Yemen And The Collapse of Obama’s Middle East Policy
He has left the U.S. with few military options and little influence over allies or regional actors.
NRO
By Tom Rogan
March 26, 2015
Excerpt:
‘Astounding.”
That was how ABC News’s Jon Karl reacted yesterday to Josh Earnest’s assertion that Yemen remains a model for counterterrorism.
In fact, Karl was so astounded that he asked Earnest to clarify.
The White House press secretary dutifully responded:
What the United States will do and has done is work to try to support the central government, build up the capacity of local fighters, and use our own technological and military capabilities to apply pressure on the extremists there.
There are a few problems with this strategy. First, Yemen’s “central government” no longer exists. Second, Yemen’s “local fighters” are divided between the Houthi rebels, al-Qaeda, and regional separatists. Third, with the CIA and Pentagon having evacuated Yemen, ground-level U.S. “military capabilities” are almost nonexistent.
Moreover, Yemen is now a regional war zone.
After all, a coalition of Sunni governments is now pursuing Operation “Storm of Resolve” (a title perhaps designed to repudiate President Obama’s “ steady resolve” strategy) to restore Yemen’s deposed president, Mansour Hadi.
To be sure, a movement of regional actors to check the Iranian-supported Houthi rebels seems positive. But there’s one problem. Beyond intelligence/logistics support, America isn’t directly involved. And that means the U.S. will have little influence over what the Sunni alliance actually does in Yemen.
And that leads to another problem.
*snip*
Yet, led by foreign-policy luminaries like Susan Rice, Ben Rhodes, and Valerie Jarrett (a.k.a. “the Oracle”), Obama is confident that his detachment is good strategy. Correspondingly, Earnest’s comments yesterday weren’t a symptom of political spin, but rather a signifier of immense, albeit genuine, delusion. The White House genuinely believes that Middle Eastern stability is best served by American hesitation.
Reality begs to disagree.
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