The BBC drenching the conflict and the war in Yemen in (neo-)orientalist narrative. After all, the Houthis are directly attacking ‘our interest’ and interrupting ‘the free market’ as well as they might slow down the Israeli terror and destruction.
"They [the Houthis] are generally more war-like, violent and cruel," says Edmund Fitton-Brown, who was UK ambassador to Yemen from 2015-17.
"I encountered astonishing instances of brutality in Aden and Taiz. The Houthis consider themselves an elite from an elite (the Zaidi sect). Some of their casual viciousness towards Sunni civilians in central and southern Yemen has been remarkable: a readiness to deploy snipers and kill non-combatants for fun."
Now let’s compare that to the narrative deployed to describe the Australian elite troops in Afghanistan:
“And it wasn't just that these alleged executions took place, it was the manner of impunity by which they happened. In fact, according to the report, there was an air of competitiveness within the special forces.
One moment stood out in Gen Campbell's address: when he described how some junior soldiers had allegedly been coerced to shoot unarmed civilians to get their "first kill" – a practice known as "blooding". He said that weapons and radios had then been allegedly planted to support claims that the victims had been enemies killed in action.”
Australian elite troops killed Afghan civilians [for practice]
The Australian elite troops are not brutal or cruel. The Houthis, however, are born ‘war-like’. It is in their nature and in their religion.
"The ‘Houthis’ are Shi‘a’ narrative should be seen for what it is—a carefully crafted piece of political rhetoric devised to gloss over important differences between religious denominations, to reinforce the false image of a war between those who identify as Sunni versus those who identify as Shi‘a, and to encourage foreign—and particularly US—military intervention in Yemen. It provides a dangerously simplistic mental short cut for policymakers who are unfamiliarhh with Yemeni history and politics. In so doing, it diverts attention from the massive humanitarian crisis caused by years of civil war and the US-backed Saudi-led coalition’s ongoing blockade and bombardment. The cynical use of sectarian language casts the conflict in Yemen as part of an epochal, region-wide struggle rather than a local civil war made more deadly for Yemeni civilians by Saudi and Emirati intervention."
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