JACK BOOT DIPLOMACY ADDRESSES HUMAN NEED

In past weeks, we have watched America's response to Haitian's call for help. We have also seen the hysteria and fear stirred up by the “Underpants Bomber”. In both cases, Washington has lead with the punch they deliver best: armed military might. More than 15,000 heavily armed Marines, our best front-line combat specialists, are on the ground in Port au Prince. We have recently dispatched cruise missiles into primitive villages in remote sections of Yemen that the Underpants Bomber may have visited. We have brought back to our airports those same foolish see-through surveillance devices that were warehoused last year as impractical, so as to make sure none of us will even think about boarding a flight with a bomb anyplace in our underwear.

A NEW FRONT FOR OUR WAR ON TERROR: YEMEN

The events of the past month deserve to be seen in calendar order: First off:
two cruise missiles were launched from a US destroyer in the Red Sea on December 17th, eight days before the Underpants Bomber boarded Northwest Airlines flight 253 for Detroit. The US explained that the missiles were aimed at Al Qaeda hideouts in Sana'a and Abyan Provinces after the Yemeni government had indicated that a terrorist attack on the US and Yemeni installations in the city of Sana'a was imminent. It may be that we had advance information of some sort of Christmas Day incident and hoped a missile or two might change their mind (NYTimes 1/18/10 reporter Eric Lipton).

Immediately, on December 18th, the main stream media (Washington Post, NYTimes, LA Times, CBS Early Show, Wall Street Journal, CNN) flooded the airwaves with praise for Obama's quick retaliatory strikes in Yemen but without an ounce of independently gathered data on the size or the reality of this terrible Yemeni threat to our Homeland. A total 34 Al Qaeda fighters and 60 civilians were reported killed. Al Hayat in Cairo reported that immediately after the missile attack, Al Qaeda raided government centers in the Ludat District of Abyan and apparently took control (Long War Journal 12/19/09). The US has had Special Forces deployed in Yemen for some years and has increased their numbers and equipment capabilities recently. We have also used drones to eliminate a carload of people we didn't like way back in 2002.

Then, on December 25th, a young Nigerian known to US intelligence and already on at least some of our many watch lists, boarded a Northwest Airlines flight in Amsterdam headed for Detroit and attempted to ignite a primitive explosive device. The media appeared on our screens in full battle-dress, supported by all those former Pentagon and Intel type they use as advisors. Fear was reignited in the American public while the bomb on Flight 253 was quickly snuffed out. A little after the fact (8 years), CNN tells us that: “Field Marshall Ali Abdullah Saleh (president) had reached an agreement to allow the US to fly cruise missiles, fighter jets, and armed drones in Yemen airspace (CNN 12/30/10). The “US is clearly looking for fresh targets for a potential retaliatory strike that can be specifically linked to the Northwest Airline incident over Detroit and its planning”. Obama pledged that “all elements of US power will be used in response to the failed attack on Flight 253”. The US plans to give $190 million in military aid to Yemen in 2010 compared with only $4.6 million in 2006 and $67 million in 2009. We can only wonder where all this money goes in a country which has up until now tried to make peace with the small band of Al Qaeda militants in the Yemen's southeastern provinces. The Yemen Foreign Ministry declared on January 3rd that the threat posed by Al-Qaeda was exaggerated and that the Yemeni government was capable of tackling the militants in its country without foreign help” (AntiWar 1/3/10).

But such reassurances don't count for much when the US has gotten its dander up and needs to show off to its domestic television audience its ability for smack down each threat quickly and effectively. STRATFOR opined (1/06/10) that “Obama feels political pressure to initiate military action in Yemen to reassure Americans that something is being done to counter this latest jihadist threat.” We are warned that Yemen is strategically positioned on the Straits of Bab el Mandeb between Yemen and Djibouti through which Saudi and Kuwaiti oil tankers must pass on their way to European ports via the Red Sea. An unfriendly takeover of these straits by Yemeni terrorists could theoretically cut off the flow of 3.5 million barrels of oil a day. I can't imagine such a blockade holding up oil tankers for much more than an afternoon when confronted by the Sixth Fleet. “An excuse for US militarization of the waters around Bab el Mandeb would give Washington another major link in its pursuit of control of the seven most critical chokepoints (Straits of Sumatra, the entrance to the Persian/Arab Gulf, Gibraltar, Panama, Yellow Sea, etc) around the world” according to F. William Engdahl writing for Global Research (1/05/10).

HEY LET'S CONNECT A FEW DOTS
STRATFOR's George Friedman laments (01/03/10): “While Al Qaeda Prime might be in shambles, other groups are using the brand name – such as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, while capabilities of jihadist terrorists overall have declined. This Christmas Day terror attack was relatively feeble and not well conceived but it raises the question as to why Obama is focusing on Afghanistan when the threat from Al Qaeda spinoffs can originate anywhere? There is no strategic solution to such low level terrorism”. The question remains as to why, to use Obama's simplistic language, “we didn't connect the dots”. A startling answer may have been given on Jan. 20th at hearings of the Senate Homeland Security Committee by Michael Leitner, Director of the Counterterrorism Center: “I will tell you that when people come to the country and they are on the watch list, it is because we have generally made the choice that we want them here to track their movement and activities” (CongressDaily 01/22/10). In other words, the Administration has made the judgment that an incident (like that in Detroit) is worth the risk. Incidentally, no major media have printed this testimony and no senators have publicized it, a clear sign that the Administration does not want anyone to help us connect the dots.

MEANWHILE UP NORTH THE SAUDIS ARE BOMBING SHII'ITES
President Saleh has concentrated his attention in recent months upon the Al Houthi (Shi'ite) rebellion in the north and the secessionist uprisings in the south where many resent their low economic status. The Al Qaeda (Sunni) people out in Marib have not been on his agenda and in fact, they have provided the government with support in fighting Shi'ites up north. Saleh has allowed the Saudi airforce to intrude across his northern borders and bomb totally defenseless Shi'ite villagers. Letting the Saudis intrude, after they banned Yemenis from working in the Kingdom after 911. isn't likely to increase his already shaky popularity. The Saudis have lost 113 ground troops so far in their assault – their first real military battle since King Abdul Aziz had tea with FDR in 1945 on the deck of the Destroyer Quincy, and quite near to where the miussles were launched and unwittingly turned his kingdom into an American protectorate. On January 25th, the Houthis offered Saudi Arabia a cease fire and the Red Cross reported that 175,000 people in the Houthi region has been displaced by the Saudi invasion force. Yemen has forbidden reporters entry to the region.

HAITI

Leading with what we presumably do best, the Pentagon made sure there were plenty of young M16-laden Marines keeping order in Port-au-Prince, while five plane loads of hospitals and medicines supplied by Medecins Sans Frontieres had to wait five days for permission to land. A French flight carrying an emergency field hospital was also denied permission to land and aid flights by the Red Cross and the World Food Program were diverted to Santa Domingo. The Pentagon has ineffectively taken charge in Haiti and have dispatched combat troops to distribute food, tend the sick, free those still entrapped, and bury the dead. None of these humanitarian tasks were ever taught during their basic training. The message is clear: 'stand back, the Pentagon is in charge here'. The UN has responded by providing no initiatives, and the European Union is obediently waiting a call from Washington before taking any useful steps, all the while disavowing that there is any “suggestion of a rift” with the US, according to Financial Times 01/19/10. Despite these attempts to smooth things over, one French Minister slammed US troops for seizing Haiti's only airport: “This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti” (01/18/10 Antiwar.com).

Hillary Clinton, on a quick flight to Haiti, explained that their President Rene Preval had just signed a decree imposing curfew and martial-law conditions: “The decree would give the government an enormous amount of authority, which in practice they would delegate to us” she stated proudly. Beyond the 15 to 20,000 US boots on the ground, there is a 7,000 man Brazilian led UN peacekeeping force. Brazil's Defense Minister warned that peace keepers “could struggle if there were large scale protests. Haiti could quickly descent into rioting if 3 million hungry, thirsty and traumatized earthquake survivors don't receive emergency aid soon” (WSWS 01/18/10). This was followed up by their tear-gassing starving protestors at the airport gates and the firing of rubber bullets at those taking groceries from collapsed stores.

ANOTHER PATHETIC KATRINA RESPONSE
Guido Bertolaso, head of Italy's Civil Protection Agency, that had responded quickly to the earthquake in the city of Aquila (Abruzzo) last year, denounced the US-led effort in Haiti as “pathetic” and compared it to the Hurricane Katrina experience. “It is a truly powerful show of force, but it is completely out of touch with reality. “ he complained: “When confronted with a situation of chaos, the US tends to confuse military intervention with emergency operations that should not be entrusted to the armed forces.”

The World Food Program's Jarry Emmanuel told the NYTimes that most of the 200 flights a day to Haiti are for the US military. Their priorities are to secure the country, ours are to feed people. We have to get those priorities in synch”. The EU increased its aid to Haiti to $500 million, five times the US donation, Meanwhile Canada offered 1,000 soldiers in addition to their 1,000 now therewith the Haitian UN force and threw in two warships.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned Haitians trying to flee to the US that “you will not qualify for TPS (Temporary Protected Status).” In other words, they would be deported back to Haiti to struggle with the tear gas, and the lack of food and shelter. Seven Coast Guard ships are patrolling off Haiti to prevent boatloads of refugees from reaching US shores. The main stream media has given the American viewing public heart-warming shots of a few Americans bringing orphans to our homeland while never mentioning the Coast Guard cutters imposing an embargo on escape for any others from this natural holocaust.