Yemen is one of the poorest nations in the world, with high unemployment, a low literacy rate, a corrupt government, a well-armed population with a history of stronger allegiance to tribe, clan, and family than to the nation, and a long history of civil conflict. Many analysts consider Yemen a leading candidate to become a “failed state,” as Afghanistan once was and Somalia is now. Both Afghanistan and Somalia have become havens for al-Qaida and other Jihadist Muslim organizations intent on destabilizing secular Arab nations and launching attacks on Western interests. The presence of al-Qaida is not Yemen’s only military problem, though it may be the most pressing as 2010 begins. The attempted bombing of an American airliner on Christmas Day, 2009 has been linked to al-Qaida forces in Yemen (part of the larger al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula organization, also known as AQAP). The suspected airline bomber spent time in Yemen and evidence points toward the likelihood that he received training in Yemen from al-Qaida. Also, a Yemeni radical Yemeni cleric was connected to the U.S. Army officer who killed several soldiers at Fort Hood earlier this year. As of this writing, many experts believe that an increased American involvement in Yemen is highly likely in 2010 as,..READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE AT: http://www.historyguy.com/yemen_history_wars_politics.htm
Posts Tagged ‘war’
68th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor Attack
December 7, 2009, marks the 68th anniversary of the surprise Japanese attack on the U.S. military bases in and around Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This attack launched America into World War Two and literally changed the course of history. Without being attacked first, it is highly unlikely that the U.S. would have entered World War Two. By attacking the United States, Japan thought it would cripple or destroy the U.S. Pacific fleet, thereby preventing American forces from stopping Japan’s Asian blitzkrieg. In the days and weeks following the Pearl Harbor attack, Japanese forces attacked American, British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealander, and Dutch forces as Japan seized the Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), and New Guinea. American islands at Wake and Guam were also attacked and occupied.
Believing that America had suffered a crippling blow, Hitler and Mussolini also declared war on the United States, thereby bringing American power into the war against the Nazis and the Fascists. As history now shows, America’s entry into World War Two ensured Allied victory, as the Nazis and Fascists were destroyed in Europe, and Japan fell under the power of two atomic bombs some four years after their ill-fated and ill-advised assault on Pearl Harbor.
For more information, go to: http://www.historyguy.com/battle_of_pearl_harbor.html
New Biography Page on General McChrystal, Afghanistan Commander
George Stanley McChrystal (b. August, 14, 1954)
General Stanley A. McChrystal is an American army general who was named the commander of allied forces in Afghanistan, and assumed command of those forces in May of 2009.
General McChrystal is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. McChyrstal is a Green Beret and an Army Ranger, as well as a veteran commander in Special Operations, also known as “Black Ops.”
McChrystal served in Afghanistan as chief of staff of the military operations in 2001 and 2002. He also commanded the 75th Ranger Regiment and served tours in Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
Forces under General McChrystal’s command found and captured Saddam Hussein and with tracking and killing Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Mesopotamia (al-Qaida in Iraq).
General McChrystal replaced General David McKiernan…
http://www.historyguy.com/biofiles/mcchrystal_stanley_general.htm
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (also known as the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Treaty)
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (also known as the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Treaty)
Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a Non-Aggression treaty on August 23, 1939. This treaty between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union set the stage for the German invasion of Poland a week later, which was the opening round of World War Two in Europe. The second part of this treaty remained secret, and called for the division of Eastern Europe between Hitler and Stalin.
By getting Stalin to agree to not oppose an invasion of Poland, Hitler was assured of a fairly easy war, or so he thought. The agreement to divide Eastern Europe between them ensured that Moscow would not join the British and French in a defense of Poland. The Soviet victory four days earlier in the short border war with Japan (See Battle of Khalhkin Gol) allowed Stalin to free up forces for his own aggression against Poland, the Baltic States, and Finland.
Had these two bloody-minded tyrants not signed this treaty, Hitler may not have invaded Poland, thereby triggering the European phase of World War Two.
Wars of Poland
The Flag of Poland
New page now online which looks at the wars of Poland from about 1600 to the Present.
At: http://www.historyguy.com/wars_of_poland.htm
August 20, 1939-Final Stage of the Battle of Khalkhin Gol (also known as the Battle of Nomonhan)
On this date in 1939, one of the last prequels to World War Two as a truly global war entered its last phase.
Since May 1939, Soviet and Japanese forces had engaged in a major battle on the steppes of Mongolia. The end of this battle began on August 20, 1939, as Soviet forces under the command of General Georgy Zhukov began the offensive that would defeat the Japanese, and end the months-long Battle of Khalkhin Gol/Nomonhan that pitted huge numbers of Japanese forces against the combined forces of Communist allies, the Soviet Union, and Mongolia.
The Japanese planned a third major offensive against the Soviets to begin on August 24. Zhukov plan to attack the Japanese first gave him the advantage, and neutralized the Japanese plan. Zhukov massed a large armored force of three tank brigades (the 4th, 6th and 11th), and two mechanized brigades (7th and 8th, which were armoured car units with attached infantry support). All told, General Zhukov would use three rifle divisions, two tank divisions, two additional tank brigades (498 tanks and 250 fighterplanes with bomber support) in the coming battle. The Mongolians (on whose territory the fighting took place) added two cavalry divisions. Japan’s Kwantung Army, could only match this Communist army with two lightly armored divisions at the point of attack, centered around Lieutenant General Michitaro Komatsubara’s 23rd Division. Japanese military intelligence failed to understand the sizeof the Soviet buildup or the full scope of Zhukov attack plan.
Zhukov sent 50,000 Soviet and Mongolian troops of the 57th Special Corps to the east bank of the Khalkhyn Gol river, then sent his main force (three infantry divisions, massed artillery, a tank brigade, and the best planes of the Soviet Air Force) across the river on August 20, 1939, to attack the Japanese forces. After the Japanesearmy was pinned down by the attack of the Soviet main force, the armoured forces already on the east bank moved around the flanks of the Japanese position and attacked the Kwantung Army in the rear, cutting lines of communication. This resulted a classic double envelopment of the Japanese position by the Soviet and Mongolian forces. When the two wings of Zhukov’s attack linked up at Nomonhan village on August 25, the Japanese 23rd division was trapped. On August 26, a Japanese attack to relieve the 23rd division failed. On August 27, the last attempt to break out of the encirclement also failed. The Japanese, surrounded by the Soviets, refused to surrender. The Soviets destroyed the remaining Japanese troops with artillery and air attacks. The battle ended on August 31, 1939 with the complete destruction of the Japanese forces. Remaining Japanese units retreated to east of Nomonhan, and re-entered Japanese-occupied Manchuria (which is part of China, with whom Japan was already at war).
See also: http://www.historyguy.com/worldwartwo/august_20_1939.htm
Gulf War MIA Recovered
The one MIA in the Gulf War/1st War
with Iraq, (compared to 1,740 MIA in the Vietnam War), was Navy
pilot, Captain Michael “Scott” Speicher was shot down and was neither
rescured, nor was a body found until, on August 2, 2009, the Pentagon
announced that U.S. Marines stationed in Iraq had found Speicher’s
remains.
See also: http://www.historyguy.com/GulfWar.html#gulfwarcasualties
and
U.S.
identifies remains of pilot missing in Persian Gulf
War–LA Times, Aug. 2,
2009
Ironically, or perhaps intentionally,
the Pentagon announced the recovery of Speicher’s on the 19th
anniversary of Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, which occurred on
August 2, 1990, and sparked the following 19 years of war between the
U.S. and Iraq.
Wars of 1939: Start of World War Two
Uploaded a new page called The Wars and Conflicts of1939: The Eve of World War Two.
at: http://www.historyguy.com/worldwartwo/wars_of_1939.htm
key words for this page include: war, wars, 1939, world war one, spanish civil war, spain, france, britain, germany, italy, albania, ethiopia, poland, sino-japanese war, arab revolt, palestine revolt, german occupation, occupation of czechoslovakia, occupation of memel, occupation of klaipeda, lithuania, slovak-hungarian war, little war, italian invasion of albania, chile coup 1939, ariostazo coup, soviet-japanese border war, battle of khalkhin gol, nomonhan, german invasion of poland, case white, fall weiss, soviet invasion of poland, world war two starts, poland invasion, winter war, finland, russia, soviet union, russian invasion.
History Guy Website Update
New and updated pages on the History Guy Website at http://www.historyguy.com include information on several wars and conflicts, including:
–The Habsburg-Valois wars of the 1400s and 1500s, which were waged largely in Italy between France and the Holy Roman Empire (which was dominated by Austria). See: http://www.historyguy.com/french_wars_in_italy_habsburg_valois_wars.htm
–The wars of The Habsburg Empire,(better known as Austria-Hungary), between the years 1815, at the end of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and 1918, at the end of the First World War, resulting in the collapse and death of the Habsburg Empire. See: http://www.historyguy.com/wars_of_habsburg_empire_austria-hungary_1815-1918.htm
–The wars in the region of Africa known as “The Horn of Africa,” including the nations of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia. This page discusses such wars as Somalia’s “Mad Mullah,” the ongoing Oromo resistance in Ethiopia, the Ogaden War, the bloody Ethiopian-Eritrean Wars, the Somali Civil War, and, most recently, the Somali Pirate Attacks that plague the shipping industry off the coast of Somalia.
See :http://www.historyguy.com/wars_of_the_horn_of_africa.htm
President Obama Announces New Afghan War Plan
President Obama’s Afghanistan Strategy (2009)
On March 27, 2009, President Obama, flanked by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, announced his new strategy toward the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Below are the video of his announcement and the text of President Obama’s announcement. To see this page, go to: http://www.historyguy.com/obama_afghanistan_strategy_2009.htm
