Posted on 01/11/2010 8:17:01 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
America may be doubling its security aid to embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen to fight al-Qaida, but most of the country's weaponry is coming from Russia, China and former Soviet states in Eastern Europe, with Saudi Arabia providing the funds. According to the Inter Press Service, Yemen's armed forces are undergoing a major military modernization program worth an estimated $4 billion.
That's a huge amount for a country whose economy is collapsing, running out of water as well as oil. Production has fallen from 450,000 barrels a day six years ago to barely 1809,000 a day now.
Within a decade, its reserves will have run dry, eliminating the country's only real source of income.
The only thing keeping Saleh in power -- and business, as official corruption is rampant in a regime whose writ barely runs beyond the capital and some other urban zones -- is Saudi petrodollars and an army where his relatives hold key commands.
And right now they're being spent weapons and ammunition -- and the loyalty of tribes who otherwise would be joining al-Qaida, or the rebels in the north, or the secessionists in the south.
U.S. President Barack Obama, alarmed at recent terrorists actions that apparently originated with the resurgent al-Qaida franchise in Yemen, has pledged to double U.S. security aid to $150 million to prop up America's erratic ally, Saleh.
(Excerpt) Read more at spacewar.com ...
Now that sounds more like a Global War on Terror than anything the left is going to do.
Here’s another article on Yemen that I haven’t seen posted.
Money talks louder than al-Qaeda in Yemen
British rule in Aden may be remembered with affection but we should not forget how the Yemenis wrongfooted us in 1967
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6982950.ece
We’re being treated like chumps again, as usual. We spend the money on this 3rd World hellhole, while the Russians and Chinese make the profit.
As strange as it sounds, our interests and Russia’s interests actually are the same in Yemen. Al-Qaeda affiliates have worked with Chechen terrorists in the past. I’m not sure what China’s angle is...maybe the Uigars are trying to up their game?
My guess is the latter number has one zero too many.
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