2016 in Syria and Yemen, from DW's point of view: a good-enough summary

Here, from Deutsche Welle century (Syria and Yemen - gaping wounds in the Middle East | World | DW.COM | 31.12.2016,) is a News, brief status report on the Syrian and Yemeni wars, during 2016.

This observation about the Yeeni genocide struck me as particularly helpful:

The war [in Yemen] is costing Saudi Arabia a fortune, despite Riyadh receiving financial and military support from Washington. The US felt obliged to placate the Saudi royal family after it signed a nuclear treaty with Iran, Saudi Arabia's archenemy. Egypt however, has refused Saudi Arabia's invitations to join Yemen's war on Riyadh's side.

Interesting for these reasons:

-- A European newspaper does not mention British support for Saudi Arabia.  Curious.

--  This is the first I have seen of Egypt's refusal to join in the war against Yemen.  In 2015, Saudi Arabia asked Egypt and Pakistan for  military help against a threatened invasion by the Islamic State.  Pakistan's legislature specifically forbade help.   Egypt gave no public announcement of its response, if any.

--  The United States ' support for Saudi Arabia did not begin with the Iranian Nuclear Deal:  it has, by treaty, pledged to support Saudi Arabia against all enemies domestic and foreign.  The treaty has been in effect since the end of WWII.  Saudi Arabia, in return, gave the United States a 20% reduction in the price of oil, a help in the United States's growth in power in the last half-and. (The subsidy stopped when the United States invaded Iraq during the First Gulf War.) . 

It is vastly disappointing to see the United States actively supporting genocide; and perhaps understandable, given the perceived need to prevent Arab States from actively supporting Palestinians against  Israel.

--  Citing Iran as Saudi Arabia's "arch-enemy" is myopic:  a central tenant of Wahhabism (Saudi Arabia's and the Islamic State's official and only religion, is that the Shia (Iran) are apostate and unclean, and are to be killed whenever possible.  See Nasr,  The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future . [Times review cited].

__________

This is serious business.  Imagine this were your home town, if your don't live in a war zone:

Recent Syrian War Dead:

Recent Yemen War Dead 

 Dead's dead.  Those left behind, thirsting for revenge unto the seventh generation, require our attention.

Please.