America's asymmetrical war against al Qaeda continues. The latest skirmish between the giant and the flea centered around Yemen. Consider this news report from December 18, 2009:
The United States provided firepower, intelligence and other support to the government of Yemen as it carried out raids this week to strike at suspected hide-outs of Al Qaeda within its borders, according to officials familiar with the operations.
The officials said that the American support was approved by President Obama and came at the request of the Yemeni government.
American officials said this past summer that they were seeing the first evidence that dozens of fighters with Al Qaeda, and a small handful of the terrorist group’s leaders, were moving to Somalia and Yemen from Pakistan.
The American contributions were intended to help Yemen to prevent Al Qaeda from mounting attacks against American and other foreign targets inside its borders.
The Saudi military (in coordination with the U.S.) launched a strike on December 20. Another Yemeni/U.S. air strike occurred on December 24.
The underwear bomber struck December 25.
A December 30 story noted:
The US is gearing up to attack al Qaeda targets in Yemen, possibly in retaliation to the failed attempt to bomb a US plane on Christmas Day, believed to have been masterminded by extremists operating in that country.
The U.S. attacked al Qaeda targets in Yemen twice prior to the underwear bomber. The media seems to have short term memory problems.
As for Americans who already gave up their privacy in the War on Terror, we're now expected to show our privates to board a plane. How does this make the least bit of sense?
Update: A British screening crew printed out full body images of a Bollywood celebrity. He signed them for "the girls."
