wtf is this Yemen blowoup?

[Famous Mortimer]

You summarized it basically correctly. What is confusing you?

[Famous Mortimer]

No, the United States is not responsible for the Sunni/Shiite divide. It existed many hundreds of years before the United States even existed.

[Famous Mortimer]

You've already decided you want to blame the US for what's going on. What's the point of even asking? I guess you just want people to back you up about how evil America is. Sorry, there is no obvious US angle behind this. The world does not revolve around us.

[Famous Mortimer]

Well the Southern Movement was much more Communist when it started but now is pretty much single issue and includes everyone including al Qaeda supporters as long as they support federalism at least.

Also, most of the land still held by the Haidi government is actually held by the Southern Movement. After some internal debate, they have more or less chosen to throw their lot in with Haidi. They now make a big deal that he's a former Southerner, even though he actually led the Northern/central government forces in the 94 Civil War.

[Famous Mortimer]

Saleh recently called for the Houthis to withdraw from Sanaa in return for the Saudis stopping all military action.

This was no doubt his plan all along, to ferment chaos and then present himself as the only acceptable compromise.

[Famous Mortimer]

The United States favors the Haidi government but probably doesn't care more than anything. Neither side is great, I think the US government has learned a lot from Syria and Libya and probably just wants to stay out this as much as possible. As you said, a Saudi invasion would harm the Iranian nuclear deal which is a major part of "Obama's legacy" so Obama probably doesn't want a full scale invasion. Ultimately though, what the US wants doesn't matter. Saudi Arabia can do what they want and we can't stop them. Yes, we could stop selling them weapons, but short of the King of Saudi Arabia praising 9/11 on television, that's never going to happen. The fact that it doesn't isn't evidence that the US supports Saudi action. They probably grudgingly back it but it's ultimately irrelevant.

[Famous Mortimer]

Also, Saudi Arabia is supporting a relatively secular, democratically elected government. There's really no reason to be outraged about it unless you have a boner for Obama's Iran deal.