the war to be over in two weeks, they definitely went into
this war completely ignorant of the country they planned to fight and its history.
The Yemeni people have two cultures that rule: The culture of tribalism and the culture of war.
Most of the times these two cultures collide and we witness tribal fighting similar to what took
place in the past in Saadah, Mareb, Al-Jawf, etc. or fighting that might pose two opposite
ideologies against each other similar to the fighting of the Houthis against everybody. Now
compare the two cultures of Yemen to the two cultures that control life in Saudi Arabia and the
rest of the Gulf, which are eating and sleeping, and you will understand where the problem
starts.
First, the Yemeni people are the toughest roughest people in the Arabian Peninsula. This is
mainly due to a lot of corruption that prevents large amounts of money from reaching the
common folks, but it is also has to do with the vast majority of Yemeni people being perfectly
happy living a village lifestyle. The people of Yemen are simple people, and they live with what
they have (as little as it might be). Most people in Yemen have simple goals that involve buying a
house, getting married and having children. Overall, the people of Yemen live day-to-day
thinking about survival. The dream of owning palaces and fast cars does not exist for the
majority of the population if it exists for any.
Compare the type of mindset of the Yemeni people with the Gulf mindset, and you will see a vast
contrast. The majority of the people of the Gulf have been overtaken by greed. Even the
concept of simply being a human being no longer exists because the people are so preoccupied
with getting money and spending money. In fact, I do not think you will find a country with more
shopping malls per capita than Saudi Arabia. Some neighborhoods in Riyadh might have six or
seven shopping malls. In some places, a person could find two separate shopping malls across
the street from each other. This extravagant lifestyle can in no way be a benefit for a nation
wishing to become the military might of the Middle East. In fact, if Saudis continue to live this
lifestyle and continue to participate in drawn-out conflicts, they will become the embarrassment
of the region.
The second issue that needs analysis here is the lack of a real ground war on the part of the
Coalition. The Coalition, at the current time, is completely reliant on Yemeni soldiers for the
ground war portion of this war. Saudi Arabia has simply opted to stay in the air because they
assume that is the safer option. However, in a war, the safer option will get you nowhere, and
that is exactly where this war is going. In the beginning of the war, there was a lot of talk of
moving Saudi soldiers into Yemen through the border in Saadah. That plan was quickly scratched
when the inexperience of the soldiers came into play. More than just inexperience, there was
also an issue of soldiers not willing to put their lives on the line for their country. With no local
boots on the ground, the Coalition was forced to rely on mercenaries on the ground, and we all
know that mercenaries never win a war. In fact, you are more likely to lose the war with
mercenaries than without them.
For one, when using mercenaries, you really have to give up the rigorous military discipline that
is so important to have with troops because the soldiers that are in these mercenary militias is
really a hodgepodge of various militaries from different countries with different disciplines.
However, they will all agree on one thing and that is that the longer they stay alive, the richer
they get. Therefore, their main goal becomes survival not victory. In fact, I do not think they
could care less what happens to the countries of the Coalition. As long as they continue getting
their salaries until the war is finished, they are happy.
Moreover, one will find that most mercenaries are fearful of a swift victory because that would
mean no money. That would cause them to relinquish lands intentionally to the enemy to
prolong the conflict. After all, the longer the conflict, the bigger the bank account, assuming that
the mercenary lives long enough. This has definitely been witnessed throughout the entire
Yemen/Saudi conflict. We have witnessed vast land gains made by the Coalition only to see
those procured lands returned to the Houthis a month later.
Another major danger of the utilization of mercenaries is that they do not have any loyalty to any
country or belief. Their loyalty is to money, and who is to say that they will not switch sides for a
bigger payday. Therefore, the country will have to spend more resources trying to maintain the
loyalty of paid fighters.
There is one question that I pose to the military planners in the Gulf: Why did you start a war if
you did not plan to put boots on the ground? The answer to that question would be the million-
dollar answer. I honestly do not expect any of them to answer that question, however. The
truth of the matter is that they began a war without proper planning, and we all know what lack
of proper planning leads to.
The next issue is the issue of accountability. Accountability does not exist in the Gulf because
everybody is too fearful of taking full responsibility for what happens in Yemen. This has caused
the deaths of thousands of people. When the Coalition started this war, they took responsibility
for the protection of the lives of twenty-seven million people. Any person that dies in Yemen
because of starvation, bombings, etc. is their responsibility. The people trusted the Coalition
countries and sad to say, they have been let down. This has now caused more people to flock to
the Houthis and fight against the same people they supported yesterday.
The changing of loyalties from most Yemenis is because of the suffering that they are
experiencing. People were not starving to death before this war started. People’s houses were
not being bombed by anonymous planes roaming the friendly skies before the war. I know of
countless families that have lost their homes and the members of their families after their
homes were bombed by Coalition planes. Who is going to take responsibility for this? When
houses in Bab-ul-Yemen were bombed, everybody just kind of looked away and said, “We didn’t
do it.” Countless markets in Hajja and Saadah have been bombed more than once. Each time
those markets were bombed, twenty or more people were killed. Please tell me what those
innocent people did to earn the ire of the Coalition. Please do not let me forget the funeral that
was bombed by the Coalition that caused the death of more than one hundred forty people.
Did they take full accountability for their actions? The answer here is NO. In fact, they blamed
the whole incident on the unnamed person who gave them the intelligence. These countries
have to take responsibility for their actions if they wish to be successful in this war. The Saudi
Coalition cannot go around Yemen bombing innocent people, their homes, and their markets
and blaming their actions on faulty intelligence. If you were ignorant enough to kill people based
on intelligence from unnamed sources, you should be man enough to hold yourselves
responsible for all the death and maiming that took place at your hands.
Now I will give you, the reader, a question to ponder. Do you think it is possible for a country to
win a war when they are killing innocent people, bombing houses and hospitals, and being
completely reliant on mercenaries to bring victory home? This question is, without doubt, of a
rhetorical nature, and I assume that everyone who still possesses some form of mercy in his/her
heart will agree that this war is unwinnable.
My advice to the Saudi Coalition is to figure out a strategy to win this war with as little damage as
possible. If they cannot come up with a strategy to win, they should put their egos aside and
make a plan to exit the country. The longer they choose to stay in Yemen, the closer they will
come to their destruction and embarrassment on an international stage.