The Obama administration once pointed to Yemen as the proof that the application of what it calls “smart power” works. Today, from John Zarocostas, writing for McClatchy, we learn that:
American citizens escaping Yemen, including small children and some frail elderly, are arriving exhausted in Djibouti after harrowing journeys from the besieged country …
The U.S. ambassador:
… Tom Kelly, said hundreds of Americans have arrived in Djibouti in recent days aboard foreign ships and aircraft after journeys that for some included hundreds of miles of dangerous land travel from Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, to the ports of Hodeidah and Aden.
With:
… some would-be evacuees … left behind at the port of Aden because they had been unable to climb up rope ladders to board an Indian navy frigate from smaller boats that had ferried them to the larger ship, which had been unable to dock because of fighting in the city.
The Americans who fled Yemen were on their own after the Obama administration decided it wouldn’t be smart “to organize a rescue mission for the estimated 3,000 to 4,000 U.S. citizens in Yemen.”
Believing “it is too dangerous for U.S. military assets to enter Yemeni waters and air space.”
And:
… that organizing Americans to meet at a single departure point would put them at risk of attack from al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula or other terrorist groups seeking American hostages.
Hard to see how we can survive many more successes like that.
