I'm a loyal member of the Democratic Party and I don't have a problem with Drones

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

194. You're really got to learn something about the subject

Cutting and pasting is not learning.

The former military dictator of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, was the head of the General People's Congress. The GPC was the dominant political party in Yemen for decades. Starting in the past decade or so, Yemen has had elections. Real elections. Now there were irregularities in the voting (just as there are here) but by and large international observers agree that the elections were basically legitimate. So Saleh was the elected President -- perhaps by putting his thumb on the scale, but when you're the incumbent (for twenty-plus years), you've got certain advantages.

Saleh won the 2006 Presidential Election with 77% of the vote, while a candidate representing a coalition of opposition parties (the JMP) got the rest. The General People's Congress also won the 2003 Parliamentary Elections with 58% of the vote.

Flash forward to the Arab Spring. Protests started breaking out all over Yemen, and it became clear that Saleh would not be able to hang on to power. In November 2011, Saleh left the country and his Vice President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi took over an interim government, until elections could be held in February 2012. When the time came for elections, the General People's Congress (the ruling party) and the JMP (the opposition party) BOTH nominated Hadi to be their candidate.

So why was there only one candidate on the ballot? Because BOTH sides agreed the Hadi was the best person to transition Yemen from a military dictatorship to something that looked like a democracy. Hadi is the "unity candidate" widely supported by both sides.

The bottom line from the HRW report that you're citing: While Yemen made some positive changes toward becoming a more open and human rights' abiding society, the state will have to implement reforms at a much greater speed and assertiveness if it is to fulfill its citizens' demands. You're expecting Yemen to implement broad human rights reforms while simultaneously trying to fight off a terrorist army. And NOW you want them to do it without the military assistance of the United States.

Which gets us back to the original point. As I said in my first or second post on the subject, it's up to the people and the government of Yemen to take care of their domestic affairs. OUR interest in Yemen is strictly limited to the fact that Al Queda, which has vowed to continue carrying out terrorist attacks against the United States, is attempting to establish a safe haven there.

American policy for more than a decade is that we're going to pursue Al-Queda wherever they go. We're going to smoke them out, disrupt their operations, and ultimately destroy their ability to attack us. In this particular case, we have the blessing of the Yemini government to do this -- that our actions ultimately aid in stabilizing the government of Yemen is fortuitous for both sides.

Now should we do this unilaterally? No. Not in someone else's country. The Obama Administration should be consulting with the Hadi Administration AND with Congress so that everybody understands the rules of engagement.