Friday, July 16, 2010

Is Yemen the Next Afghanistan?

The short answer is "no." One should also mention that any story with such a title should be suspect.

That was the title of a recent article in the NYT magazine by Robert Worth on Yemen - the most in-depth reporting I have come across dealing with Yemen in more than a year. I'm hoping to comment more on the article in the near future, but my first reaction was that it was a little too negative and subjective. Robert Worth was also recently interviewed by NPR's Talk of the Nation. You can find a transcript and audio of the story, "The Growing Power of al-Qaida in Yemen," here.

You can also get a good taste of the current political situation in Yemen - and the US involvement -- by checking out Jane Ferguson's video/article on CNN entitled "U.S. Military Picks, Trains Yemeni Fighters."