Asymmetrical Warfare

[_MeDotOrg]

Yemen's Houthi rebels used 10 drones to attack Saudi oil refinery complexes. They took out roughly 50% of Saudi Arabia's oil production.

Saudi Arabia has the world's third largest defense budget. Their single greatest strategic resource is their oil refineries. Yemini rebels took out 5% of the World's oil production with a couple of drones. The drones were probably supplied by Iran, but it shows how much damage a proxy group can do for a state sponsor.

I think about Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) terminals.

Drones are a great example of how technology makes the world simultaneously more terrible and wonderful. Drones can be used to deliver supplies or medicine, search for survivors, and give humans views that would otherwise be impossible. They can also be used to target the most vulnerable points of an opponent's infrastructure.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

What kind of drones were used?

- Doc

[_honorentheos]

What kind of drones were used?

- Doc

Houthi rebels have been using drones in combat since the start of the Saudi-led war. The first appeared to be off-the-shelf, hobby-kit-style drones. Later, versions nearly identical to Iranian models turned up. Iran denies supplying the Houthis with weapons, although the U.N., the West and Gulf Arab nations say Tehran does.

U.N. investigators said the Houthis' new UAV-X drone likely has a range of up to 1,500 kilometers (930 miles). That puts the far reaches of both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in range.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/artic ... 439199.php

[_honorentheos]

Even better.

The Iranian-backed Houthis, who hold Yemen's capital, Sanaa, and other territory in the Arab world's poorest country, took responsibility for the attacks in the war against a Saudi-led coalition that has fought since 2015 to reinstate the internationally recognized Yemeni government. But the U.S. blamed Iran, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeting, "There is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen."

"Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world's energy supply," Pompeo added.

[_Gunnar]

It appears to be yet another undesirable consequence of Trump's ill considered decision to withdraw from the Iran agreement, whose most likely motivation was Trump's petty and childish decision to destroy or undermine anything, whether good or bad, with which Obama had anything to do. Nevertheless, in this action I sympathize more with the Yemenis than with Saudi Arabia.

[_ajax18]

whose most likely motivation was Trump's petty and childish decision to destroy or undermine anything, whether good or bad

Even some Democrats agreed that the Iran "Deal," was a terrible agreement for the US. It's not a right wing fringe view. As sweet a deal as this was for Iran, they still wouldn't hold up their end of it.

[_Chap]

As sweet a deal as this was for Iran, they still wouldn't hold up their end of it.

Which is no doubt why the Trump administration certified in April and July 2017 that Iran was in compliance with the terms of the deal.

But then Netanyahu came to call ...

[_Doctor Steuss]

Even some Democrats agreed that the Iran "Deal," was a terrible agreement for the US. It's not a right wing fringe view.

What specifically about the agreement was terrible for the US?

As sweet a deal as this was for Iran, they still wouldn't hold up their end of it.

By all verifiable measures, they were adhering to the agreement, which is one of the reasons why no other nations immediately withdrew when the US did.

[_Dr Exiled]

As sweet a deal as this was for Iran, they still wouldn't hold up their end of it.

Which is no doubt why the Trump administration certified in April and July 2017 that Iran was in compliance with the terms of the deal.

But then Netanyahu came to call ...

That's it right there. Netanyahu and Adelson (Las Vegas billionaire backer of Trump and Netanyahu) are bent on pushing us into war with Iran.

[_honorentheos]

The US pulling out of the deal and slapping on new sanctions also put Iran in a catch 22. They couldn't dispose of the material they were allowed to generate under the deal now, forcing them to eventually exceed the cap in the deal. Basically the Trump admin forced them into a situation where they were going to break one of the conditions for compliance which they ended up doing this spring. But they told everyone in advance that it was coming, that they couldn't do anything about it if the US didn't offer relief.