The Decisive Storm: 2415 Air Sorties and 100 Bentleys

2015-05-14 - 2:45 ص

Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): In the early morning of March 26, 2015, the Gulf nations woke up to the declaration of a war against Yemen led by Saudi Arabia alongside its allies. Riyadh specified the objectives behind its decisive storm as: 1- Restoring Mansour Hadi to power and the government's legitimacy, 2- Forcing the Houthis out of Aden and Sanaa to Saada, 3- Having the Houthis surrender their weapons 4- Launching a dialogue in Saudi Arabia. It also announced that it won't stop the storm unless it achieves its goals.

Four weeks later, before the people of the Gulf went to their beds, on April 21, 2015, Saudi Arabia declared halting its "Decisive Storm" without anyone knowing the objectives it had achieved, other than leading to thousands of civilian deaths, tens of thousands of displaced persons and refugees and destruction of the country's infrastructure which was already weak.

The storm did not meet any of its declared objectives; Hadi did not return to power nor did the Houthis withdraw. They; however, expanded their grip and, of course, did not surrender their weapons.

As soon as Saudi Arabia declared ending the storm, Twitter was overwhelmed by various comments, some voicing condemnation, and others expressing astonishment and surprise. Some tweets posed questions, while others were full of irony and gloating, and of course, some celebrated victory.

An advisor to the crown prince of Abu Dhabi Abdulkhaleq Abdullah commented on his twitter account, saying: "As the decisive storm was announced suddenly, it has ended suddenly." Abdullah added mockingly: "A Bentley gift will be given to the one who figures out what the next surprise is," referring to a tweet by Al-Waleed Bin Talal saying: "100 Bentley cars for 100 Saudi pilots" which he later deleted announcing that his account was hacked.


"The decision to end #the_decisive_storm is mainly political rather than military."


The Bahraini Dr. Abdulhadi Khalaf tweeted, "this is an issue that deserves contemplation: The decisive storm aircraft launched 2415 sorties, the cost of each sortie is 42,000 USD, excluding the cost of bombs and missiles."

"I thank the Pakistani Parliament that contributed in ending the Decisive Storm by refusing unanimously to sacrifice the Pakistani army in a war launched by the richest five Arab countries against the poorest," Khalaf added.

The Qatari Nasser Al Kahlifa tweeted: "Justifying that the end of the Decisive Storm was by an Omani initiative without presenting facts does not convince anyone with a sound mind. Ending the Decisive Storm before defeating Saleh and the Houthi means that they won."

A Saudi tweeter named Jamal Bean wrote: "The result: our country's remote controller is in the hands of the US. It makes its decisions based on its interests. It negotiated with Russia and Iran and then decided and ordered the command center."

"The devastation that we left in Yemen and the killing of hundreds of innocent people made us look like (Israel 2) in the eyes of Arabs and Muslims," he added.

Jamal Bean further stated: "Reports about a million man march in Sanaa supporting the Houthi...What a scandal!! O Decisive Storm where are the promises of destroying the Houthi?!!!"

He also highlighted that, "there is a conflict between Salman and his son over the storm operation's defeat. Salman's son does not want to stop and is ordering warplanes to strike while Salman is preventing him. Things might get worse."

Meanwhile, Abdullah Al-Shamri said: "Oh President Hadi! You left Aden amid these very dangerous conditions caused by the Houthis, while Yemen is witnessing difficult times... This is new and important news." This as Sultan Al-Jumairi commented: "You deserve a decisive storm Hadi...You said a lot, but nothing fruitful."

As for Fayed Al-Olaiwi, he said, "Isn't there any Saudi, independent and brave journalist to inquire about the arrangements that led to halting the Decisive Storm?"

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