More short-sightedness from Western authorities: "West to boost aid to Yemen in face of al-Qa'ida threat," by Anne Penketh in the Belfast Telegraph, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:
President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen has undergone quite a transformation since Saddam Hussein presented him with a gold-plated AK-47 for his support in the first Gulf War.Now an enthusiastic convert to the US-led "war on terror", President Saleh will today attend a London donors' conference at which he hopes to raise more than $5bn (£2.6bn) to help Yemen fight poverty.
Britain, which contributes £10m per year to help Yemen meet international poverty targets, will raise its aid to £50m per year by 2011 - an increase of 400 per cent - the International Development minister Gareth Thomas said yesterday.
The West is acting to bolster the Yemeni government, which has carried out democratic reforms under President Saleh, in order to prevent Yemen becoming a failed state, said Mamoun Fandy, an analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
"Yemen can go two ways. It can either spiral into a Somalia, or donors can prop up the government to make sure its policies won't feed into the message of al-Qa'ida," he said.
If study after study hadn't already shown that poverty doesn't cause terror, this might make some sense.
The government this week vowed to strike terrorists with "an iron fist" after a group calling itself al-Qa'ida in Yemen claimed responsibility for an attempted suicide attack two months ago on oil facilities....Britain hopes that wealthy Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, as well as the European Commission and World Bank, will donate generously.
Will the Saudis and Kuwait chip in? Hope away.
Yemen is right next to Saudi Arabia, arguably the richest nation in the world. Yet here's its president, hat in hand, going to the West for money. I thought charity was a Muslim virtue.Why aren't the Saudi brothers sharing some of the wealth? Can't Yemen shame its neighbor into giving a little?
The sad thing is, Yemen will indeed get its Western money.
Yemen has a huge, entirely open border with Saudi Arabia, and a huge, entirely open sea lane between it and Somalia. That is not insignificant. It is probably the weapons smuggling capital of the Arab world. But there is no way that our money, as described above, will change any of that. Regular patrols by the free navies of the world would make some difference, but not with our underfunded navies as they are, and not unless we are prepared to control air traffic as well since much of the smuggling is done via air. So throw money at the problem, or not, the problem will continue and Yemen will remain an effective vector for jihad from Saudi Arabia into Somalia and onward.
Why do the 21,456,188 people living in Yemen need £2.6bn to help to fight poverty?
If you gave everybody in the country an equal share of it, the Yemen would be chock full of villas and Ferraris. Shit, every house builder and tradesman in the Middle East would be in Yemen fitting flushing toilets and electric garage doors for years.
Bono would certainly go for that idea. I don't know about the rest of us though.
And if the terrorists don't go away, they'll demand more...and will get it most likely. Sounds like something straight out of "Sopranos".