One failed bomber isn't worth another bloody war
- Source: Global Times
- [04:04 January 18 2010]
- Comments
Obama, a mesmerizing public speaker, now appears to be mesmerized himself by the same military-intelligence community that guessed wrong about the civil war in Vietnam, guessed wrong about weapons of mass destruction, guessed wrong about the resiliency of the Taliban, and is now second-guessing a foray into Yemen, second only to Somalia as the biggest snake pit.
On top of everything else, Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh has been quite happy to let Al Qaeda operate in his country for the past 20 years, helping to keep the lid on tribal bloodletting and the usual Sunni against Shiite battles that leave religious warriors dead at the waterhole.
This is the man we are supposed to rely on if things get rough and the US counter-terrorist role expands. What's Saleh supposed to do? Call Osama bin Laden?
I am not alone in thinking this is a foolish overreaction to a failed terror plot in Detroit. Obama recovered some sense of equilibrium when he suspended the dangerous policy of shipping Guantanamo Bay terror suspects back to Yemen to pick up where they left off.
But he isn't backing off his intention to close the military prison at the US naval base in Cuba, a promise he made on his very first day in office. Nearly half of the 198 suspects held at Gitmo are from Yemen,
In a sense, Obama is bowing to the political reality that eight years after former P r e s i d e n t George W. Bush's famous ultimatum, "Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists," most of the world is certainly not with "us."
To paraphrase a country and Western song lyric, the US is still the big dog that bites if you rattle its cage, but our military swagger shouldn't be provoked by one pathetic Nigerian setting himself on fire with misguided dreams of martyrdom.
The author, an Emmy Award-winning TV news correspondent, is a copy editor with the Global Times. barrycunningham@ globaltimes.com.cn
