Quote Originally Posted by davidbfpo View Post
Cited in part:

I agree, but somehow I expect very few people who were involved in the decision-making, let alone actual "boots on the ground" are now involved, let alone being listened to. Something in my memory tells me Egypt came to regard their "brotherly" intervention as their own Vietnam. The KSA did commit some troops, but it was mainly gold they contributed.

As Wiki reminded me this war was from 1962-1970. See:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Yemen_Civil_War

Just found via Google a 21 pg paper:http://www.alexthorn.com/writings/Th...ptsVietnam.pdf

Once again your example reminds us that history has a habit of fading away, only to return and "bite" hard. Those who remind the decision-makers are all too often seen as "troublesome"; which seems to account for much of SWJ's infamy.
Ah, you mean the Yemen War of 1962-1970: Saudis were 'only financing' that affair back then, they never became directly involved. That is: the British convinced them to sponsor arms purchases for 'Royalists'; then, with help of that Saudi money, British were purchasing arms from Israel, Jordan, Iran etc., and providin these to Royalists (BTW, majority of Royalists were the Zaidis - including Houthis - whom the Saudis are now fighting against).

(Note: strongly-recommended reading in this regards is The War That Never Was; Mind how shortsighted the British policy was, back then; they were de-facto supporting a Wahhabist regime against a laicist government in Egypt that was attempting to establish a laicist government in North Yemen...)

What I had in my mind when pointing out at that sentence is the Yemen War of 2009-2010. That was the actual Saudi 'military academy' - i.e. the 'crucial war-fighting experience' for their military.

...and this much more so than 'any' 1991: namely, what Saudis (i.e. the Saudi-led coalition) is (or was, considering the latest cease-fire) doing in Yemen since 24 March 2015, is exactly 'lessons learned from 2009-2010'.

Which in turn results in my POV that anybody gauging Saudi military performance in Yemen 2015-2016 by its (perceived or real) performance of 1991 simply has no clue what is he/she talking about.