Maybe We’ll Be Better off With Yemenis if We Stop Backing the Arab Despots?
On Christmas Day I wrote about the President’s apparent “catch, release, and explode” policy toward Islamists operating out of Yemen. Clearly I meant it as a joke, but after reading a couple articles today, I’m thinking it’s not all that funny.
The New York Times revealed today (via memeorandum) that the Bush administration started ramping up special forces and CIA operations in Yemen a year ago. We’ve been “using teams of Special Forces, to train and equip Yemeni military, Interior Ministry and coast guard forces” as well as, evidently, lining up Islamists inside Yemen for special airborne explosive gifts from our military. Senator Joe Lieberman has been all over this relatively new Yemen/Islamist connection, doing a small amount of saber-rattling and getting nought but grief from the anti-war surrender monkeys on the left.
It’s possible that Yemen has been getting the message and that the initiative inherited by President Obama (to use his patios of avoidance) is starting to deliver the desired results. The government there announced that it arrested 29 Islamists who were involved in a variety of plots, including one to blow up the British Embassy. Of course, al-Qaeda has successfullybeen using the presence of the Great American Satan to ingratiate itself to the common Yemeni. I expect that will continue to be a winning strategy for the Islamists until we can publicly prevail on the various tyrannies in the Middle East, including the relatively benign ones like exist in Yemen, to open themselves up to real democratic reform. It doesn’t do us much good to break one Islamist yoke only to help them into another.
Other Posts of Interest:
- Meanwhile, in the Real World…
- Kick Islamist Heinie from Pillar to Post? Win Hearts and Minds? Yes, We Can!
- The President’s Islamist-Fighting Strategy: Catch, Release…Explode?
Category: Fighting the Islamists
