Power does come from the people. President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen is finding out that using force to stay in power is no longer effective (not even with the U.S. as a benefactor); the revolutions happening today are the human spirit budding like the leaves on the trees in the spring, coming out together in abundance. The yearning to be free expressed in solidarity is as irrepressible as the coming of spring or the rise of a flooding river.
Why has the U.S. administration been supporting Saleh? In the face of a broad range of Yemenis demanding that he step down immediately in demonstrations, not only in the capital of Sanaa, but also in the cities of Taiz, Al-Hodayda, and Aden, the U.S. backed an initiative which failed to engineer a transition because it would have ensured that Saleh and his cronies are not prosecuted for their crimes.
The U.S. has been sending more military aid to Yemen than any other country in the past five years, supposedly in the war against terror and Al Qaeda cells there. Yet there are claims that Saleh provides support to Al Qaeda for the power it gives him as a bargaining tool. The CIA's nefarious plotting in Yemen has added a toxic strain to this key Middle Eastern country with the military training they provide and putting agents on the payroll.
If the U.S. were to truly support the Yemeni people to govern their own country in rejecting the autocratic rule of Saleh--that would fight terrorism far better than supporting him. Instead of sending weapons, the U.S. should send humanitarian aid...that is the best tool to fight terrorism, not supporting a dictator whom the people are rejecting.


Salon.com
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