Yemen strategy
According to the Associated Press, President Obama doesn’t see a need to change the strategy in Yemen just because the government there has collapsed under the weight of Shiite revolutionaries;
Obama, who is traveling in India, said U.S. operations against a dangerous al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen would not stop because of the country’s political vacuum. In his first public remarks on Yemen since the country’s American-backed president and Cabinet resigned after rebels seized the capital last week, the president rejected the notion of moving away from the current drone-based campaign to a heavier footprint on the ground.
Obama said that the US will “refine and fine-tune this model” – “this model” being his drone campaign. I’m pretty sure that new government in Yemen isn’t going to continue giving their permission to the US for our drone strikes.
Meanwhile, Senator John McCain and Dianne Feinstein are calling for more special operations “boots on the ground”, according to another Associated Press article;
McCain – a Republican who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee – and Feinstein tell CBS’ “Face the Nation” that special operations forces in particular may be necessary to blunt Iranian influence in Yemen and elsewhere.
Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, says the U.S. needs more human intelligence in the region and to not rely so heavily on intelligence gathered by technical means.
John McCain’s answer to everything is “more troops”, he needs to get over that before he gets a reputation. There must be a more successful middle ground here between more drones and more troops, something like a less-restrictive ROE for the drones. If McCain gets his way, they need to consider a less-restrictive ROE for those troops, too. The reason ISIS and al Qaeda exist at all is because of the lawyers and politicians who don’t want the armed forces to actually kill people.
Category: Terror War
… “refine and fine-tune this model”… equates to how many millions of US tax dollars in new bribe money?
“I’m pretty sure that new government in Yemen isn’t going to continue giving their permission to the US for our drone strikes.”
Well, if the money is right and it will be, and the targets are selected or approved by the Yemeni string pullers, then the drone strikes will continue. It’s not ever about doing something with the Golfer in Mom Jeans, when it comes to opposing terrorism and terrorists: It’s about appearing to do something. And McCain? He needs to STHU and wipe the drool from his mouth.
Has anybody thought of telling the Glorious Leader that there’s an exclusive golf course in Yemen (there’s gotta be a shiekh who had one built somewhere, or maybe a Saudi prince wanted a weekend getaway, or something). Maybe then he’ll pay attention.
You know how you can tell when president mom-jeans and his clown car posse administration have scored another “foreign policy victory”?
The local government collapses and US Citizens are evacuated.
His crew are simply following the same playbook they used in Vietnam, Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Haiti, and the Balkans.
As I’ve said before, we should probably be glad that he snubs Israel.
As for ‘strategy’, I don’t think that word is in his vocabulary.
Yemen Strategy? We actually have a “Yemen Strategy”? I mean, other than what Tim mentioned above, collapse then evacuation.
Well isn’t this special. Seems everyone who opposed every effort Bush made to fight and win a war, be he successful or not, is now all about “more troops on the ground”. Troops here, troops there, until they realize, “hey, yea, remember we cut back our troop strength until there’s no one left to send to another shit hole”. Dianne Feinstein is a worthless self serving bitch who cares as much for American troop’s lives as Obama does and that’s never been much. Typical liberals, (I hate to say it but McCain falls into this category as well) they are all fine with death, as long as it’s someone else and someone else’s loved one doing the dying.
Ah. Nice to see that you have returned to form, Sparks! You’ve been entirely too placid since that op.
Given his history, I seriously think that McCain suffered either brain injury, severe undisclosed psychological trauma, or both during his time as a guest of Hanoi Jane’s comrades in SE Asia. Nothing else really makes sense.
I think that if you asked McCain what he takes in his coffee, his response would be “More troops!”
I just returned from Israel. I was only there for a week and came down with pneumonia on Wednesday. Jerusalem was quiet. I didn’t talk politics much but the folks in Israel seemed a little “reserved”.
I always assume that a president does what he thinks is in the best interest of the country. For Mr. Obama, I am not sure that shares that motivation so, in order to make it easy, I will consider answers that are in HIS personal best interest.
By what measure does he think that his actions are succeeding?
Or, to be more direct, NOT failing?
I am unable to find a single positive thing. The US continues to snub Israel, our only permanent ally in the region. The governments of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and Kuwait do not seem to be more angry than this time last year. Somalia is still a mess. The Yemeni government just fell to terrorists. The Iranians continue to make weapons-grade fissionable material while continuing to pretend to negotiate a treaty, continuing to support Hezbollah in Lebanon against Israel, continuing to subvert the government of Lebanon, and while supporting the president of Syria and the Shia in Iraq. Turkey is becoming more fundamentalist. ISIS continues to cause trouble in Syria and Iraq. US operations against ISIS are — has anyone heard anything positive coming from there? I figure if we are not winning then we are losing. Maybe I have it wrong.
No, I’d say that you summed it up rather nicely–although there was that overture to the Israeli P.M. (I am not going to look up the spelling of his last name) to address Congress. Just the thought of it caused the Golfer in mom Jeans to put twice as many balls in the water and bunkers as he normally does. So, there’s that. Also, I–along with many other folks–am looking forward to Israeli doing what it does so well to keep the Iranians out of the nuke business. It’s delicious when we read about the sudden death of this or that nuke scientist.
Or, the latest computer virus that makes the Iranian centrifuges spin out of control and causes the little Pac Man to trot all over their computer screens, gobbling up their computations and formulae.
I think that, eventually, Israel’s response is going to have to be something that involves mushroom clouds, or at least, something that makes certain areas of Iran uninhabitable for about 100 years.
Last I heard he was telling the world (including ISIS) that he had no plan to deal with the JV team. At least act like you have a plan.
Iran and Russia have a plan.
Last I heard he was telling the world (including ISIS) that he had no plan to deal with the JV team.
Iran and Russia have a plan.
I like the Peshmerga Rules of Engagement.
Rule #1 – If they shoot at us, shoot back.
Rule #2 – Shoot to kill.
Simple, easy to understand. So easy, even a drone can do it.