From a National Journal article by Sara Sochher as disseminated by the Global Security Newswire
WASHINGTON -- As the United States spearheads the attack against Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi's military assets, key former officials said an even bigger threat to U.S. national security comes from Yemen, a country that hosts many militants and is now enmeshed in a civil uprising that is threatening to unseat U.S.-backed President Ali Abdullah Saleh (see GSN, Feb. 10).
According to former Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff, “From a security standpoint, our interest in what happens in Yemen is much more significant than our interest in Libya, In Libya it's a humanitarian issue -- there's some security issue, but really, Yemen is a critical issue.”
It will seem politically two-faced, at least from where this scrivener sits, if the occupant of the White House elects to bomb the insurgents in Yemen after bombing the government in Libya.
Of course the difference is, Libya's Gaddafi is not in Obama's pocket and Yemen's Ali Abdullah Saleh is paid by Washington.
For all that Yemen is supposed to be in Washington's pocket, the National Journal article continues that "Before the recent unrest, two mail bombs crafted by a notorious al-Qaeda bombmaker in Yemen were intercepted in October before reaching Jewish synagogues in Chicago, and eight months earlier, airline passengers succeeded in stopping a Nigerian man trained by al-Qaeda in Yemen from blowing up a Detroit-bound plane (see GSN, Nov. 3, 2010). Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki -- currently on a U.S. capture-or-kill list -- is thought to be hiding in Yemen’s restive south. Awlaki was recently charged in Yemen for trying to kill foreigners in connection with the case against Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, who went on a shooting spree in 2009 at a military base in Fort Hood, Texas."
Perhaps Obama thinks he is getting the taxpayers' moneys worth from the Yemen puppet, but it would seem, if the foregoing is accurate, that the taxpayer is being short-changed.
It's time Obama left the middle east alone. For the U.S., getting involved in domestic warfare is a lose-lose situation. When will he ever learn?
