Reddit reviews Yemen: Dancing on the Heads of Snakes

If you want to learn more about Yemen, I recommend checking out this book. Great read that explains how big a shit show Yemen is and how things are only going to get worse before they get worse.

Some interesting things about Yemen:

• Most of Mohammed's followers were Yemeni.
  
• Yemeni speak a form of Arabic closest to the Koran of all Arab dialects.
  
• The Yemeni see themselves as the true Arabs, and their word for all other Arabs is something like "became Arab."
  
• Yemen (well, South Yemen, formerly British) had the only Marxist government in the entire Arab world.
  
• There are three main groups of Yemenis. Shia, who moved from Iran a real long time ago, and who live in the highlands (north of Sanaa). Coastal and Southern Sunnis. And the Haudramaut in the east. They live in a long, east-west valley. They have a very old reputation as international traders and businesspeople.
  
• The bin-Ladens are a Yemeni Hadramaut family.
  
• Yemenis are #1, in terms of their numbers, in the overall network of anti-American fighters (i.e terrorists). However, they are usually foot soldiers, while Egyptians are more of the "sergeants."
  
• About 110 or 120 years ago, Yemen became the first, "modern" Arab state (i.e. had a bureaucracy).
  
  I also read that the Yemeni secret service is about as pro-al Qaeda as anyone. Turkmenistan also doesn't get enough credit for supporting the Taliban/Islamic radicals.
  
  For more on Yemen, I recommend "Dancing on the Heads of Snakes", written by a woman who both studies Yemen and who lived in British Aden. I read an academic work on the subject at the same time and they seemed to match up very well, with the Clark book being much more readable.