Yemen - no thanks
Hat tip to Fuchs.
Two contrary views found, one by Pat Lang, who served in the Yemen in the 1980's: http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_s...-quagmire.html and a curious cross-posting by Juan Cole (who starts off on other matters and goes onto the Yemen. Nice photos of the terrain though)
:http://www.juancole.com/2009/12/top-...ut-crotch.html
Both liken any US involvement, I assume beyond what is in place already, to entering a quagmire, where the Yemeni's are very adept at playing "power politics" to get support. Almost reminds me of Somalia, a place to avoid which played the "power" game and later fell apart - now largely left alone, piracy excluded.
Another critical voice: http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick12292009.html and his final paragraph:A strategic viewpoint: http://donvandergriff.wordpress.com/...y-a-1000-cuts/he Yemeni government will do what it can to show the US it is willing to go after al-Qa'ida. But the threat to its own existence comes from various directions: first, the civil war it is fighting with Shia revivalists – who it claims are backed by Iran – in the northern province of Saada; then secessionism in the south sparked by discontent over the outcome of Yemeni unification in 1990 and the civil war that followed; and finally a growing economic crisis as Yemen's small oilfields, which provide revenue, are running out.
Pressure from the US to pursue al-Qa'ida will be one extra strain on a government which has been unable to cope with these multiple crises.
One wonders how the Saudi government will regard greater US involvement, if only for the propaganda impact on their own population.
Answers on a postcard!
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