Wildlife managers and cattle ranchers battle for pasture lands in drought stricken California

© Reuters / Robert Galbraith
Tule elk and cattle graze together in the D Ranch pasture in Point Reyes National Seashore, California April 9, 2015.

    

A herd of tule elk move warily along a California coastal hill as a herd of Black Angus cattle graze nearby. Despite the apparent peaceful coexistence, the animals are at the center of a battle for precious grasslands reduced by the state's drought.

Ranchers and farmers who live and work within the 71,000-acre (287-square km) Point Reyes National Seashore, 35 miles (56 km) northwest of San Francisco, want the free-roaming elk fenced in so their livestock do not have to compete for grass.

Wildlife advocates and many park users are opposed after almost half of the majestic elks died while living in a 2,600-acre fenced-in area in the northern part of the park. The park has not yet determined how much land the free-ranging elk herd might be confined to — or even if they would be fenced in.

The Point Reyes National Seashore is one of the few parks in America with agricultural operations, some of them dating back to the 1800s. They were purchased by the federal government to create the preserve and the lands were leased back to the same families for agriculture.

In the 1970s, tule elk were reintroduced to the park.

"If we can't protect the elk in a national park, where will they be safe?" asked California wildlife photographer Jim Coda, one of thousands who sent in comments to the National Park Service opposing fencing them in.

The parks agency is caught in the middle and is attempting to devise a plan that will balance public resources with the needs of 24 dairy and beef commercial operations, numbering close to 6,000 animals, that occupy nearly a quarter of the seashore lands.

The seashore is the only national park with tule elk, which are not found outside California.

"There's no perfect solution," Parks Services wildlife ecologist Daniel Press told Reuters.

"We're committed to the wildlife, but we're also committed to agriculture," said Press. "These aren't show farms. They're functioning businesses. Every blade of grass counts, especially for the six organic dairies, which have to purchase expensive feed when the grazing runs short."

Some critics want to evict the ranchers but the park is committed to keeping agricultural operations on the preserve. In a sharply worded 39-page letter to the parks agency, the Point Reyes Seashore Ranchers Association called the tule elk an "invasive species" creating an "emergency" as animals compete for forage, particularly during California's record drought.

"Elk do not belong in the pastoral zone and their current existence should be temporary," the letter states, adding: "Seashore ranchers are more endangered than the tule elk."

Wildlife advocate Jeff Miller of the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity says that, because of the lease-back arrangement, the ranchers "should be expected to make accommodations for wildlife, and not continue to treat the space like their private property and dictate park policy."

"That land belongs to everyone in America," he said.

© Reuters/Robert Galbraith
A group of tule elk stand near a road in Point Reyes National Seashore, California April 9, 2015.

    

The state's tule elk population shrank by the 1800s to a handful of animals in southern California. As the population gradually rebounded, 10 elk were reintroduced in 1978 to the northern end of Point Reyes.

In 1998 park workers transported 28 of the growing herd farther south. Those elk, which now number 212, split into two groups, including the 92 that migrated to grazing lands on three farms.

There are serious concerns, based on past experience, about erecting a giant fence. Point Reyes' northern herd has always been fenced off and its population dropped from 540 to 286 last year because, experts believe, old stock ponds the elk used for water dried up in the drought and left them to die of thirst.

"Once you fence them in, you're responsible for them," said Joe Hobbs, elk coordinator for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Other options to manage the elk include contraception, transporting them to other areas, killing some, and "hazing," or shooing them off grazing areas.

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Severe storms throughout Southern US sprout tornadoes and drop hail

© Twitter/promud
Train cars overturned in Abbeville, Alabama.

    

Severe thunderstorms moved into the South Sunday, causing damage across several states. Several tornadoes were also spotted in the area.

Alabama

There have been several reports of tornadoes in Alabama today, including a confirmed category EF-1 tornado that touched down in Russell County just west of Oswichee along AL-165. That tornado, which moved Northeast to the Georgia state line, traveled approximately 3.5 miles.

Another tornado was reportedly spotted in Henry County, in southeastern Alabama, around 9:30 a.m. Sunday, though it has not been confirmed by the National Weather Service. NWS did say that numerous rail cars were overturned due to the storm.

In Leesburg, winds blew a tree onto a home, causing the family inside to sustain minor injuries.

The NWS also reports that strong winds damaged agricultural buildings at Pleasant Valley High School located in Calhoun, Alabama.

Winds have knocked down trees in other parts of the state. In southern Alabama, at least 5,000 people have lost power, according to Alabama Power. In Madison, wind gusts up to 56 mph were reported, and in Huntsville, a large tree fell on a home.

© Twitter / Isaac Schaffer
Hot Springs AR hail

    

Arkansas

Large hail pummeled the state, prompting numerous reports of damage to roofs and vehicles in Caddo Gap. Golf ball sized hail was reported to cover the ground on Twin Bridges Road.

Florida

Damaging winds felled trees in Walton County, Florida.

Georgia

Slippery conditions made for dangerous driving in the Atlanta metro area Sunday morning, leading to a handful of major crashes on I-75 and a few injuries, according to WSBRadio. Drivers spun off the highway and one hit a tree. No word on the number of injuries.

WSB says that thousands of people are without power in Cobb County, Georgia:

In Waynesboro, high winds overturned a 20 foot motorhome and damaged numerous trees.

POWER OUTAGE: Over 1,200 Georgia Power customers near North Decatur are currently without power.

— WSB-TV (@wsbtv) April 19, 2015

South Carolina

Severe storms packing damaging winds downed numerous trees and powerlines throughout the town of Aiken, which is located east of Augusta, Georgia. One tree fell on a house on Arcturus Drive, damaging the roof and carport as well as other homes located on that particular street.

In Saint Matthews, which is located in Calhoun County, emergency managers reported a mobile home that was wiped out along Ott Sisters Road near I-26.

Ohio

A woman in the Bond Hill area of Cincinnati died after a tree fell onto her car, the Cincinnati Fire Department has confirmed. About half an inch of rain fell today. The Fire Department said that rain, coupled with rain that has fallen recently, could have caused the four-foot tree to uproot. Reading Road, where the accident occured, was closed due to allow for the investigation.

© Caleb Connor
Severe storms packing damaging winds downed numerous trees and powerlines throughout the town of Aiken, South Carolina, located east of Augusta, Ga.

    

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SOTT Exclusive: Exporting the Yemeni model to ultimately contain Russia?

The 'arc of instability' - the Western strategy of creating chaos all along Russia's borders in order to contain Russia and maintain their hegemony.

    

It was only last year that President Obama was praising the way Yemen was 'progressing', meaning of course that the government in Yemen was aligned with the interests of the US without them having to send in the troops to bully the nation into submission.

The US president said: "You look at a country like Yemen - a very impoverished country and one that has its own sectarian or ethnic divisions - there, we do have a committed partner in President Hadi and his government. And we have been able to help to develop their capacities without putting large numbers of US troops on the ground at the same time as we've got enough CT, or counterterrorism capabilities that we're able to go after folks that might try to hit our embassy or might be trying to export terrorism into Europe or the United States."

This 'successful' Yemeni model as Obama called it was supposed to serve as a model for 'peace' in Syria and Iraq, meaning that the US was contemplating a 'peaceful' transition of power in Syria and replacing it with a puppet regime that would fuel the US-led war on terror, that is, help them 'fight' the terror menace that they and their partners propped up in the first place.

Obama described the existing partnership between Washington and Yemen in the fight against terrorism as "ideal" and said "we are looking at establishing a similar model to be part of the solution in Syria and Iraq, but if we want to do this, we need actual governments on the ground that we can partner with and that we've got some confidence are going to pursue the political policies of inclusiveness."

As with all statements made by Obama, this makes no sense since the Syrian government has been fighting foreign-backed terrorist proxies, or folks that might try to hit US embassies, as Obama calls them, for years, while the US along with their committed 'partners' in the region are the responsible parties that have been arming, funding and sending these folks to fight their wars, and at the same time serving as an excuse to justify their illegal invasions of Syria and Iraq or any other nation that gets in their way.

The narrative that is being served on a plate for the consumption of the Western audience by the media concerning the conflict in Yemen is that the head choppers ruling Saudi Arabia are bombing Yemen in an attempt to restore a democratically elected president back to power, all of which is fully endorsed and supported by the US. It only shows that the script writers for the media mouthpieces think that we are all both stupid and gullible at the same time.

Hadi, the CIA puppet, isn't a democratically elected president; he actually ran unopposed during the 'elections.' Saudi Arabia is not a democracy and has no interests in exporting democracy; it's mostly interested in dropping bombs on civilians, infrastructure and letting loose their Wahhabi fanatics all across the region, including the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which are already benefiting from the Saudi airstrikes. The US has spent decades overthrowing democratically elected presidents all across the globe, not putting them into power. Despite all of this, the media still has the nerve to tell us with a straight face that the US and their 'partners' need to go forth in the world spreading democracy and that we should basically thank them as they pillage the planet.

    

We get a possible glimpse of what the plan for Yemen and other states in the Middle East is, when we take a look at the 2013 article that appeared in the , called "Imagining a Remapped Middle East." In it, we see, among other things, Yemen divided into two parts.

YEMEN SPLITS

The poorest Arab country could break (again) into two pieces following a potential referendum in South Yemen on independence.

In a more powerful twist, all or part of South Yemen could then become part of Saudi Arabia. Nearly all Saudi commerce is via sea, and direct access to the Arabian Sea would diminish dependence on the Persian Gulf — and fears of Iran's ability to cut off the Strait of Hormuz.

As is always the case, the illegal invasion of Yemen has nothing to do with democracy and everything to do with US geopolitical interest of controlling international trade and ultimately encircling, containing and isolating their rivals: Iran, China and Russia. It's about the Middle East and then the World and about creating the so-called 'arc of instability,' which is the Western strategy of creating chaos all along Russia's borders in order to maintain their hegemony. Yemen is just one step in the process of fracturing these states and moving closer to Russia.

With their former plans for Yemen in tatters due to the rise of the Houthis and the overthrow of their partner/puppet, Mr. Hadi, the undemocratically elected president of Yemen, one wonders if Obama or other US officials will once again start praising the model that the Arab NATO is implementing in Yemen, aka bomb them back to the stone age and cause as much chaos as possible model, which seems to be the only model that they know how to implement, as an example to follow elsewhere, maybe in Syria or Iran? Maybe that's why both China and Iran are buying Russian anti-aircraft missile systems?

Ante Sarlija

Born and raised in Croatia, Ante joined the SOTT editorial team in 2014 and currently helps run the Croatian SOTT. He is also a part of the Croatian SOTT translation team. He spends his free time researching.

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Murdering memory and the cult of historical victimization

The past is never really in the past as long as it pervades our present. And recent history is very much with us - as it should be.

    

As the 70th anniversary of fascism's demise in Europe approaches, history is being re-cast, particularly events before, during, and after World War II. This history is being reinterpreted and even rewritten in a number of post-Soviet and Eastern European states. This approach often undermines, or even denies, the role the Soviet Union (its peoples and soldiers) played in the defeat of Nazi Germany. This has less to do with historical knowledge than it does with scoring cheap geopolitical points in the present at Russia's expense.

In some Baltic republics and quite openly today in Ukraine, Nazi collaborators are honored as war veterans, while Soviet war memorials are moved, dismantled and in some cases publicly destroyed with great media fanfare. Most in Russia consider this not only insulting, but also a dangerous rehabilitation of ideas that their citizens paid such a high price to eliminate. This is especially painful when the people of Ukraine's Donbas remain the subject of assault and punishment by the western-backed regime in Kiev that openly celebrates Nazi collaboration.

The hitherto accepted history of World War II (or the Great Patriotic War, as it is known in Russia) is undergoing revision. Ordinarily, this should not surprise anyone - up until recently such traditional narratives were the product of the Cold War. The ideological conflict that pitted Soviet 'developed socialism' against Western capitalism resulted in diverging, ideologically couched explanations for the defeat of Nazi Germany.

The Western take was that the Allies, specifically the United States, "saved the world from tyranny in the name of democracy and other liberal values." Soviet ideologists, by contrast, stressed "the defeat of a murderous and very aggressive ideology: fascism."

As long as the Cold War continued, these two renditions could coexist, although the West consistently understated the Soviet contribution to Hitler's defeat. All of this started to change with the Russia-accepted self-collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Every country and every society needs a common history. National narratives bind a nation together and create a sense of community. All the new sovereign states that came into being with the end of the Soviet Union are very keen to establish new national histories. But in doing so, most of them have to address specific and often-painful episodes related to World War II and the decade of the 1930s.

As the successor state to the Soviet Union, Russia adheres steadfastly to the belief that it liberated a great swathe of Europe from fascism. To craft what they believe are coherent, if not self-satisfying, national histories, many in the Baltics, Ukraine, and some Eastern European states now like to challenge Russia's historical rendition (and seemingly with Washington's encouragement). They claim that not only did the Soviet Union not liberate them from fascism, but that it replaced Nazi Germany as an occupying power.

Embedded in this claim is a double-edged sword. First, those who argue that the Soviets should not be credited with defeating fascism implicitly also deny the role of those in the Baltic republics, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe who sacrificed their lives to end Nazi rule. Second, there is also denial about how many in Eastern Europe actually did welcome the end of Nazi tyranny and accepted communist ideas. Many were more than happy to see the demise of collaborationists, fascists, racists, and ultranationalists.

To be sure, there were those who didn't, and their grievances are legitimate and should be heard. However, history is not as black and white as nationalist historians and governments (the and now) would like us to believe. For example, I lived in Poland during much of the 1980s when the free trade union Solidarity was enjoying its greatest popularity. At the time, Polish society was polarized; one-third of the population strongly supported Solidarity, and one-third the pro-Moscow regime, while the remaining third waited on the sidelines to see how the standoff between those two would end. And to this day, some Poles still have many good things to say about communist Poland.

What is very disturbing about historical revisionism when it comes to World War II is the attempt to airbrush from the record fascist ideas,
groups, and individuals that infested Europe in the 1930s and '40s. The Cold War-era interpretation of World War II was a convenient opportunity to overlook nasty homegrown fascism all over Europe, particularly in the east. In Ukraine there isn't even an airbrush in play today, just a western media closing its eyes to rhetorical and imaginary that is truly shocking.

After the war ended, few wanted to dwell on how fascism and gross right-wing nationalism -- very often anti-Semitic -- captured the imagination of the European body politic. Political imperatives were far more important, and so confronting the Soviet Union took precedence. It became acceptable to ignore unpleasant episodes.

This is still happening today, particularly in Ukraine. Instead of facing up to the sins of the past, it is all too easy to blame contemporary Russia for the real or imagined sins of the Soviet Union. Using this line of argument, Russia can and should claim it, too, was a victim of the Soviet Union.

It is unfortunate that a new discursive pathology has come into vogue. Many feel that the sole way to prove their historical legitimacy and virtue is by casting themselves in the role of victim. This is history gone wrong. All too often a person's national identity is defined by how someone else wronged him or her.

Today states blame other states for their own problems in the present because of a very specific, and again self-serving, interpretation of what happened in the past. Equally unfortunate is the knee-jerk tendency to blame "undemocratic" Russia for the woes of its neighbors. This is politics on the cheap and a contemptible attitude to what history should really be all about.

Denying the Holocaust is a legal offense in Germany. This is the case in many countries in the world, and is morally right. Consigning to oblivion the murder of millions of people is simply wrong. Russia wants the same to hold true for the 27 million Soviet citizens (at the very least) who gave their lives to defeat Hitler's murderous regime.

It is important to remember Germany and France embarked upon an open and honest discussion to reconcile their long-standing historical differences after the Second World War. What we see now is the opposite: history is being used to divide countries and peoples in Eastern Europe and Russia. These divisions in turn open the door for the worst possibility: the slow but very real rehabilitation of a new form of fascism.

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Dead killer whale found near Fort Bragg, California

© Nadia El Adli
Dead killer whale

    

Update, Sunday, 7:30 a.m.: More from Naked Whale Research's Facebook page:

Just finished up a long day on the beach. The Marine Mammal Center, who is the "locally" permitted stranding coordinating body came up with a team and equipment to collect skin and organ samples. Humboldt State also made their way down to collect samples. As you can imagine, lots of folks are interested in the findings and the re-articulation of the skeleton, especially our own Noyo Marine Science Center.

The animal was a male, 25ft in length with a 5ft tall rounded dorsal fin and a solid saddle patch. There was notable "human interaction" with crab pot floats and rope wound around the animals tail stock near the tail flukes and up around it's right pectoral fin. This had created some deep grooves on both sides of the tail stock.

The animal was not emaciated and had a thick blubber layer: stomach contents included a large harbor seal, nearly completely intact. This is, of course, what our transient marine mammal eaters feast on. There was also lots of scarring, possibly from this type prey. However, the animal's teeth were quite worn and it did have a few cookie cutter shark marks on it which may be more typical of an offshore type killer whale.

Dorsal and saddle patch photos have been sent out to several colleagues between California and Washington, in hopes that someone can help us make a match. Until then we have to wait for the genetics results to come in.

Director Jodi Smith is giving a talk at Fort Ross State Park today at 3 p.m. See more photos of the whale from yesterday here.

Update, 4:40 p.m.: Naked Whale Research director Jodi Smith called from the scene with a bit more detail. The whale is about 25 feet long, she said, and the team was working on getting it to higher ground in hopes of performing a necropsy this afternoon. "There's no real obvious damage, she said, and suspects the animal to be an offshore type of killer whale as "it's teeth are quite worn down... they wear their teeth down eating on shark, there's about 8 or 9 species that they prey upon." They don't have an ID on the orca yet, but are working on it.

While killer whales have been a familiar - and exhilarating - sight off the coast of Fort Bragg in recent days, this morning's discovery of a dead male orca washed up at MacKerricher State Park came as a surprise, especially given the rarity of the finding. A 2013 study analyzing North Pacific killer-whale strandings back to 1925 noted that "while orcas are some of the most widely distributed whales on Earth, very few dead ones are ever found."

Such instances are indeed unusual, confirmed Jeff Jacobsen, local killer whale expert and marine mammal biologist. Jacobsen recalled one stranding at Centerville Beach several years ago, he said, and an orca was found washed up in Point Reyes in 2011.

What isn't uncommon is finding marine mammals entangled in derelict fishing gear. (LoCO readers may remember when a gray whale was tangled in crab pot netting a few years ago off the South Jetty.)

More than 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises die every year from being caught in such gear and drifting fishing nets. As seen in the photos submitted by Friend of LoCO Nadia El Adli, fishing buoys are wound around the orca's tail, but attributing the cause of death will have to wait for an official necropsy.

© Nadia El Adli

    

Preliminary observations suggest the killer whale was a transient, not a member of the Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW), the smallest of four resident communities most commonly seen off the coasts of Oregon, Washington and Vancouver Island, B.C.

The SRKW is an endangered clan of orcas that consists of the "J-pod," "K-pod" and "L-pod," and is of particular interest to the Fort Bragg-based Naked Whale Research organization.

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The revealing truth about wolves

© Jeff Vanuga/NPL
Most of us don't see wolves as they really are

    

Reputation: Wolves have two public images. They inspire feelings of fear for their mad-eyed drooling, biting of children, and killing of livestock. But they also draw admiration for their strong, family-centric society, and as flagships of wild nature.

Reality: These extreme views of wolves are deeply held, but are rooted in history rather than modern-day reality. In the highly modified landscapes of Europe and North America, it is time to rethink the meaning of wolf.

How many wolves are there in Europe? If I'd answered this question a year ago, I might have suggested 1000. I would have been wrong, by an order of magnitude.

"If we'd been back in the 1970s then we'd have been talking about an endangered species," says John Linnell of the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research in Trondheim, and a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe.

However, over the last 40 years wolves have made an incredible comeback across the continent. "At the moment we're talking about 12,000 wolves in Europe," says Linnell. During the same period, the US population has also expanded rapidly, he says.

That's a lot of wolves. So is there any truth in the notion that wolves pose a danger to humans?

"If we look at European history, there is actually a lot of evidence that wolves have killed a lot of people in past centuries," says Linnell.

In rural landscapes that were heavily modified by humans, where there was a tradition of livestock farming and where children were used as shepherds, wolves have attacked people. "This describes a lot of Europe up to the end of the 19th century," says Linnell.

Then there is the additional threat posed by a wolf with rabies. "During a very limited period, a rabid wolf can cover fairly large distances, biting just about everything that stands still long enough to get bitten," he says. "Before we had any treatments for rabies, this was a death sentence."

There are still parts of the world where these risk factors for wolf attacks are a feature. In one well-documented case in India, a rabid wolf went on the rampage, attacking a dozen people in half-a-dozen villages in a single day. Three of the victims - those with "severe wounds to the face and head" - died.

A few years ago there was a similar incident in Turkey, when a wolf leapt onto the face of a 60-year-old man sitting in his garden. He managed to strangle the animal to death but not before it had bitten him. The man died a week or so later, presumably from rabies.

However things are different in most of modern-day Europe and North America. There are no child shepherds and little rabies, so the chances of a wolf attack are vanishingly small, says Linnell.

In complete contrast to the demonic stereotype, an alternative vision of the wolf has come to prominence over the last 50 years. This is an equally fantastical beast borne from a long-standing worship of wolf power. It has been embraced by the New Age movement, and strengthened by the growing recognition that top predators like wolves can have a profound and often enriching effect upon biodiversity.

The best way to introduce this other wolf is through the story of Yellowstone National Park.

In the 1920s, US government employees exterminated Yellowstone's wolves, leaving the region wolf-less for the next 70 years. Then in 1995, after two decades of planning, conservationists finally got the go-ahead to release Canadian wolves into the park.

The reintroduction of wolves has transformed the ecology of Yellowstone. The most obvious immediate effect has been on the elk population. At the point of reintroduction, there were around 16,000 elk. By 2004, elk numbers had halved to 8,000.

That might not sound good, but the knock-on effects were impressive. With fewer plant-eating elk around, woody trees like willow, aspen and cottonwood experienced a dramatic recovery.

Ecosystems are complex things, so it would be too simple to attribute all these changes solely to the reintroduction of wolves. But there is overwhelming evidence that the sudden reappearance of Yellowstone's top predator has triggered a big shift. Wolves, it turns out, are the friends of trees.

So what is the truth about wolves? It probably lies somewhere in between the demonic wolf of folklore and the new-age wolf of the wilderness.

"The challenge we now have is to move away from both those extremes to a middle view that is not fear and is not worship," says Linnell.

"Wolves are neither devils nor saints," says Linnell. "They are simply big predators."

Tweetable truths about wolves

There are around 12,000 wolves in Europe

In central Europe, a typical wolf pack territory is up to 200 sq km. In northern Europe, it can be over 1000 sq km

When a young wolf leaves its pack, it will often migrate over 1000 km as the crow flies

After wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone, the elk population fell by 50% within a decade. The trees were happy

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The U.S. is helping commit atrocities in Yemen - and pretending it's Iran's fault

    

In an April interview with PBS Newshour, Secretary of State John Kerry was asked about Iran's involvement in the escalating war in Yemen. His response was astounding and revealing.

"Iran needs to recognize that the United States is not going to stand by while the region is destabilized or while people engage in overt warfare across lines — international boundaries — in other countries," Kerry said.

The quip was astounding because Iran is not bombing Yemen or engaged in "overt warfare" there, though it has given some support to one side. The culprit on the overt warfare front is Saudi Arabia.

It was revealing that Kerry ignored the Saudi and Gulf Arab role in the catastrophe unfolding in Yemen. The silence on their bombing campaign, which has led to civilian deaths, a flow of refugees and the destabilization of the poorest country in the Arab world, is effectively a show of support for the Saudi war. And that support extends far beyond mere words, or the lack of them.

In late March, Saudi warplanes, alongside Gulf allies like the United Arab Emirates, commenced an intense bombing campaign in Yemen. The muscular move was launched in response to rapid gains by Yemeni Houthi rebels, who were sweeping across the country and capturing territory as the Saudi-backed president's regime crumbled. Yemen quickly became the hottest front in the proxy war between the Saudis and Iran, which the Gulf says is backing the Houthi rebels, a claim that is overblown. While Iran has hosted Houthi leaders and reportedly supplied them with weapons and training, the support does not mean Houthis are controlled by Iran, which is what the Gulf states say. In March, Reuters reported that U.S. officials had concluded that "Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps personnel were training and equipping Houthi units." But some U.S. officials said they thought the Iranian backing is "largely opportunistic and not a top priority for Tehran."

The U.S. government has been engaged in its own war in Yemen by using drones to attack Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, attacks that frequently kill civilians. The Obama administration is now fully backing the Saudis with intelligence and equipment as the Gulf Arab powerhouse rains bombs down on Yemen. At a time when the Gulf states are concerned with the U.S. nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration is showing the Saudis that it will still back them in a chaotic Middle East, no matter how flawed and brutal their military adventure is. And Yemeni civilians are paying the price.

UN officials estimate that 650 civilians have died. At least 100,000 civilians have been internally displaced. Residents in the the city of Aden, which has seen intense fighting, say the area is in ruins and that there are shortages of electricity and water.

The Saudi-led campaign in Yemen is the latest example of the state's involvement in Yemen, its southern neighbor. The powerful Saudi regime has long meddled in the poor country. The roots of this crisis lie in the 2011 Arab revolts, which deeply impacted Yemen.

Yemen's democratic uprising was massive, touching on every social sector in the country. It sparked a schism in the Yemeni military which led to gun fights between pro-regime and anti-regime factions of the armed forces. To stave off a prolonged crisis and civil war, the United States and its oil-rich Gulf Arab allies brokered a compromise to ease Yemen's long-standing president, Ali Abdallah Saleh, out of office. They installed Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi in his place. A national dialogue with many of Yemen's groups ensued. The end goal was to recommend a path forward for the country after the revolt.

But a powerful group, the Zaydi revivalist Houthis, felt they were left out. Some Southern Yemenis, who have been discriminated against by Northern Yemen (North and South Yemen unified in 1990), were also angry at the national dialogue process. But the Houthis, who espouse anti-imperialist, pro-Islamist politics, took the most decisive action, sparking the current war in Yemen.

Founded in 2004, the Houthis have capitalized on grievances that stem from Saudi-backed Wahhabist proselytizing in traditional Zaydi strongholds. Wahhabism is an extremist form of Sunni Islam which derides other sects of Islam. The Zaydis are an offhoot of Shia Islam, though they share much in common with Sunni schools of Islam, making claims that the current conflict is only a sectarian war specious.

In recent months, the Houthis, based in the north of the country, have captured territory throughout Yemen. This deeply worried Saudi Arabia. Since the 2011 Arab revolts, the Saudis have used their money—and sometimes, as in Bahrain, weapons—to suppress political Islamist movements that want to use the ballot box to gain power. Saudi Arabia wants to be the paragon of political Islam in the region. The Muslim Brotherhood threatens that place, and also threatens to upend the regional order of which Saudi Arabia is an integral part. The Houthis are a political Islamist force that rails against the prevailing American-backed system in the Middle East.

The Saudis and the Yemeni president they back have cast the Houthis as direct Iranian proxies. That's the main justification for the brutal bombing campaign. In doing so, they have internationalized what is a local conflict and imposed a sectarian overtone on Yemen, a dangerous move that could spark tensions that go out of control. The Obama administration, despite its apparent moves toward detente with Iran, remains a strong backer of the Saudis.

U.S. support for the Saudi campaign is no surprise. The advent of the oil age meant the U.S. needed to secure a steady supply to pump up its own economy, and the Saudis were their guys. While Saudi Arabia did eventually take control of its own oil reserves, it remained a key ally of the U.S., big players in the oil market and in the region—a counterweight against the Arab nationalist tide. Even though that tide eased, the U.S. remains a key ally of Saudi Arabia, a pole of oil-wealth, Gulf capitalism and a counter-weight against Iran.

The Saudis have spent some of their oil wealth on American weapons. And the Obama administration has been all too willing to supply them. President Obama has authorized arms sales for the Saudis to the tune of $46 billion, a record. The Saudis have bought warplanes and attack helicopters, and they're now using those weapons to wage war in Yemen. In addition, the U.S. has "increased intelligence-sharing with the Saudis, providing them with direct targeting support for sites the kingdom wants to bomb," according to an April 12 Wall Street Journal report.

Iran has demanded that the Saudi Arabian campaign stop and that peace talks between the warring factions commence. But Saudi Arabia has so far rejected those pleas.

The bombing campaign has no end in sight. That means that the Saudi military, with the full backing of the U.S., will continue to cause deep suffering among Yemeni civilians.

Sana'a, Yemen

    

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