The Lemon that is Yemen

If you weren't already aware of the situation in Yemen...well it's a mess and to make matters worse it's in the midst of a civil war so why is Trump thinking of intervening? Yemen is in the position it’s in now because the Houthis overthrew the Yemeni government in 2014. The Houthis are a theological Shia extremist movement. Before the coup, they protested better representation in the government which I supported considering they are a part of the Yemeni political fabric. However they begin to fight against the government and eventually pushed into the capital even when President Hadi tried to come to an agreement, they agreed but lied and grabbed more territory putting him under house arrest before he made a great escape. Then you had the Saudis get involved leading an array of nations in the gulf and elsewhere from the Islamic world to take back the country which I originally thought was a good idea because it allowed the United States to play a background role where we simply provided logistics and intel. The Saudis and the other gulf nations instead of relying on the west would start to deal with their on regional problems. But that plan sadly went south after we learned that the Saudis were (and currently still are) bombing funerals, schools, and hospitals to name just a few of the places they've attacked. Obliterating innocence lives left and right with both our support and funding. So when I heard reports of Trump considering the option to intervene more in Yemen and going beyond hitting Al-Qaeda by also striking at the Houthis, I can’t help but see that as us getting tangled up in a sectarian battle. What needs to be done in my opinion is we must bring both sides to the table because the Hadi Government and Houthis oppose ISIS and Al-Qaeda so to get them within a unified government will not only help stop the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, but would also focus the attention on the terrorist groups inside the country who are actively benefiting from the chaos. Before this coup we had a working counter terrorism relationship with Yemen until it was interfered with by the crisis. Also we shouldn’t be a part of the Saudi's campaign against the Houthis as we have seen their disregard for the lives of the innocent civilians in those areas and after two years of their intervention, no military solution has even been reached as of yet. For Trump to get involved more deeply in direct action missions against the Shia group will only benefit Al-Qaeda and ISIS and prolong the Sunni-Shia fight that we see well too often in middle east conflicts.