Yemen’s Ruler ‘Embraces’ US Drone Strikes as Military Offensives Continue

Very few foreign rulers are so completely and totally US-approved as Maj. Gen. Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the current head of the Yemeni regime. After former US puppet Ali Abdullah Saleh fell out of favor, US-assisted foreign “negotiations” led to a “election” with Hadi as the only candidate possible, no write-ins allowed, for the role of president.

So you can see where Hadi, whose “election” the US praises as a model for the region, would be more than a little grateful. The reports are, however, that he really likes the drone strikes. Not just in that shrugging sort of way that other foreign leaders have learned to live with them, either.

Former President Saleh lost control of vast portions of the country in his waning months, with provinces like Abyan declaring themselves independent “emirates” and other regions becoming de facto autonomous. Hadi’s regime has based its entire platform on reconquering those regions by sheer force of arms, and having US drones looming overhead lobbing missiles into the regions is just fine with them.

The civilians getting killed in those attacks are less okay with them, and there have been reports of soaring anti-US sentiment in those regions, as well as support for the insurgencies as an alternative, since Hadi certainly isn’t going to do anything about the strikes. At war with his own people, the hand-picked US “successor” sees free missile strikes as too sweet a deal to pass up.