Why Yemen?

It's hard for us to believe that it is a total coincidence that the crotch bomber was supposedly 'trained' in Yemen, Maj. Hasan communicated with the an imam there, and the other escalations against that benighted country have developed in a vacuum.

Spreading chaos is often a prelude to more robust interventions, and the rhetoric coming from Washington seems to follow that age old pattern:

1. financial and military aid
2. 'advisors'
3. air support (bombing)
4. limited, 'temporary' troop intervention
5. expansion of the enemies list, Yemen will probably be tied to drug trafficking, the other global war.
6. Marines, temporary bases
7. full scale base building (especially airbases) and intervention

Stage one is already in place, the Yemen government is our 'friend' but the press is quick to point out its failings. Expect stages two and three in the near future.

But back to 'why'. Obama's anti-terrorist strategy in world affairs is an obvious sham, whether he knows it or not. US actions increase the possibility of terrorism, they do not reduce it. The question is, who stands to benefit from a big intervention in Yemen?

Obviously, defense contractors, CENTCOM, and foreign policy institutions (all really the same thing). Israel? Hard to see why, except for their generally pro-war anywhere position. Saudi Arabia, perhaps, but they also might be nervous about having more US troops stationed next door. The Arabian peninsula is sensitive to non-Muslim troops, as we know from past adventures.

This will be the first direct intervention initiated by the Obama administration. It's taken all of a year for him to expand from his two inherited wars to three, with Iran as four waiting in the background.

We await further developments with interest, and some dread.