Saudi War in Yemen. Now using African children as mercenaries.

h4rm0ny · 31 Dec 2018 at 12:40

I thought there might be a thread on the war in Yemen but I couldn't find it. Apologies if so. In any case, this is in particular about Saudi's recruitment of Sudanese people to prosecute the war for them.

https://www.rt.com/news/447801-sudanese-child-mercenaries-yemen/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/world/africa/saudi-sudan-yemen-child-fighters.html

Now a 14 year old isn't a young child. But I think most of us still shudder at the thought of someone of that age being sent out to kill and die. Hell, we feel the same about adults, I should hope. Sudan is in desperate poverty and has a history of violent war. Saudi Arabia seems to be recruiting these soldiers by the thousand to send into battle. Not that Sudanese are solely victims here. The "Janjaweed" have butchered and raped civilians in Sudan and doesn't seem unlikely they'd behave any differently on foreign soil.

RT for the short and polemical version. NYT article for detail and those with ten minutes to kill.

CREATIVE!11 · 31 Dec 2018 at 13:30

Lol humanity......

And people still sell arms to them.... why again? Oh yeah, money.

LabR@t · 31 Dec 2018 at 18:44

Relgion of peace init?

mmj_uk · 31 Dec 2018 at 20:59

What I don't get is why would they want to fight a war for Saudi Arabia when they can be trafficked into Europe and live the high life? the Saudi's must be paying good.

rebel rebel · 31 Dec 2018 at 21:03

mmj_uk said:
What I don't get is why would they want to fight a war for Saudi Arabia when they can be trafficked into Europe and live the high life? the Saudi's must be paying good.

You think the kids have a choice in the matter?

Nasher · 31 Dec 2018 at 21:40

mmj_uk said:
What I don't get is why would they want to fight a war for Saudi Arabia when they can be trafficked into Europe and live the high life? the Saudi's must be paying good.

All roads seem to lead to Calais. Give it a year

Speirs · 31 Dec 2018 at 21:57

Nasher said:
All roads seem to lead to Calais. Give it a year

Using the money that they earned killing to pay traffickers to get them and their families across the channel.

jsmoke · 31 Dec 2018 at 22:07

This hardly provokes a reaction in me, I must be largely immune to these horrors.

Brizzles · 31 Dec 2018 at 22:09

h4rm0ny said:
I thought there might be a thread on the war in Yemen but I couldn't find it.

Probably because the whole of the middle east is a blur of war and people take it now for granted.

Couldn't care less about it, a cess pit of backward culture.

Malevolence · 31 Dec 2018 at 22:12

It's Saudi-Arabia, is anyone actually surprised at anything that terrorist state does any more?

Nasher · 31 Dec 2018 at 22:23

Brizzles said:
Probably because the whole of the middle east is a blur of war and people take it now for granted.

Couldn't care less about it, a cess pit of backward culture.

Middle East and most of Africa. Countries which sit on vast resources and should be rich, but every election involves rolling riots and gun battles in the street. I don't know why we even bother maintaining relations, give it another 100 years and call back. Tough love.

Speirs · 31 Dec 2018 at 22:35

Malevolence said:
It's Saudi-Arabia, is anyone actually surprised at anything that terrorist state does any more?

Not surprised but very concerned.
As you said a 'terrorist state' who are investing billions in the west and not just in businesses.

Efour · 31 Dec 2018 at 22:36

jsmoke said:
This hardly provokes a reaction in me, I must be largely immune to these horrors.

Me either don't worry.

Angilion · 31 Dec 2018 at 23:06

h4rm0ny said:
I thought there might be a thread on the war in Yemen but I couldn't find it.

We can't do anything about it. It's more than 100 years too late for any chance of that, if any chance ever existed. Combine various flavours of Islam with tribalism and the only outcomes are various combinations of war and oppression, with the most stable being an effective oppressive tyranny. Even at the height of British imperial power, I doubt if anything could have been changed about that. Interference from outside had both positive (e.g. the ending of open slavery) and negative effects (e.g. the current conflict in Yemen is partially due to the conflict between the USA and the USSR after WW2) but didn't create or significantly change the underlying problems. Add in a sudden influx of a vast amount of wealth to elites and the resulting conflicts for power (most famously Iran and Saudi Arabia jostling for power) and foulness is assured.

Hopefully I'll be dead before they come for us.

Rroff · 31 Dec 2018 at 23:37

rebel rebel said:
You think the kids have a choice in the matter?

People probably should have read the article especially the stuff about Darfur.

With the ongoing troubles in Sudan (not just Darfur) they are probably (also) being traded away as part of other deals by militia groups to acquire weapons and other military supplies.

Angilion said:
We can't do anything about it. It's more than 100 years too late for any chance of that, if any chance ever existed. Combine various flavours of Islam with tribalism and the only outcomes are various combinations of war and oppression, with the most stable being an effective oppressive tyranny. Even at the height of British imperial power, I doubt if anything could have been changed about that. Interference from outside had both positive (e.g. the ending of open slavery) and negative effects (e.g. the current conflict in Yemen is partially due to the conflict between the USA and the USSR after WW2) but didn't create or significantly change the underlying problems. Add in a sudden influx of a vast amount of wealth to elites and the resulting conflicts for power (most famously Iran and Saudi Arabia jostling for power) and foulness is assured.

Hopefully I'll be dead before they come for us.

It is something few seem to understand - look at Egypt for instance the most stable times were under hardline secular governments who stamped down heavily on fundamental Islamists and had many of the hallmark of oppressive tyranny.

ianh · 1 Jan 2019 at 00:28

I work with the Saudi military on a daily basis and IMHO a professional 1st world military would wipe the floor with them in days despite all the fancy toys they own as their culture prevents them from having the mentally capability for the improvisation, rapid decision making or even "will to fight" required in a fast changing war, hence why they are doing so badly in Yemen and now need foreigners to do the actual dirty work of fighting.

I mean they absolutely adore driving tanks or flying planes etc as those are "chivalrous" activities which remind them of the glory days of camel-based cavalry charges found in their history etc (like our tales of Mounted Knights and pilots being "Knights of the Sky" etc) and those who get to do those activities are seen as "brave" but the average "grunt" infantry man who actually has to shoot at someone face to face is poorly led, poorly motivated, poorly equipped and poorly paid and the vast majority have no wish to be in Yemen in the first place, and thats shows in their terrible performance and mounting loses, mainly due to their inflexibility and god awful officer corps who shouldn't be allowed to be a B&Q manager never mind commanding troops in a warzone, but thats what tribal politics gets you..

Terminal_Boy · 1 Jan 2019 at 00:30

Outsourcing wars to 3rd parties? Very sensible.

Rroff · 1 Jan 2019 at 00:39

ianh said:
IMHO a professional 1st world military would wipe the floor with them in days despite all the fancy toys they own

True both on paper as a numbers game and in the realworld with their dependence on those 1st world militaries for resupply which would be cut off instantly if they went up against them. I imagine a lot of their fancy toys are export versions with either 3rd party or locally produced upgrades and inferior to the 1st world military equivalent.

robgmun · 1 Jan 2019 at 00:53

The whole region is a barbaric cesspit and the liberal retards want to allow them to come here. Yeah no thanks.

Speirs · 1 Jan 2019 at 00:54

ianh said:
I work with the Saudi military on a daily basis and IMHO a professional 1st world military would wipe the floor with them in days despite all the fancy toys they own as their culture prevents them from having the mentally capability for the improvisation, rapid decision making or even "will to fight" required in a fast changing war, hence why they are doing so badly in Yemen and now need foreigners to do the actual dirty work of fighting.

I mean they absolutely adore driving tanks or flying planes etc as those are "chivalrous" activities which remind them of the glory days of camel-based cavalry charges found in their history etc (like our tales of Mounted Knights and pilots being "Knights of the Sky" etc) and those who get to do those activities are seen as "brave" but the average "grunt" infantry man who actually has to shoot at someone face to face is poorly led, poorly motivated, poorly equipped and poorly paid and the vast majority have no wish to be in Yemen in the first place, and thats shows in their terrible performance and mounting loses, mainly due to their inflexibility and god awful officer corps who shouldn't be allowed to be a B&Q manager never mind commanding troops in a warzone, but thats what tribal politics gets you..

Rroff said:
True both on paper as a numbers game and in the realworld with their dependence on those 1st world militaries for resupply which would be cut off instantly if they went up against them. I imagine a lot of their fancy toys are export versions with either 3rd party or locally produced upgrades and inferior to the 1st world military equivalent.

So what will happen when the oil revenue dries up and they can't buy more western support \ weapons \ mercenaries?