John Glaser: "Obama insists on keeping the drone war secret, demanding Americans simply take his word for it that they are necessary, legal, and effective. But imagine if the roles were reversed: imagine if the Yemeni government was conducting a multi-year secret bombing campaign throughout the American countryside, killing hundreds of people and declaring it was a national security necessity beyond reproach. Is there any doubt such actions would provoke a furious upheaval in America and prompt fervent calls for violent revenge? Why should we expect a different reaction in Yemen? After a September 2012 drone strike that killed 13 civilians, a local Yemeni activist told CNN, “I would not be surprised if a hundred tribesmen joined the lines of al-Qaeda as a result of the latest drone mistake. This part of Yemen takes revenge very seriously.” The sentiment that al-Muslimi voices, the one that draws an equivalence between drone strikes and al-Qaeda bombings, is widespread in Yemen. “The U.S. sees al-Qaeda as terrorism,” a Yemeni tribesman told The Nation’s national security reporter Jeremy Scahill last year, “and we consider the drones terrorism.”...It’s not difficult to figure out why al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has strengthened and anti-American sentiment has intensified. Just ask a Yemeni. Al-Qaeda was motivated to attack the U.S. on 9/11 because of its opposition to U.S. foreign policy, specifically American support for Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, propping up ‘apostate’ dictatorships in the Middle East, and military interventionism in Muslim countries. Unfortunately, the predominant U.S. response in the 12 years since those attacks has been to double down on all of those ill-advised policies. Support for Israeli policies has increased, promotion of Middle East dictatorship has hardened, and military interventions - in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and beyond - have proliferated. Don’t be surprised if the blowback in the form of al-Qaeda proliferates as well." - communities.washingtontimes/neighborhood/john-glaser-intelligence-foreign-policy-world/2013/aug/12/america-engaging-terrorism-yemen/
Posted on: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 17:16:05 +0000
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