Saudi Arabia spent years bombing Yemen into ruin, only to confront a resistance capable of threatening the airports, trade routes, and investments sustaining its own economic ambitions. Behind the New York Times’ portrait of a vulnerable crown prince lies a century of struggles over Yemeni land, labor, sovereignty, and foreign domination. From grassroots development and migrant remittances to destroyed farms, contested oilfields, and imperial military assistance, this excavation exposes the material forces driving the conflict. The war Saudi Arabia tried to contain beyond its borders now threatens its capitalist transformation, while Yemen’s struggle for independence remains unfinished.
The School Was Put on Trial, the War Wasn’t: How Minab Became the Crime Scene While Washington’s Attack Became Background
A UN investigation found reasonable grounds to believe U.S. forces committed war crimes in Iran after a primary school in Minab was struck and more than 150 people were killed. But the massacre cannot be understood as an isolated targeting failure inside an otherwise neutral war. The U.S.-Israeli assault began while diplomacy was still active, unfolded through a campaign that publicly celebrated overwhelming force, and repeatedly carried destructive power into civilian space. Minab exposes the larger structure: a war of aggression fragmented into legal incidents, technical explanations and media frames that make the crime scene visible while the war that created it slips into the background.