According to the reports al-Awlaki, who is best known for having been the on-the-Internet spiritual advisor of Major Hasan, may or may not have been killed by the Yemeni jets. If al-Awlaki has gone to his reward there is reason to be jolly this Christmas season given that the cleric joyously confirmed on al-Jazzera that the Fort Hood shootist had contacted him to find out if it was legal under Shariah to go ahead and kill his fellow countrymen and service members. Al-Awliki, drawing on his years of profound study of the intricate holdings of Islamic jurisprudence, apparently advised the Major that killing other Americans was just jake with the religion of peace and tolerance.
As al-Awlaki sagely observed to his interlocutor from al-Jazzera, loyalty to Islam by a Muslim trumps any minor consideration such as loyalty to one's fellow nationals or those who wear the same uniform and salute the same flag. Well, as the assorted multi-cultural mavins of the post modern chattering and academic classes have assured one and all for years now, nationalism and its cognates such as loyalty to one's country are both anachronistic and the raw materials for international adventurers such as W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
It is presumed that members of the aforementioned groups will hold memorial services for such a fine exemplar of the post-modernist sensibilities as al-Awliki. While they are at it perhaps they might find a kind word to say for the (perhaps or perhaps not) deceased leaders of al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula who may or may not have been at the troglodyte conference. After all these men were simply pursuing the goal of establishing an international comity of Muslims at the sole expense of national governments such as those in Yemen (which is not legitimate in the estimate of most Yemenis) and Saudi Arabia (which is feudalistic at best and paleolithic at worst.)
For those of us who are not members in good standing with either the chattering or academic classes or other self-defined elite congeries, the news out of Yemen, if confirmed, is all to the good. The last thing the US or the rest of the world needs is yet one more sanctuary for Islamist jihadists. Given the flawed nature of the Yemeni government, the influx of foreign jihadis from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan as well as Yemen's geographic position, the notion of the place becoming the next stronghold for the Bold and Courageous Warriors of the Prophet is not to be tolerated.
Backing the Yemeni regime in its long overdue efforts to squash the Houthi and abate the growing jihadi presence is the least worst course of action available to the US. Providing intelligence, logistic support, and even the occasional sea-launched cruise missile attack is a much lower risk operational concept than waiting for affairs in that particular global armpit reaching such a dangerous pass that direct on-the-ground intervention is required.
Airstrikes alone will not do the entire job of repressing the Houthi insurgency. Nor will airstrikes, cruise missiles, and limited Saudi Arabian ground incursions end the attraction of Yemen for jihadis displaced from earlier venues in the "clash of civilizations." The Yemeni government will have to use both political and military means to continue the campaign.
The government shows no particular political will for either the task of ground combat or the far more important and demanding one of enhancing its perceived legitimacy among a badly disaffiliated population. Frankly, the historical forces in Yemen, whether one cares to use the overthow of the emirate in 1961 or go back further to the foundations of the post-World War I Yemeni and Saudi states, are far more centripetal than centrifugal in nature.
The manufacture of Yemen was as artificial as the making of saccharine. The country has no organic reason to exist. The regime has no existential claim on either the loyalty or the affections of most Yemenis. These foundation conditions are exacerbated by the chronic poverty of the country which has seen its very limited oil and other natural resources exploited for the benefit of foreigners or a handful of the very well connected.
Yemen, like Somalia across the Gulf of Aden, is a creation of foreign diplomats working with the limited input of a very small number of locals who spoke an appropriate language, wore suits, and could make the right noises at the correct time. To call this process "self determination" is to commit a felony against language and common sense alike. To expect these artifacts of foreign manufacture to evolve into stable nation-states is to be terminally out-to-lunch.
In Yemen the interest of the US, as is the case in Somalia, Afghanistan, and a few other places, is limited to precluding its exploitation by Islamist jihadists. We (and other Western states) have no need to engage in the futile exercise of "nation-building" as such is beyond the capacity of mere humans. There is no need to provide Yemenis with a fully functioning, modern, pluralistic, democratic, secular state (as if such would be possible.) The only requirement is to end the appeal of Yemen to jihadis and those such as al-Awlaki who give them comfort and encouragement.
Al-Awlaki's father is quoted as condemning the US and President Obama for having murdered his son. The father holds that if his son had committed some crime he should be brought before the bar of justice. The retort to the father's accusation is simple: If his son is dead, he, according to his own beliefs, has been judged by the Highest Court of Islam.
As to the verdict of that Court (or as to its existence) the Geek offers no assessment.
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