September 25, 2026
The Houthis are a small tribe in Yemen’s mountainous north who love their quirky Zaidi sect of militant Islam, cherish their guns, and love to chew the narcotic shrub qat. I joined Houthis in the wild mountains of Yemen to follow their wars and chew qat.
Houthis like to argue, smoke weed and repel invaders. They live in one of our planet’s wildest, most inhospitable regions, so bleak and arid that even the local camels are cranky and irritable.
The highlands are filled with squabbling tribes who call themselves pure Muslims while accusing their neighbors of being ‘bad’ Muslims. They do not welcome outsiders unless they bring tobacco and ammunition. The Houthis really dislike their Sunni Muslim neighbors. They deeply detest their Saudi Arabian neighbors who, in turn, despise their Yemeni neighbors as unlettered mountain bandits.
Into this hotpot of neighborhood animosities strode the Saudis. Long dismissed as illiterate Bedouin hicks, the increasingly rich Saudis decided they wanted to be the regional power. One of their first targets were the Houthis high up in the Arabian mountains.
Saudi Arabia had a strategic problem. Its rulers do not trust their small, feeble army. They fear it might stage a coup as is common in most Arab nations. So, the Saudis maintain a second Bedouin force called the `White Army’. It’s a glorified camel corps. Saudi used to rent a 15,000-man division of Pakistan’s crack army to protect its oil fields from covetous neighbors. Talks are underway again between Islamabad and the Saudis for a new Pakistani mercenary force.
In 2018, Saudi Arabia began a heavy bombing campaign against whatever Houthi targets could be found. Britain supplied the strike fighters. Pilots were mainly mercenaries from the US and Britain. Like the current US bombing campaign against Iran, results were sparse.
The attacks made a lot of Houthis really angry. Reportedly, 10,000 Houthis were killed. Finally, a bunch of Houthi warriors decided to go attack Saudi Arabia. Yemen’s Houthis fired barrages of medium-range missiles at Saudi military bases and oil fields. At the same time, Houthis begam impeding the sole maritime passage out of the Red Sea, the Bab el-Mandeb. Coupled with the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz, closing the Bab el-Mandeb (Gate of Tears) put world oil markets and shipping routes into a panic.
The Houthi blockade and Iran’s closure of the Hormuz Strait caused a major jump in the price of oil and diesel fuel. Americans were outraged, particularly the truck drivers and farmers who formed Trump’s voter base. The credo of America’s far right remains ‘God, guns and gasoline.’ All three are sacred.
The Saudis are now pleading with the US, Britain, Israel and Pakistan to go after the Houthis. Large cash incentives are being offered to anyone who will bash these insolent tribesmen. Trump, for one, is scared of another small war. He should be.
Interestingly, the obscure Houthis are the only Arab nation willing to retaliate against Israel for its savaging of the Palestinians. The powerful Muslim nations – Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey – are scared of Israel and don’t give a damn for the Palestinians,
So, the honor and pride of the Muslim world lies in the hands of a bunch of rag-tag, pot-smoking mountain bandits. A lot of Muslims would like to see them give the snooty Saudis a good kicking. Meanwhile, the Egyptians are sneaking troops back into Yemen, paid for, of course, by the Saudis.
Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2026
This post is in: Mideast
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