"What did archive Saudi Arabian in Yemen?" Topic

"After nearly four weeks of consistent aerial bombardment against Houthi military positions across Yemen, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia — with full backing from its colleagues in the Gulf Cooperation Council, Egypt, and Morocco — announced with great fanfare on April 21 that Operation Decisive Storm had ended.

Operation Decisive Storm was designed to eliminate the threats facing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, told reporters at the Saudi Embassy in Washington. "We've degraded their [Houthis] capabilities substantially and thereby eliminated the threat that they pose to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia." Adel concluded on a triumphant note: "Those objective[s] have been achieved, so now we enter a new phase."

Brig. Gen. Ahmed al-Asiri, the spokesman for the Saudi-led joint Arab force, followed up the same day with statistics meant to illustrate what Riyadh and its Gulf Arab allies accomplished by bombing Yemen. Ballistic missile depots, military bases, and weapons stockpiles captured by the Houthis from the Yemeni military were either destroyed or degraded; Houthi fighters were prevented from capturing the southern port city of Aden from loyalists of Yemeni President Abed Rabbu Mansour Hadi; and the threat that the militia posed to Saudi Arabia's own internal security was sufficiently decreased…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

More importantly, what does that thread title mean?!!

No kidding!

Let's try: "What did Saudi Arabia achieve in Yemen?"

Their achievement has been to show the world that they are a paper tiger:

Almost 4,000 Saudi forces fled their border bases in
anticipation of Riyadh's order for launching a ground assault on Yemen, European diplomatic sources said on Sunday.

"The intel gathered by the western intelligence agencies showed that the Saudi military forces have fled their bases, military centers and bordering checkpoints near Yemen in groups," diplomatic sources were quoted as saying by Iraq's Arabic-language Nahrain Net news website.

The European sources said that the Saudi forces' mass AWOL forced Riyadh to declare ceasefire and dissuaded it from launching ground attacks against Yemen.

Other reports also said that over 10,000 soldiers from different Saudi military units have fled the army battalions and the National Guard.

Experts believe that the Saudi army lacks strong
morale to launch a ground invasion of Yemen and such an attack would be considered as a suicide for Saudi Arabia.

All those billions spent on the weapons and they don't have the reliable troops to use them.

What, not so Decisive? The Saudis didn't fight to the last Egyptian?

Aristonicus, do you have a link to go with that quote?

Aside from Iranian news (and the skepticism everyone should have towards it), what Western sources has reported this?

Well … it was a good livefire FTX …

The European sources said that the Saudi forces' mass AWOL forced Riyadh to declare ceasefire and dissuaded it from launching ground attacks against Yemen.

Other reports also said that over 10,000 soldiers from different Saudi military units have fled the army battalions and the National Guard.

Experts believe that the Saudi army lacks strong
morale to launch a ground invasion of Yemen and such an attack would be considered as a suicide for Saudi Arabia.

Wow if so … they are dopplegangers for the Iraqis ?!?! Saddly the US among others spent [wasted] a lot of $$$ and time training both of these armies …

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Anyone who thought the Saudis were anything put weekend warriors hadn't been paying attention for the last 30 years. Never has been and never will be an Arab army worth anything. They make great terrorists when they can beat up on the old and young and weak. But they will never stand up to a Western army, much less some hill tribal warriors.

The writing was on the wall when the Pakistanis told them no they wouldn't be providing a brigade. The Egyptians remember the last time they sent an army in Yemen, only 10000 died. The Jordanian royal family remembers who used to run the holy cities before the Saudi royals stole them. The US no longer needs their oil or their 7th century mentality.

Guys, guys… I can't believe how you guys believe anything put into print without ever questioning the source.

THERE ARE NO FLEEING SAUDI FORCES.

This is just propaganda and psy-ops from Iran.

Here is the source. Iranian news services. link

"The European sources" – there are no European sources. Nothing but lies folks, too bad so many believe everything they read.

Doug redshirt,

That Egyptian army sent into Yemen was to fight the Saudis and their Jordanain allies. Egyptians themselves refer to this involvement as "Egypt's Vietnam".

It also added to Egypt's humiliation in the 6-Day War as these soldiers were unavailable to fight the Isrealis.

As for Saudis vs Yemenis wars, the score is 2 – 1 and one ongoing.

To be fair, those Iranian Republican Guards are performing pretty poorly in Iran as well, so certainly aren't the tough troops many portray them to be, either.

I suspect we really won't know how good the Saudis are until the battles begin, within their own borders, in earnest.

I wonder what "Western army" Doug thinks the Saudi's would be fighting in Yemen?

Well that article has been vetted, by Colonel Pat Lang link.

About the Colonel:

Colonel W. Patrick Lang is a retired senior officer of U.S. Military Intelligence and U.S. Army Special Forces (The Green Berets). He served in the Department of Defense both as a serving officer and then as a member of the Defense Senior Executive Service for many years. He is a highly decorated veteran of several of America's overseas conflicts including the war in Vietnam. He was trained and educated as a specialist in the Middle East by the U.S. Army and served in that region for many years. He was the first Professor of the Arabic Language at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. In the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) he was the "Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, South Asia and Terrorism," and later the first Director of the Defense Humint Service." For his service in DIA, he was awarded the "Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive."

He probably knew what happened before the Iranians did.
He added the following addenda to the article:

Yes, well, pilgrims, you heard it first here some time back. Saudi Arabia has no ground forces worthy of the name. They are the worst sort of rabble recruited in economically distressed parts of SA where the chance of an easy, well paid job in an army that has never fought anyone is a pleasing prospect. That is the Saudi Arabian Land Forces in a nutshell. Then there is the Saudi Arabian National Guard, a Sunni, largely Wahhabi internal security force.
None of these people are so stupid as to want to invade the Zeidi highlands of northern Yemen.
Defeat would surely be their fate and the resulting failure of confidence might well destroy "the kingdom." Hmmm…

It appears to me, COL Lang is most likely a very reliable source …

I thought Saudi Arabia hired foreign mercenaries to do their fighting?

Well that article has been vetted, by Colonel Pat Lang link.

A blog written by a man who retired from active service decades ago isn't "vetting". He is merely repeating the Iranian media.

Find me one reliable news or military source that supports this claim that isn't re-printing Iranian media verbatim.

I'd be willing to believe any of this if you could find one, preferably multiple sources.

Sure, do the equivalent of finding a non-South Korean/US sourced story on how the North Korean army is rubbish.

That's the trouble with reporting on an Absolute Monarchy/Dictatorship.

But consider this article on the same subject:

Not long before the founder of Saudi Arabia, King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, died in 1953, he is purported to have said, "the good or evil for us will come from Yemen." With the commencement of air strikes on targets in Yemen, it is increasingly likely that the latter part of his prediction will come true. Nothing good—and certainly nothing decisive—will come from the Saudi led "Operation Decisive Storm."

The Saudi intervention in Yemen—along with the Kingdom's 2011 intervention in Bahrain—mark a significant departure from a foreign policy that has been historically characterized by caution, reluctance, and a reliance on proxies. In Bahrain, the Saudi effort to quell the Shi'a led rebellion was successful. However, Yemen could not be more different than Bahrain, which is a tiny nation with flat terrain and an unarmed population. In contrast, Yemen has one of the most heavily armed populations on the planet, terrain that is a guerrilla fighter's dream, and a two thousand year history of resisting and repelling invaders.

In late 2009, Saudi Arabia launched a quiet but well-resourced campaign against the Houthis, who belong to the Zaidi sect of Shi'a Islam. At the time, the Houthis were locked in their sixth—and what proved to be final—war with former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh's government. In response to an attack launched by Houthi fighters on Saudi border guards, the Saudi government began operations against the Houthis. The Saudis deployed elements of their army, special forces, and air force. The campaign proved to be a disaster for the Saudis and resulted in a top level review of their army's battle readiness. The Houthis, who were at that time poorly equipped and facing off against both Yemeni forces and Saudi forces, managed to capture at least one soldier from the elite Saudi Special Forces as well as specialized equipment. Over the course of 2009 and 2010, the Houthis fought both Yemeni and Saudi forces to a standstill.

Following 2010 and in the wake of the 2011 revolution that led to the resignation of President Saleh and the installation of his former vice president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur al-Hadi, as president, the Houthis consolidated their hold on a large swath of northwestern Yemen. The Houthis expanded the territory under their control by building alliances with influential tribes and clans and by merit of being a relatively well-disciplined and capable fighting force. However, the installation of the ineffectual President Hadi helped enable the Houthis' rapid expansion.

Abd Rabbuh Mansur al-Hadi was chosen by Yemen's Machiavellian former president as his vice president for a reason: Hadi has no real power base in Yemen and thus could never pose a threat to Saleh or his family. Hadi is from south Yemen, which was an independent nation and wants to be one again. Many southerners still regard Hadi, who sided with Saleh and the north against the south in the 1994 civil war, as a traitor. At the same time, as a southerner, Hadi has little or no influence among Yemen's powerful northern based tribes. Hadi was a brilliant choice for vice president by a man who intended to pass the presidency onto his son.

Now, the Saudi government, along with its GCC partners, Egypt, Sudan, Morocco, and Jordan, has ostensibly launched ‘Operation Decisive Storm' to reinstall Hadi who has fled Yemen for Saudi Arabia. The less than clearly articulated goal of the military campaign in Yemen is to reinstall the Hadi led government and to force the Houthis' to lay down their arms and negotiate. It is unlikely that these goals will be achieved. Rather than eroding support for the Houthis, the Saudis and their partners' actions in Yemen, may bolster short term support for the Houthis and former president Saleh who is now nominally allied with the Houthis. Most Yemenis are none too fond of the House of Saud and there are many Yemenis still alive who remember the Egyptians' bloody and disastrous 1962-67 invasion of north Yemen which claimed the lives of twenty thousand Egyptian soldiers and thousands of Yemeni fighters and civilians.

"Operation Decisive Storm" will ensure that Yemen is pushed further along the path to all out civil war, that radical Islamist organizations like al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and now the Islamic State (sworn enemies of the Houthis and all Shi'a Muslims) flourish, and that a humanitarian crisis ensues. More than half of Yemen's children suffer from malnourishment, and, according to the UN Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs, 61% of Yemen's population of 24 million are in need of humanitarian assistance. With the commencement of "Operation Decisive Storm" food prices, which were already rising due to a plummeting Yemeni riyal, are soaring as Yemenis—those few who can afford to do so—prepare for what could be months of war. The only thing increasing in price faster than food is ammunition and weaponry. Most Yemeni families in the north possess at a minimum an Ak-47 with many families and clans maintaining stores of weapons that include RPGs and grenades.

If the Saudis and their partners, especially the Egyptians, take the next step and begin a ground invasion, their forces will likely face withering resistance from both the Houthis and the new allies that they are sure to attract as a result of the invasion. In the mountain redoubts of northwest Yemen, songs and poems about how the Yemenis made the Turks, who twice invaded Yemen and failed to subdue it, bathe in their own blood are still sung and recited by the descendants of the men who fought off the Turks and then the Egyptians. The Saudi Army is ill prepared for anything beyond the most limited action in Yemen. Its Egyptian partners are similarly ill prepared and are currently struggling to contain a growing insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula.

A ground invasion will tie up thousands of Saudi soldiers for what could be months or even years when the Kingdom must also worry about the threat of the Islamic State on its northern borders. It is also worth remembering that the Saudi Army employs a large contingent of soldiers who are ethnically Yemeni. It is an open question as to how these men may or may not respond when ordered to kill fellow Yemenis. At the same time that they are dealing with what will undoubtedly be a protracted and bloody war, the Saudi government will be forced to manage what could be tens of thousands of refugees pouring across its southern border from Yemen.

Military action in Yemen could well lead the House of Saud into the abyss that King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud may have had in mind before he made his prophetic warning.

Never has been and never will be an Arab army worth anything.

Somewhere in Valhalla, two men you've probably never heard of are sipping afternoon tea and shaking their heads at your ignorance. Their names are Thomas Edward Lawrence and John Bagot Glubb.

Try reading this and run the risk of enlightening yourself:-

link

Well that article has been vetted, by Colonel Pat Lang

So a guy that is well past is best before date copies and pastes a report from Hezbollah's news agency and that is called vetting by a US source?

The Saudi armed forces have long been regarded by most people as pretty dire, and justifiably so but I'm sure they are capable of archiving something in Yemen. Old files probably…

Oh, I see, "achieving".

Wait and see. The Saudis will achieve much. What they will achieve remains to be seen….