Marines vacate Yemen embassy
The security detail at the embassy in Yemen pulled out of the country the other day. Amid their withdrawal, were rumors that Yemeni officials disarmed them at the airport as they departed. I heard the rumors, but it didn’t sound right, so I waited. Sure enough, the Office of U.S. Marine Corps Communication put out this statement;
Upon arrival at the airfield, all personal weapons were rendered inoperable in accordance with advance planning. Specifically, each bolt was removed from its weapons body and rendered inoperable by smashing with sledgehammers. The weapons bodies, minus the bolts, were then separately smashed with sledgehammers. All of these destroyed components were left at the airport — and components were scattered; no usable weapon was taken from any Marine at Sana’a airport.
To be clear: No Marine handed a weapon to a Houthi, or had one taken from him.
That sounds more like it. I know folks are in a rush to believe everything they read on the internet (my boyfriend is a French model), especially if they can blame the current administration for perceived slights, but cooler heads usually prevail. But, there are probably people who don’t believe the statement from the Marines is true anyway.
I actually wrote this a few days ago, so I know the news is old, but still worthy of discussion, I suppose.
Category: Marine Corps
Ten Bears will believe Marines before reporters.
WORD.
Amen, brother, amen.
Ten Bears…Yea I sounded off…completely off base I might add, regarding this on the Weekend Open Thread. Pinto Nag straightened me out though. I should have known better than to believe the crap I was reading online. Proud of our Marines!
Yep. Especially since the first reports picked up by AP quote “unnamed Yemeni Officials” as the source of the “surrendered Weapons”. Poor fools were most likely planning their own survival as the Marines were slinging sledges.
Any time we give up American territory it is nota good thing. Specifically when dealing with savages.
Better this way then Benghazi or Iran (Cahtah, ~1980)
I still don’t understand why they didn’t take all weapons out with them. There’s plenty of military airlift in the area. Even if it was a commercial flight, that’s what the baggage hold is for.
As Sana’a and the CJTF-HOA in Djibouti are only 285 air miles distant, and we are maintaining a Special Ops element in country this story doesn’t add up to me?
First, where did all the ammo go?
Second, this was not a surprise why was there not enough air to carry all the stuff?
I AM NOT FRENCH!
Belgian?
Did someone mention waffles?
Dammit. I always thought that the people of Belgium were the Belch.
The Brits and French also told ALL their citizens to leave ASAP before this report appeared. Their embassies are closed, as well.
Whatever is going to happen in Yemen is not going to be good for anyone, but I find it curious that comes exactly on the heels of the UAE sending fighter pilots to Jordan to assist in strikes against IS. I expect to see more action shortly.
This should be interesting. Don’t depend on AP for your news. Get it through Agence France Presses or Reuters.
Wait – your boyfriend is a French model, JL?
Damn! Who knew?!?
Bernasty, that’s who !
Anyone wanna bet he’ll be the next one Daniel A. Bernath accuses of being moi?
Are you Janos Ventura? The greatest member of Seal team ten and leader of the Deagle Nation?
Maybe things were way different in the 80’s when I served. I flew way more than once on a chartered civilian aircraft with my rifle and other weapons. We even flew a Qantas 747 fully loaded to Guam and the CO let them serve us drinks because they were free on international flights. Now you have to smash your weapon with a hammer? Really, why?
On the Thursday evening news, the story was that the Yemeni rebels had seized whatever vehicles the US had left at the airport and the Yemeni government had demanded that the US leave all weapons behind.
I haven’t seen a follow-up to that, but it may be the reason all the weapons were damaged beyond usefulness as anything other than Davy Crockett-sytle whacking tools.
Why were the weapons destroyed?
Because the Yemeni government demanded that they be left behind, that’s why.
Would you leave a working weapon behind if you couldn’t take it with you?
I sure wouldn’t. I’d make it nothing more than a useless piece of splintered, bent, dented junk.
As an American, I am embarrassed and ashamed. We look like a bunch of cowards.
An as far as leaving a weapon behind, how many push-ups have been done because a private was more than an arms reach away from his weapon. Times are defiantly changing.
Yep … and not for the better, either.
As for the coward thing, always remember: we follow orders. No matter how odious. If I’d have been one of those Marines, I’d have been ready to chew armor plate. How compliance was achieved, given the current administration and it’s well deserved reputation for throwing anybody under the bus, was in my opinion, an excellent example of obedience to the letter, and a one-finger salute to the spirit and the one who gave it.
So, to whomever that made the command decision: Bloody well done, I say.
This is sort of a footnote to the Yemen story. The IS militants, or whatever they are, have executed 21 people who belong to a church in Libya.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/15/us-mideast-crisis-libya-egypt-idUSKBN0LJ10D20150215
Do we still have an embassy there? If so, I think we should get out. The Egyptian government has been warning its citizens not to go there, but because of the lack of employment in Egypt now, they have been going in droves. Unless those crazy buggers are stopped, this will only get worse.
Disarmed? Or were forced to leave without their weapons? I fail to see the difference.
Tell you one thing, everyone would be singing a different song had these marines been lined up against a wall and executed once they destroyed their own weapons or were disarmed or however you want to spin it.
This just sounds so wrong, wrong, wrong. However, as is often the case, those who survive something horrendous by making a decision which seems counterintuitive have done their first job – to survive.
Generally though, it seems that the powers that be are hell bent to needlessly kill as many Americans as possible while they fiddle around with their political agendas. Disgusting.
If I remember correctly one of our warships was attacked in Yemen. I guess we should have turn tail and ran then. Heck Putin says leave him alone, Iran says leave us alone, North Korea says leave alone. Lets disband Marines and the Navy, the world wants it. The Army can build Jimmy Carter houses and we can melt our weapons into rebar….. thanks Yemen. The Beirut Marines rest easy knowing today’s Marines disarmed. GO NAVY.