“Despite having three navy ships in nearby waters, US has not evacuated civilians from Yemen, many of whom have travelled to port city of Aden seeking rescue,” the UK Guardian reports:
US citizens trying desperately to leave war-torn Yemen fear they have been left to their fate by their own government as fighting escalates between rebel fighters and Washington’s allies.
Saudi-led air strikes against Shia Houthi rebels have prompted urgent warnings about dangers to civilians, and several countries have evacuated their civilians, including China, India, Pakistan and Somalia.
But the US has not followed suit, despite having three navy ships in nearby waters, including the frigate USS Simpson and the destroyer USS Sterett in or near the Gulf of Aden.
Public Radio International adds:
A US State Department spokesperson reiterated the official US position in an email to PRI’s The World. “There are no plans for a US government-sponsored evacuation of US citizens at this time,” wrote media officer Niles Cole. “We encourage U.S. citizens to monitor the news and seek available departure options from Yemen, via air, land, or sea.”
But that became less of an option last week, when the Saudis declared a no-fly zone over Yemen. “Now we’re not allowed to fly out,” Nasser says. “And we would think, because [the] US is supporting Saudi Arabia through logistics, that they would evacuate [US] citizens. We’re trying our best to voice our nervousness and disappointment through respectful means, calling upon the US State Department to actually act and to evacuate the nationals.”
Given their leftwing worldview, hitting a CTL-F on both of those articles and typing “Obama” brings up nothing. And that’s likely no coincidence, as Yemen has joined the list of Obama’s overseas disasters, Peter Brookes of the Heritage Foundation writes in the Boston Herald. Brookes was a former deputy assistant secretary of defense under President George W. Bush:
Yemen is the Middle East’s newest “Great Game,” pitting rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran against one another in a proxy bout involving the Riyadh-backed, Sunni Yemeni central government and the Tehran-backed, Shia Houthi rebels.
Plus, without a central government, Yemen is basically a failed state, providing lots of room for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Islamic State for planning, training and operations.
AQAP is reportedly targeting Western commercial aviation with “new wave” bombs while an Islamic State group in Yemen — Sanaa Province — recently attacked Shiite mosques in the capital, killing more than 100 people, according to news accounts.
While there’s no love lost between the ascendant (Shia) Houthi rebels and (Sunni) terrorist Islamic State and (Sunni) AQAP, a civil war in Yemen — like we’ve seen in Syria—can prove very beneficial for growing terror groups.
Lastly: location, location, location. Yemen borders the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, which are important sea lanes, including for U.S. warships. It’s not a place where you’d like to see Iranian influence increase.
In fairness, this is tough stuff.
But the latest developments in Yemen call into stark question the Obama administration’s policies and performance in dealing with a violent Islamist extremist problem that only seems to be getting worse.
I’m sure the administration’s “deal” with Iran will turn things around.
One way or another.
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