Touting Yemen, Somalia As Success Stories, Obama Sets Low Bar For Iraq -- Michael Pizzi, Al Jazeera
The US trumpeted its success in fighting Al-Qaeda affiliates in those nations, but eliminating them proved impossible
As he laid out his plan to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the Islamic State insurgency, President Barack Obama told the nation Wednesday night that he planned to pursue the extremists who have seized much of Syria and Iraq just as the U.S. has done “successfully” in Yemen and Somalia. For those familiar with the ongoing collapse of those two states, Obama set a low bar.
But the comparison, analysts said, was revealing of Obama’s true intentions for combating the Islamic State threat: a low-commitment operation that would neutralize — but likely not eliminate — the armed group.
“These are cases where the U.S. certainly hasn’t destroyed Al-Qaeda [affiliates], but we have contained them. That’s probably what he’s looking for in Iraq and Syria,” said David Newton, a former U.S. ambassador to Yemen and Iraq and an ex–deputy chief of mission in Syria.
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More On The Debate That Yemen And Somalia Are Not Successful U.S. Counter-terrorism Campaigns
Yemen and Somalia are examples of U.S. mission creep, not success -- Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post
US strategy against Islamic State to mirror counterterrorism efforts in Yemen, Somalia -- Long War Journal
Obama’s Comparison of Anti-IS Efforts to US Action in Somalia, Yemen Inconsistent -- RIA Novosti
If Yemen Is the Model . . . Then don’t bet on destroying ISIS — Obama’s plans haven’t worked elsewhere. -- Ian Tuttle, NRO
Obama's models: Yemen and Somalia -- Jim Waurishuk, American Thinker
Are Yemen And Somalia Good Examples Of U.S. Anti-Terror Strategy? -- Krishnadev Calamur, NPR
5 comments:
Maybe many of us are missing something and President Obama is really, really smart, can play 3 dimensional chess and we cannot appreciate his scintillating brilliance.
But I remember Al Qaeda menacing the port of Aden 16 months ago. Al Qaeda was a mere 15 miles away from it. It looked like a domino was going to fall.
Yemen`s War Against Al Qaeda Is Escalating
http://warnewsupdates.blogspot.com/2012/05/yemens-war-against-al-qaeda-is.html
The Special Forces camp in Djibouti is busy and does good work. Without Ethiopia and lately Kenya I do not think American specs ops by themselves would have prevented an Al Shabab take over of southern Somalia including Mogadishu.
How much of any success in Somalia is due to American leadership and partnership with Ethiopia instead of just Ethiopia sticking with it, because they do not want problems in the eastern part of their country. I am sure the U.S. military works with the Ethiopian government, but I am not sure it is a priority with the Obama administration. They certainly have not talked it up much before now. I think it is more likely that Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia suffered from neglect, but has not fallen apart like so many other things around the world. So the administration wants to point to it as a success, because they need something anything as a diversion right now ahead of the elections.
The map with which goes along with the wiki article on Yemen in the Yemen politics sections
Does not look like success or containment.
It looks like 1st or 2nd down and a less than 10 years to go.
So AQAP was pushed back, but they will be back and who know what will happen next time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemen#Politics
It has come to this, they are using Yemen and Somalia as examples of success stories.
I'd try vacationing in one of the two before passing judgment James I heard it's beautiful this time of year in Somalia.
Europeans Americans and everyone else I know love beaches. Somalia has a great deal of beach front property.
Somalis claim that certain countries dump toxic waster off their shores. It probably is true. The correct response would have been to go to the UN first not hijack everyone.
I am sure that European tourists would not want to visit beaches near where toxic waste is being dumped. Meaning something would be done about by the UN or Europeans.
After a decade of of successfully growing a hospitality industry, I am certain the Somalis could afford their won Coast Guard. They could then also legally impound ships that were violating environmental laws or fishing rights.
This is not rocket science, but it is damn hard to accomplish, if every tribe or clan is going to fight every other tribe until their acknowledge who is boss.
And that is exactly what they were doing after unseating Siad Barre
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