Yemen will be first to fall in attack on Iraq

[Nic Name]

Yemen may be al-Qaida's new base

The justification for controlling Yemen will be as follows:

> Osama Bin Ladin is of Yemeni descent and many of his Al Qaeda buddies are Yemeni.

> Osama Bin Ladin is implicated in the December 1992 Hotel bombings in Yemen against U.S. servicemen enroute to Somalia.

> The attack on the USS Cole was in Yemen.

> The USA is making a case that Yemen is the new base of Al Qaeda.

> The recent attack on the French tanker will be more evidence that Yemen is a country harboring terrorists.

> It was a British Protectorate until 1967 and has not had any stable government since the Brits pulled out. The Brits will be ready to get back into Yemen with the Americans.

> It is strategically important for military control of the region, both for naval fleets and airports, without having to rely on the Saudis, or even the Brits for Diego Garcia to launch its bombers in the region.

Background: North Yemen became independent of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. The British, who had set up a protectorate area around the southern port of Aden in the 19th century, withdrew in 1967 from what became South Yemen. Three years later, the southern government adopted a Marxist orientation. The massive exodus of hundreds of thousands of Yemenis from the south to the north contributed to two decades of hostility between the states. The two countries were formally unified as the Republic of Yemen in 1990. A southern secessionist movement in 1994 was quickly subdued. In 2000, Saudi Arabia and Yemen agreed to a delimitation of their border.

What do ya think the US Marines Expeditionary Unity is doing in nearby Djibouti?




With a permanent militarty presence in Yemen, the USA could smack down Somalia, as well.