Imperialism
Fig. 1. “Map of the Roman Empire during 69AD, the Year of the Four Emperors. Coloured areas indicate provinces loyal to one of four warring generals.” Original: User:Steerpike and en:User:Andrei nacu, August 11, 2009, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Gabriel Gavin, Antonia Zimmermann, and Jamie Dettmer, “Middle East braces for chaos as Iran and West square up,” Politico, January 12, 2024, https://www.politico.eu/article/middle-east-chaos-iran-west-houthi-israel-hamas-war/
United States
Fig. 1. “American Progress,” painting by John Gast, 1872, digital version 2006, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
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So this is rich: “Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow condemned the attacks [on the Houthis], calling them reckless and adventurist.”[1] But I suppose, having failed to subdue Ukraine in anything like the time they expected, Russia might know a thing or two about reckless adventurism.
That said, it’s likely that the Houthis are indeed undeterred. They knew the attacks were coming and had time to prepare. Which means rosy initial assessments from the U.S. military[2] should be presumptively treated about like one should regard the Vietnam War’s “Five O’Clock Follies.”[3] And, “the Houthis stand to gain politically from these U.S.-U.K. attacks as they support a narrative that the group has been cultivating: that they are freedom fighters fighting Western imperialism in the Muslim world.”[4]
Mahad Darar never mentions the Crusades. He might as well have, noting U.S. failures to gain regional allies to support the effort, but the Houthis have aligned themselves with Gazans, thus winning support from Arab publics that their rulers dare not cross.[5]
The Crusades didn’t go well for the Crusaders. And we’re still fighting them.
CNN, “President Joe Biden’s statement on strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen,” January 11, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/11/politics/read-biden-statement-airstrikes-houthis-yemen
Mahad Darar, “US-UK airstrikes risk strengthening Houthi rebels’ position in Yemen and the region,” Conversation, January 12, 2024, https://theconversation.com/us-uk-airstrikes-risk-strengthening-houthi-rebels-position-in-yemen-and-the-region-221006
Gabriel Gavin, Antonia Zimmermann, and Jamie Dettmer, “Middle East braces for chaos as Iran and West square up,” Politico, January 12, 2024, https://www.politico.eu/article/middle-east-chaos-iran-west-houthi-israel-hamas-war/
Thomas Grove and Stephen Kalin, “U.S. Launches New Strike on Houthi Radar Site in Yemen,” Wall Street Journal, January 12, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/u-s-led-yemen-strikes-heighten-risk-of-broader-middle-east-conflict-aedb0006
China
Taiwan
Xi Jinping lost.[6] I’m pretty sure he’s not going to like that. The next question is what he does about it.
Ishaan Tharoor, “China looms over Taiwan’s fateful election,” Washington Post, January 12, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/12/china-taiwan-election-xi-jinping-united-states/
William Glover Weiss and Tim Mak, “Pro-Western, Pro-Taiwan Sovereignty Party Wins Taiwan Presidential Election,” Counteroffensive, January 13, 2024, https://www.counteroffensive.news/p/newsflash-pro-western-pro-taiwan
- [1]Thomas Grove and Stephen Kalin, “U.S. Launches New Strike on Houthi Radar Site in Yemen,” Wall Street Journal, January 12, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/u-s-led-yemen-strikes-heighten-risk-of-broader-middle-east-conflict-aedb0006↩
- [2]Thomas Grove and Stephen Kalin, “U.S. Launches New Strike on Houthi Radar Site in Yemen,” Wall Street Journal, January 12, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/u-s-led-yemen-strikes-heighten-risk-of-broader-middle-east-conflict-aedb0006↩
- [3]David Halberstam, The Powers That Be (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois, 2000).↩
- [4]Mahad Darar, “US-UK airstrikes risk strengthening Houthi rebels’ position in Yemen and the region,” Conversation, January 12, 2024, https://theconversation.com/us-uk-airstrikes-risk-strengthening-houthi-rebels-position-in-yemen-and-the-region-221006↩
- [5]Mahad Darar, “US-UK airstrikes risk strengthening Houthi rebels’ position in Yemen and the region,” Conversation, January 12, 2024, https://theconversation.com/us-uk-airstrikes-risk-strengthening-houthi-rebels-position-in-yemen-and-the-region-221006↩
- [6]William Glover Weiss and Tim Mak, “Pro-Western, Pro-Taiwan Sovereignty Party Wins Taiwan Presidential Election,” Counteroffensive, January 13, 2024, https://www.counteroffensive.news/p/newsflash-pro-western-pro-taiwan↩