Yemen. Are western politicians that dumb?

[HughJass]

Talk about flogging a dead horse of a policy in the middle east

U.S. kicks hornet's nest in Yemen

Failed attack on Detroit-bound plane was retaliation for American military ops in the Arabian country, sources say

By ERIC MARGOLIS

Welcome to the Afghanistan of Arabia.

Yemen, the likely source of the failed Christmas Day airliner bombing at Detroit, has just rudely intruded into the west's awareness. Sources there claim the attack by a young Nigerian was retaliation for extensive covert U.S. military operations in Yemen.

I first explored Yemen in the mid-1970s. This magical land of fierce tribesmen was just then creeping into the 11th century. At the southwest corner of the Arabian Peninsula, mountainous, verdant Yemen was the Biblical land of the Queen of Sheba and originator of perfume.

Sana'a, the walled capitol, was straight out of Arabian Nights. At dusk, a ram's horn would sound and its gates would close for the night. Beyond lay warlike tribesmen who would slit your throat for a watch.

Almost every man wore a curved tribal dagger in his belt and went heavily armed.

There were no hotels, so I slept in the dining room of one of the palaces of the former ruler, Ahmed the Devil, who enjoyed nailing annoying people to his palace gate. Old Ahmed spent the rest of his time smoking hashish and cavorting with his well-stocked harem.

In 1990, the former British colony of Aden joined North Yemen. A military dictator, Ali Saleh, has held power since 1978. Saleh's U.S.-backed regime is accused of extensive human rights violations and deep corruption.

The 23 million people of the two Yemen's have feuded for decades. Yemen also battled with neighbour Oman, a virtual colony of MI6, British intelligence.

In a wonderful colonial punch-up, Britain's fabled SAS commandos in pink-painted jeeps (they blended perfectly with sand) battled Yemeni-backed nationalists known as the "Red Wolves of Radfan."

I naturally fell in love with Yemen, despite getting caught in tribal gunfights in the north, being nearly kidnapped and falling dreadfully ill.

At 4 p.m., every Yemeni would go off duty, sit in groups and chew the mild narcotic shrub qat for two hours while getting silly and swapping tall tales and jokes. Qat, Yemen's primary crop, curbs the appetite, so most lucky Yemenis are skinny.

I saw tall, majestic Yemeni Jews proudly striding down the street dressed in flowing robes and turbans and sporting daggers, long beards and large silver stars of David around their necks -- a vision straight from the Old Testament.

Today, turbulent Yemen has become a haven for anti-American militants. Osama bin Laden's father came from Yemen. The destroyer USS Cole was bombed in Aden harbor in 2000.

The most prominent militant group is al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a fusion of local Yemeni and Saudi jihadists dedicated to replacing the Saudi monarchy and Yemeni military regime with an Islamic government.

AQAP numbers around 100 men. It is not an organic part of Osama bin Laden's group but a like-minded local revolutionary group.

Dirt poor Yemen has three civil wars going on and bitter fighting between Sunni and various Shia sects. Yemen's warlike tribes hate any outside authority, starting with their own government.

Recently, the Saudis, backed by U.S. air power, CIA and special forces, intervened against Shia Houthi tribesmen along Yemen's undemarcated northern desert border.

Just before the Detroit air incident, U.S. warplanes killed 50-100 Yemeni tribesmen fighting the American-backed regime. U.S. special forces, warplanes and killer drones have been active since 2001, assassinating Yemeni militants and anti-government tribal leaders. It was only a matter of time before Yemeni jihadists struck back at the U.S.

Even Washington now admits that Yemen is the new hotbed of anti-western jihadist activity. Meanwhile, U.S. and NATO forces are supposedly in Afghanistan to fight al-Qaida -- which long ago decamped to Pakistan and Yemen.

The U.S. is being drawn into turbulent Yemen just as it is also expanding military operations across the Red Sea in Somalia and southern Kenya.

Britain, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are also getting involved in Yemen.

Another hornet's nest kicked. Expect more nasty stings.

eric.margolis@sunmedia.ca

:shakehead:

 

[Bryan]

Talk about flogging a dead horse of a policy in the middle east

What "dead horse of a policy" are you talking about?

 

[HughJass]

Paying off Arab/Islamic despots who don't have full control of their own countries while trying to win wars with airstrikes which don't do anything other than convince the entire population that taking up arms against America and anything/body associated with it would be probably make for a good day job

 

[Bryan]

So what would YOU do about Yemen? Got any better idea?

 

[The Gardener]

Are western politicians that dumb?

Yes

So what would YOU do about Yemen? Got any better idea?

How about we end our reliance on Middle Eastern oil?

 

[Old Baldy]

Are western politicians that dumb?

Yes

[quote:1jj7xwqa]So what would YOU do about Yemen? Got any better idea?

How about we end our reliance on Middle Eastern oil?[/quote:1jj7xwqa]

How do we do that Gardener?

 

[Old Baldy]

So what would YOU do about Yemen? Got any better idea?

I don't.

 

[The Gardener]

[quote="The Gardener":2msfnmjs]

Are western politicians that dumb?

Yes
[quote:2msfnmjs]So what would YOU do about Yemen? Got any better idea?

How about we end our reliance on Middle Eastern oil?[/quote:2msfnmjs]
How do we do that Gardener?[/quote:2msfnmjs]
Good question... it would have been a lot easier issue if we addressed this a few decades ago, but, we have had ZILCH leadership from our leaders on this topic and now we are paying the price in the form of terrorism, sky high trade deficits, and financial ruin.

It was about the time of the Nixon Administration when the US flipped from being a net oil exporter to a net oil importer. At this same time, the US began running trade deficits, and flipped from being a net creditor nation to a net debtor nation. This is no coincidence.

Our trade deficits have been balooning higher and higher ever since, which economically is SUPPOSED to put downward pressure on our currency to help rectify the imbalances. Instead of allowing this to happen, our leaders ever since Nixon have engaged in increasing financial chicanery to paper over the imbalances... from taking our currency off of a precious metal standard, to running fiscal deficits, to purposefully running a "loose money" policy through manipulation by the Fed. In short, the US cannot continue to run trade deficits, continue to buy more from others than we sell to them, in perpetuity, without the dollar going kaput and oil is the prime driver of this. The Fed's loose money policy has only resulted in an explosion of debt, and there is increasing doubt about how much of this we can continue to collateralize using future tax revenues. Once a point is reached where the US taxpayer is no longer considered "trusted collateral" for issuance of currency and debt, the US will melt down.

So, seeing as there is no easy answer to this, the only viable way of addressing it is through policies that will not be pleasant or palatable. I'm doubtful that alternative or domestic energy sources can replace the demand for foreign energy, so, this probably means policies that force drastic and severe cuts in our use of petroleum.

There is no other way out of it. Continue as we are, and the trade deficits will continue to soar, and our financial situation will totally implode. In our current model, the United States buys more petroleum from foreigners than we have money to pay for it from goods we export. We are like a man who requires more food from a restaurant to stay alive than the man makes in wages from his job.

I suppose one way out would be to find some new revolutionary product, gadget, or widget that we can sell to the rest of the world that would earn us enough money in export to allow us to continue to buy foreign oil and break even? Whatever this product is, it needs to be something OTHER than fraudulent financial "assets"... "financial services" as an "export" isn't working anymore!

 

[HughJass]

So what would YOU do about Yemen? Got any better idea?

There's nothing that can be done there, not with armed force anyway. Yemen is a symptom of a bigger problem and it's about to get worse. The US is walking straight into the trap. Again.

I would have thought that we have well and truly reached the point where most people start to realize that the complete inverse of what we are doing in those countries is the solution to the problem.

 

[HughJass]

Are western politicians that dumb?

Yes

They can't be. I just can't accept it.


I think they are just more psychopathic, greedy and narcissistic then we give them credit for. I think they are just willing to sacrifice a percentage of us in order to keep these policies going. They benefit too much from them to let them go.

 

[The Gardener]

There's nothing that can be done there, not with armed force anyway. Yemen is a symptom of a bigger problem and it's about to get worse. The US is walking straight into the trap. Again.

I agree.

I think they are just more psychopathic, greedy and narcissistic then we give them credit for. I think they are just willing to sacrifice a percentage of us in order to keep these policies going. They benefit too much from them to let them go.

I have a slightly different take on it. I think they pursue these policies because there is money to be made in them. And, I think that stretching the government and its resources to the point of chaos also suits them. Any thief will tell you that chaos makes for an optimal context in which to steal money. Consider the US "TARP" bank bailout... what's the best way to get someone to write you a $700B blank check? Create chaos. And then the government will do whatever you want them to do with no questions asked.

Additionally, from a historic perspective, whenever regimes are facing financial collapse, they start wars. Why? Out of survival. In order to maintain power, blame for the collapse needs to be deflected towards an external enemy so as to prevent the existing regime from being taken down. And, it seems the current leadership (just as the last leadership) is hell bent on starting world war three in the Middle East. Perhaps physically controlling the oil is their idea of solving the financial black hole created by the multiple deficits that the US is in? Despite the grossly disgusting idea it is, at least it would be SOME semblance of a logical explanation for the apparently almost suicidal policies that are being pursued?

None of this is going to end well. Devaluation of the currency, imperial overstretch, chauvanistic hubris... all are classic symptoms of the end of empire.

I just hope that the force that arises from the shambles to "fix things" isn't some homegrown Hitler.

 

[Doug Douglas]

If McCain had been elected we'd be making more progress toward a cure for hairloss.

 

[s.a.f]

If McCain had been elected we'd be making more progress toward a cure for hairloss.

I doubt it, Palin would be trying to cure it with 'the power of prayer'!