An unpopular government, tribal fiefdoms and Western aid make it easy for al-Qa'ida to grow in this ravaged country on the Arabian peninsula
By Patrick Cockburn
"Protesters are walking confidently down a street in the southern Yemeni port of Aden when there is a rattle of gunfire as the security services shoot into the crowd and panic-stricken people run seeking cover. A man in a checked shirt is left lying face down in the dust in the empty street, a stream of blood flowing from a bullet wound in his head.
In northern Yemen, government tanks and artillery pound the mountains trying to dislodge Shia rebels holding positions among the crags. Plumes of white smoke rise from exploding shells......
Nobody in the West paid much attention to violent incidents like these in Yemen last year, though both of those described above were recorded on film.......
The US and Britain will face a similar difficulty in Yemen as they already do in Afghanistan. They will be supporting an unpopular and corrupt government. It is not that al-Qa'ida is strong, but that it is swimming in sympathetic waters because the government is weak......
As in Afghanistan, foreign intervention in Yemen would soon create a counterreaction of which al-Qa'ida would be able to take advantage."
By Patrick Cockburn
"Protesters are walking confidently down a street in the southern Yemeni port of Aden when there is a rattle of gunfire as the security services shoot into the crowd and panic-stricken people run seeking cover. A man in a checked shirt is left lying face down in the dust in the empty street, a stream of blood flowing from a bullet wound in his head.
In northern Yemen, government tanks and artillery pound the mountains trying to dislodge Shia rebels holding positions among the crags. Plumes of white smoke rise from exploding shells......
Nobody in the West paid much attention to violent incidents like these in Yemen last year, though both of those described above were recorded on film.......
The US and Britain will face a similar difficulty in Yemen as they already do in Afghanistan. They will be supporting an unpopular and corrupt government. It is not that al-Qa'ida is strong, but that it is swimming in sympathetic waters because the government is weak......
As in Afghanistan, foreign intervention in Yemen would soon create a counterreaction of which al-Qa'ida would be able to take advantage."
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