The Obama Administration had pretty much unconditional support from the Saleh government in Yemen throughout its early years, going to the trouble of covering up botched airstrikes for them.
When long-time dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh faced growing unrest, the US orchestrated the “election” of another military strongman, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, in a single-candidate election in 2012. Since then, Hadi’s been the go-to guy for rubber stamping US airstrikes.
The US backed dictators of a country constantly being pounded by US drones aren’t near as stable as officials had hoped, however, and amid growing chaos, Hadi resigned on Thursday, throwing the drone campaign into uncertainty.
President Obama has been keen to claim at least nominal support for his drone wars from seated governments, and while he’s stretched that a bit in Pakistan (claiming “tacit” approval in the face of growing public condemnations), if there is no Yemeni government, there can be no approval.
The US has made a lot of enemies in Yemen, between its backing for Saleh and for the sham of an election that installed Hadi, so there aren’t exactly a lot of potential new governments that will be throwing their support behind the US air war.
That’s true even if the Houthis, the rebels currently in control of the capital, retain power. They have been at war with al-Qaeda in a big way in recent months, and the US drones are focusing on al-Qaeda, but there isn’t a good working relationship there.
The US is unlikely to give up on the drone war, but expect them to go through some mental gymnastics to be able to claim some sort of support for its continuation.
Just as the USG found another way to get things done when the Pakistan government closed the southern route into Afghanistan because of drone strikes and night raids into Pak territory, the USG will find another way – or just ignore the Yemeni government altogether – to run their drones. Afterall, the USG spent millions of taxpayer dollars to build that airbase out in the Yemen desert and you can't expect them to wrap up and go home now, basically throwing all that money down the drain. Congress would demand to know why the Executive wasted all that hard-earned taxpayer $$$$. guffaw, he said.
Yemen Chaos will actually free the US government hands to do whatever it wants to the people of Yemen. Al-Qaeda is small part .It fears that the Yemeni people take control of their country the most and have a government of their choosing.
World first — A government in all out war against killer drones
In every nation where Obama the baby bomber is butchering kids with his killer drones, the local government is in full support. Until now that is, for if the Houthis Army can continue in power, first thing they will get, free for the asking is a drone destroyer radar system from Iran, Russia or China. Then watch all the Western killer drones come crashing out of the sky over a democratic Yemen, hell-bent on liberty.
What will it take for us, the zombie consumers of mass media narrative, to figure it out — THERE IS NO AL-QAEDA IN YEMEN. There has always been FAKE Al-Qaeda, organized, led and funded by Saudi Arabia. THAT Al-Qaeda has NEVER BEEN THE TARGET. THAT Al-Qaeda in Arabia has been a tool for disciplining Yemeni rulers. If they did not do what they were told, Al-Qaeda will start a trouble. Predictable, UTTERLY predictable. The real story in Yemen is the NORTH and the SOUTH. Two very different cultures and ethnicities. The hard to scale mountains of the North were always Shia, and the South, Sunni. There have never been problems among them. North was stable and ruled by Imam in Sana'a, with the agreement of regional and local rulers — nowdays we call them "tribes". Their decentralized governance was well balanced. South, mostly the region of Hadramatw, was similarly organized. Problems for the North stared with a Naserite military coup, and the South, takeover by socialist Government helped by China. And the worst fate befell them after the end of Cold War, when they were "united". US took control over helpless Sana'a government and called it "ally". Fake "Al-Qaeda" was there to keep the president, not much trusted, in line. Shia were pushed into their northern region, while South was just kept down in order to prevent them to get free. So, the drone strikes were not against Al-Qaeda, but against the enemies of the regime, or Southern secessionists. Until now. Shia took over what was once their country, North and West, and leaving the South to secede. There is a deal, and if they are left alone, peace will come to Yemen, after a long, long time. But the famous "Al-Qaeda" is trying to get help before it is pummeled — by screaming that they did Charlie Hebdo, hoping that the "outraged" France and US will come in, the name of getting Al-Qaeda, or ISIS or whatever — try to roll back the situation on the ground. The problem is — government just rolled over, and the military just gave up. So, any intervention would have to come by introducing some forces from the OUTSIDE. Not that Saudi Arabia doe not have spare ISIS fighters, but any fight with Shia on their border, can rise up the Shia on its own side of the border. Secessionists are loaded with money, as behind them stand some of the richest men in Saudi Arabia. As for Yemen being poor — that is a joke. I no longer know what that means. They may not have our trinkets, but their nutrition is by leaps and bounds better then any of the nutrition of urban population in the West today. I know. I did a study on family nutrition, midwifery, child rearing practices back in the seventies for UNICEF. I saw how the villagers live, their farming and pastoral skills. Yemen is blessed with a range of climates by altitude, and everything can grow, from corn to grapevine, from fruits and nuts, to a stunning array of vegetables and grains.
Today, urban population is in trouble — unemployment, debt, poor prospects for the educated. Typical neoliberal economic MESS.
To — Bianca — In the grand scheme of things
You are describing the recent history of Yemen and suggest a course of action you feel is most conducive to ending such a horrible condition.
Problem is, you failed to describe the root cause of the misery, the systemic defect in human nature that causes people to strive for maximum pleasure without regard for future happiness. Truth is, until people reach agreement on the true and correct root cause, never will they organize together in a way that can correct the problem.
Which begs the question, definitely we have a burden to enlighten people, but do we have a burden to intervene in the affairs of men such that we prevent our greed driven society from reaching it’s ultimate conclusion?
For destiny is such an absolute thing and if the only purpose of planet earth is to reach the ultimate conclusion of crime, whereupon all things will turn toward the good, then who are we to short circuit such a grand scheme of things?