White House Presents Failed Yemen Intervention as ‘Model’ for ISIS War

Insists US 'Mitigated' Threat of Terrorism From Yemen

The disastrous US military intervention in Yemen over the past several years, which has killed large numbers of civilians, installed a corrupt and faltering Hadi regime in a sham election, and has left the nation in a state of open-ended war, is being presented by the White House as a “useful model” for the ISIS war.

The Obama Administration has been attacking targets in Yemen virtually from the start, killing large numbers of civilians in botched airstrikes off and on, initially while attempting to get former dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh to cover for them. It was also a place to assassinate American citizens.

When the Arab Spring brought Saleh’s rule to a close, the US orchestrated a “single candidate election” for President Hadi, with no votes not allowed. They presented Hadi’s election as a model for democracy around the Middle East.

US ground troops have been deployed in Yemen, but mostly without official details on what they are doing there, while the US has escalated a drone war against the country’s south for years.

It’s unfathomable that the administration is still presenting Yemen as a “success story” today, as the Hadi government is being brought to its knees by a growing Shi’ite rebellion in the north, and al-Qaeda mobilizes to fight them in a sectarian war.

To the extent the US has accomplished anything at all in Yemen that they’d like to transfer to Syria, it’s installing a pro-US ruler to nominally manage the tottering state while giving them free reign for an open-ended war against anyone and everyone therein.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.