The Patriot Post® · Obama Still Thinks Yemen Strategy Is Sound

Despite pulling the last U.S. Special Forces from the country, the Obama administration stands behind its comments touting its foreign policy strategy in Yemen. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest defended his boss’ strategy, even in the face of growing unrest and the potential growth of ISIL in the nation. “The case that we have made is that Yemen did serve as a sort of template for the kind of strategy that we would employ to mitigate the threat from extremists around the world,” Earnest insisted. “In Yemen, the U.S. did on occasion take steps to remove some extremists from the battlefield. Those were steps that were carried out using U.S. capabilities, done in conjunction with the Yemeni central government and with national security forces inside that country. Ultimately our goal here is to build up the capacity of local countries so they can assume responsibility for their own security situation. That has the effect of stabilizing the country so extremists can’t use it to plot against the West.” Great idea on paper, but it hasn’t worked out too well in application. Yet Obama is sticking with the same strategy. More…