A year or two ago if someone asked me about the Houthis, I woulda had an image of a goat humper on a camel, dressed like an Ewok, with a Lawrence of Arabia rifle, or maybe an AK.
Sophisticated never crossed my mind. And in the last month, they are hitting ships with missiles, survived being bombed, captured a Navy drone sub somehow, and now cut some undersea cables. And last fall they shot a missile at Israel that was intercepted in space in the first instance of “space combat”.
Exactly who the hell ARE these “Houthis” in reality?. I need to find a basic article or primer on them. Some kind of “know your enemy” kind of thing.
Getting nuts out there.
The Saudis were taking care of them with weapons we sold them making us complicit. They didn’t do the job.
Remember the planeloads of cash Obama sent to Iran?
I think you’ve got the right idea, but someone is using them
as proxies in that region.
Someone is supplying them with advanced weapons.
“You swing this around. Then you pull this up. Then you
point it in the general direction you want. Then you push
this button.”
As for the cable, I’m thinking an advanced nation did it,
and the Houthis took credit.
https://theconversation.com/who-are-yemens-houthis-106423
That’s a bit dated, but should be required reading for all. The Houthis are basically a splinter group of Shia Islam.
However, the article does not go into great depth about the relationship with Iran. Iran has some (some) decent tech.
In the general sense, I think it’s fair to say Iran’s mullahs would burn through every Houthi alive if it advanced the mullahs’ agenda. The Houthis seem either unaware of that or don’t care. Maybe it’s the latter — recall the appalling human wave attacks of even children, from Iran, in the Iran-Iraq war? And consider that half the population is, as the article notes, on the brink of starvation. Pretty easy to manipulate by radical Muslims...
Also, don't forget, pretty much every mid-level and lower person in the Houthi fighting force is likely doing heavy Captagon. Like that spokesperson we see often...