The Other Wars on Terror

You’re not still thinking about Afghanistan are you? The U.S. may be sending more troops and treasure there, but the real action is in other failed and failing states such as Somalia and Yemen, which has gotten visits from David Petraeus, Joe Lieberman and some of the CIA’s finest in recent months.

Here are a few questions raised by The New York Times article linked below:

1. What’s the point of sending a hundred thousand troops to Afghanistan if the terrorists can just work out of their vacation caves in Yemen?

2. Why do we have to spend billions on Afghanistan if we can suppress terror in Yemen for a lousy $70 million? That’s public radio money. We can find that in the White House couch.

3. Before we go raising another proxy army, can we at least try not to bomb people and prop up their abusive dictators? — PZS

The New York Times:

In the midst of two unfinished major wars, the United States has quietly opened a third, largely covert front against Al Qaeda in Yemen.

A year ago, the Central Intelligence Agency sent several of its top field operatives with counterterrorism experience to the country, according a former top agency official. At the same time, some of the most secretive Special Operations commandos have begun training Yemeni security forces in counterterrorism tactics, senior military officers said.

The Pentagon is spending more than $70 million over the next 18 months, and using teams of Special Forces, to train and equip Yemeni military, Interior Ministry and coast guard forces, more than doubling previous military aid levels.

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