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This belies a fundamental misunderstanding of Yemeni society. Arab political structure is based on tribal loyalty. Leaders of tribes pledge allegiance to other

This belies a fundamental misunderstanding of Yemeni society. Arab political structure is based on tribal loyalty. Leaders of tribes pledge allegiance to other tribes or coalitions of tribes. They're not part of the same command structure because such a thing does not exist. Usually instead of being defeated tribal loyalties change with the political winds and tribe leaders neogtioate with other leaders. Twitter is also ubiquitous in Arabia and the natural place for political announcements.

culi 5d ago
While that may be true, most of the forces fighting the Houthis are Saudi hired mercenaries. Many of them are literally children from Sudan.
bluegatty 5d ago
While that's helpful and insightful, it's not hugely the issue. The military units are not very well organized, they don't have clear and stringent command, control and communications. They understood a regional commander to be fleeing, units fell back. This is kind of stuff is absolutely as old as time, and it's #1 rule in conflict aka deception. The parallel would be reproducing a General's order to withdraw - meaning the command would have legitimacy among troops and junior officers, believing their own commanders were just out of the loop. And yes - their command structure will be de facto organized along social lines, but it's more descriptive.
- CoastalCoder 5d ago
  > This is kind of stuff is absolutely as old as time, I've only very recently become interested in ancient history, so I'm still very ignorant about this. Are there any particular examples of this tactic you'd suggest studying?
  - pseudohadamard 5d ago
    Not the military stuff but Arab tribal society, read "The First Muslim" by Lesley Hazleton, about Arab society around the year 600. It's an absolute eye-opener.
    - CoastalCoder 4d ago
      Thanks for the tip about that book! I'm case it's helpful to anyone, here's one review of it: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2vxts5/comment/com56ej https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2vxts5/comme... Seems like a tough area of history to be certain about.
  - bluegatty 5d ago
    It's Art of War. "18. All warfare is based on deception. " AoW is one of the most important historical treatises, it's not just 'something that was written in history', maybe the oldest true 'textbooks' of objective knowledge, and also realpolitik. Also there's hints of metaphysics in there, in a way. It absolutely stands up today. The very first work of the Western Cannon: Trojan Horse. Information / espionage and deception has made most of history; Hannibal, Caesar, Alexander etc. A fun exercise would be to look at battles of history from the lens of information warfare and deception, and contemplate the outcome without it.
    - encrypted_bird 5d ago
      Canon, not cannon. Then again, since this is about war, maybe it should be cannon. Lol.

culi 5d ago

While that may be true, most of the forces fighting the Houthis are Saudi hired mercenaries. Many of them are literally children from Sudan.

bluegatty 5d ago

While that's helpful and insightful, it's not hugely the issue. The military units are not very well organized, they don't have clear and stringent command, control and communications. They understood a regional commander to be fleeing, units fell back. This is kind of stuff is absolutely as old as time, and it's #1 rule in conflict aka deception. The parallel would be reproducing a General's order to withdraw - meaning the command would have legitimacy among troops and junior officers, believing their own commanders were just out of the loop. And yes - their command structure will be de facto organized along social lines, but it's more descriptive.

CoastalCoder 5d ago
> This is kind of stuff is absolutely as old as time, I've only very recently become interested in ancient history, so I'm still very ignorant about this. Are there any particular examples of this tactic you'd suggest studying?
- pseudohadamard 5d ago
  Not the military stuff but Arab tribal society, read "The First Muslim" by Lesley Hazleton, about Arab society around the year 600. It's an absolute eye-opener.
  - CoastalCoder 4d ago
    Thanks for the tip about that book! I'm case it's helpful to anyone, here's one review of it: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2vxts5/comment/com56ej https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2vxts5/comme... Seems like a tough area of history to be certain about.
- bluegatty 5d ago
  It's Art of War. "18. All warfare is based on deception. " AoW is one of the most important historical treatises, it's not just 'something that was written in history', maybe the oldest true 'textbooks' of objective knowledge, and also realpolitik. Also there's hints of metaphysics in there, in a way. It absolutely stands up today. The very first work of the Western Cannon: Trojan Horse. Information / espionage and deception has made most of history; Hannibal, Caesar, Alexander etc. A fun exercise would be to look at battles of history from the lens of information warfare and deception, and contemplate the outcome without it.
  - encrypted_bird 5d ago
    Canon, not cannon. Then again, since this is about war, maybe it should be cannon. Lol.