Is Yemen next? Obama may be inching the U.S. into a new war
The administration of President Barack Obama seems to be easing the United States into another Middle East war -- this time in Yemen.
It would come on top of the war in Iraq, where the United States maintains 120,000 troops, and Afghanistan, where Mr. Obama has ordered a troop escalation of 30,000, to around 100,000.
The Yemen conflict is ostensibly a civil war. It involves a Sunni Muslim government facing a rebellion by a Shiite Muslim force. The fighting is one major skirmish in a long-running series of internal Yemeni wars involving northern and southern parts of the country and the clans and sects that comprise the population.
This round of the conflict is complicated by the involvement of neighboring states -- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates -- on the government/Sunni side. That side, which is seeking to draw in the United States, says that Iran is providing support to the rebel/Shiite side, a claim that Iran vehemently denies.
The Obama administration is getting involved in Yemen after links have surfaced between that country and acts of violence in the United States.
The Nigerian who was charged with trying to set off an explosive Friday on a trans-Atlantic flight from Amsterdam to Detroit said al-Qaida leaders in Yemen trained and equipped him. Yesterday al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was retaliation for U.S. efforts against the group in Yemen.
In addition, a radical cleric in Yemen was linked to the Army major who was charged with murder in the shootings of 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, last month. And a Muslim man who was charged with killing a soldier at a recruiting center in Little Rock, Ark., in June had visited Yemen.
The government/Sunni side in Yemen has received U.S. military support on the basis of claims that al-Qaida backs the rebel/Shiite side, although al-Qaida is almost entirely Sunni in its membership, wherever it is found. The Yemeni government also has U.S. support due to America's alliance with Saudi Arabia, as well as its claim that Iran supports the rebels.
The Obama administration has been providing weapons, intelligence, equipment and training to government forces, including support of air strikes. Yemen will receive $70 million in U.S. aid in the next 18 months, plus a number of U.S. forces and CIA officers that is being kept a secret by the Obama administration.
It's one thing to go after terrorist cells that would harm the United States, but Mr. Obama's effort in Yemen looks long-standing and warrants a detailed explanation to the public.