Back in 2014 President Obama famously bragged about how great things were going in Yemen, one of the world's poorest and most violent Arab countries. In doing so, he gave us some very interesting clues about activities he may have been engaged in that we only recently became aware.
"This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years. And it is consistent with the approach I outlined this year - to use force against anyone who threatens America's core interests."
Of course one year later he would come to regret this statement when a bloody civil war erupted in Yemen. Now more than 8000 civilians have been killed and 50,000 injured since the civil war started in March 2015. And the vast majority of these people have died because of airstrikes conducted by the Saudi Arabian government using weapons provided by the US at the will of the current Yemen President. That doesn’t exactly sound like a situation worth bragging about, but Obama said it anyway.
So what exactly was Obama's strategy in a country that most Americans probably couldn't locate on a map of the world if you paid them? Did he actually intend for things to go this poorly? Obama seemed pretty sure of himself at the time. He even boasted about his efforts on the world stage. But then things went awry. What went wrong? And what the heck was he trying to do in the first place? The answers to all of these questions are as confusing as they are disturbing.
Before we try to answer those questions, let’s start by explaining the basics of this conflict - just so we know we're all on the same page. The currently ongoing Yemen civil war began in 2015 between two groups - both claiming to be the true Yemeni government - along with support from allies [mainly the American CIA and the Saudis].
The Houthi rebel forces represent one side of this battle. They’re loyal to the former president (Ali Abdullah Saleh). They're clashing with forces who support the regime that currently controls the country [I'm using the phrase "controls the country" very loosely here]. They’re also fighting with Islamic extremist terror groups.
The Houthis rebels are against the current President, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. He’s a Yemeni politician who has been in power since February 2012.
But the fun doesn’t stop there - ISIS and Al Qaeda are involved too! As the Houthi rebels fight against the Yemen troops, Saudi drone strikes and the CIA, they’re also fighting with ISIS. Much like in Syria and Iraq, ISIS and Al Qaeda aren't supporting either side in this war. They're actively trying to take down the Houthi rebels while also feuding with US intelligence groups.
So which side are the good guys? The Houthi rebels? The Former President Saleh? The current President Hadi?
Just so we're clear - an honest person wouldn't describe either side as being “good”. Both Saleh and Hadi are arguably bad guys. They're both Middle Eastern dictators with a passion for power, money violence and war.
According a report from the UN, during his 30+ years as the President of Yemen, Saleh amassed a fortune worth upwards of $30 billion. How does one acquire billions of dollars while serving in the same public office for over three decades? Cronyism and corruption, obviously. But the people of Yemen didn't like Saleh so they protested and attempted to take out this corrupt leader with various assassination and bombing incidents. Then after enough outrage he resigned from office in 2012 - but not without more protests. In fact, some people really didn't want him to leave. Namely, the Houthi rebels.
But the other guy isn't much better - Hadi was chosen as a president for a two-year transitional period in February 21, 2012 in an election in which he was the only candidate. The only candidate, eh? There’s nothing suspicious about that [assuming you were born yesterday]. Who needs Democracy when the only choice you have has already been made for you? What a convenience! Of course, the fact that he was backed by the Saudi Arabian government and US intelligence groups didn't sit well with the people of Yemen. And why would it? After all, would you want a foreign government to choose your leader?
Then in January 2015, Hadi stepped down as President. That's when the Houthis seized the presidential palace and placed Hadi under house arrest. A month later he escaped, took back his resignation, and declared the rebel takeover was an unconstitutional coup.
Of course the Houthis rebels didn't pay much mind to the fact that Hadi claimed to still be President. They named a Revolutionary Committee to assume the powers of the presidency, as well as granting ruling power to the General People's Congress. Interestingly enough the General People's Congress isn't an actual Congress - it's the name of a political party. In fact, it's Hadi's own political party. How's that for a complicated situation? That would be kind of like if Antifa stormed the White House, forced Trump to resign and then demanded the Republicans control everything. Strange, eh?
In March 2015 Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia and asked his friends in Riyadh to pursue a drone bombing campaign on the people of his own country. The Saudis quickly agreed, since war is great for the economy.
Of course, the Saudis would need more weapons to keep up with all this war-mongering, so they turned to the US for a multi-billion dollar arms sale that had previously been supported by President Obama. Senator Rand Paul was a huge critic of this deal. He argued that if the Houthi rebels are fighting with ISIS, it's a bad idea to let the Saudis drone bomb them. After all, ISIS is a bigger enemy to the US than the Houthis, right? The Houthis didn't help plot San Berandino or the Pulse Nightclub attacks. Those were men who claimed to be aligned with ISIS - remember?
And that's where we're at now - Hadi, who is barely in control of his own country, currently gets support from us [via the CIA] and the Saudis, mostly in the form of donated arms and drone strikes on civilians and the Houthi rebels. The Saudi involvement, which has focused on widespread bombing of civilian areas, has been sharply condemned by the international community.
But the CIA's involvement is even more peculiar. So what the heck is the CIA up to in Yemen anyway? Well, that's where this whole thing gets a lot more interesting. According to a new report by the Associated Press, the Yemen government has a secret network of underground prisons in South Yemen where thousands of Yemen men have allegedly disappeared. The prisons were created during the Obama administration to provide US intelligence groups and the Yemen government with a venue where alleged Al Qaeda and ISIS terrorists can be taken for interrogation [but evidence seems to indicate that Houthi rebels and unaligned civilians are often taken there too]. The secret prisons are used as torture chambers for alleged terrorists in order to get intelligence from them about where other terrorists reside and what they're plotting.
According to the Associated Press, the prison includes a “grill,” in which a terror suspect is tied to a spit like a roast and spun in a circle of fire. Have you ever eaten spit-roasted pig at a Brazilian steakhouse? Yeah, that's the kind of operation we're talking about - except with people.
According to the AP, Senior American defense officials have acknowledged our involvement in interrogating these detainees. However they denied US agents had any participation in the actual acts of torture. Whether true or not, of course they would, because technically what's happening in these prisons is totally illegal - it violates international law, which prohibits complicity in torture.
The AP claims there are at least 18 of these secret prisons. They're located inside military bases, airports, private villas and even a nightclub. I wonder what kind of music the DJ spins while someone's being roasted on a spit in the backroom? Probably techno.
Former inmates of the prisons told the AP they were crammed into shipping containers, smeared with feces, blindfolded for weeks on end, beaten, placed on the “grill,” and sexually assaulted.
Several anonymous U.S. defense officials told the AP that American forces actually do participate in these interrogations. They even claimed U.S. senior military leaders were aware of allegations of torture at the prisons in Yemen but also said the US wasn't actually involved in the acts of torture themselves - just the interrogations.
Now more than 2000 men have allegedly disappeared into these prisons. This has sparked massive outrage and protests all over the country. Families claim their sons, fathers and husbands were wrongly targeted and mysteriously disappeared overnight with no trace of their current whereabouts. Chances are some of these individuals actually were terrorists – but not all of them.
And all of this happened in Obama's watch. This was his CIA conducting his operation. This mission started under Obama and now continues under Trump. And personally, I have a problem with all of it.
Just so we're clear - I don't care if someone tortures an ISIS terrorist. I'm not suggesting we should feel sorry for the extremists. But what exactly is our end goal here in all of this mess? What do we, the American tax payers, get out of this? If we help kidnap thousands of people in a dirty poor country on the other side of the world and look the other way while our supposed allies torture them, how does this improve the lives of a taxpayer in Colorado? Or Wisconsin? Or Houston? And in the process of doing this, are we unintentionally converting more people to extremism? What happens to a former Yemen prisoner after they're released from one of these places? Do they brush off the dust and say, "Hey, American CIA agents played a role in letting Yemen officials roast me over a spit while they sexually assaulted me, but it's for the better good – so no biggie!" Or, more realistically, do they walk away feeling scorned enough to actually join the very Islamic extremist groups they were previously accused of supporting?
And what about the consequence of all those dangerous Saudi drone bombs on civilians? After the Saudis drop weapons on the innocent, what happens to the orphans who crawl out from the rubble after the bomb blast? Do they thank the Saudis for killing their parents? Or do those orphans become the next caliphate commanders of future extremist groups that are yet to be named?
We've seen something similar happen in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Afghanistan. For all the spending and drone-bombing we've done in those places, we nothing to show for it but trillions of dollars in debt and newer, angrier extremists.
Don’t get me wrong – it’s not America’s fault that these places are at war. People in the Mideast have been actively engaged in violent conflicts since the 7th century – years before the American constitution was ever drafted. But the very fact that this contagious brand of deadly engagement predates the very existence of our American society should be proof positive that we have little to offer in the form of a solution.
When Obama said, "This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years," he couldn't have been more wrong. This "strategy" [if you can even call it that] hasn't taken out terrorists - it's very likely converting new ones. Was that Obama’s goal? A reminder – this is a man who was highly critical of his predecessor for using water-boarding techniques in Gitmo. And yet, President Obama is arguably the most violent American President of our lifetime.
When Obama said, "It is consistent with the approach I outlined this year - to use force against anyone who threatens America's core interests," what interests is he referring to? Many of us struggle to come up with an answer to that question. As you sit and digest this information I'd like to ask all of you this very important question: what do we, as Americans, value as a nation? What is the end goal of our foreign policy in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and the Mideast in general? Are our elected officials trying to make the world a better place? Or are we simply allowing our government leaders to play God while recirculating money and weapons around parts of the world that none of us will ever visit? In a war like Yemen's, where there are no good guys among the likes of Saleh, Hadi, ISIS and the Al Qaeda, are we better off just not getting involved?