Yemen: Show us the money

I can’t really condone SNL’s policy of having every sleazy "ethnic" character be played by Fred Armisen in what seems like the same accent, but last Saturday’s cold open did a pretty good job of summing up what happens when a country — in this case Yemen, becomes a "New Front in the War on ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

I can't really condone SNL's policy of having every sleazy "ethnic" character be played by Fred Armisen in what seems like the same accent, but last Saturday's cold open did a pretty good job of summing up what happens when a country -- in this case Yemen, becomes a "New Front in the War on Terror:"

I can’t really condone SNL’s policy of having every sleazy "ethnic" character be played by Fred Armisen in what seems like the same accent, but last Saturday’s cold open did a pretty good job of summing up what happens when a country — in this case Yemen, becomes a "New Front in the War on Terror:"

Robert Haddick also takes up this question in a slightly more sober way in his most recent This Week At War column:

Yemen and its problems are suddenly on everyone’s agenda. On Jan. 1, CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus announced a doubling in annual U.S. assistance to the country. On Jan. 28, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will host an international conference on Yemen, where he will no doubt call for increased international donations. It seems that whenever the international community discovers another al Qaeda franchise, a financial reward to the host seems to follow. Pakistan has perfected how to profit from this perverse incentive. Yemen is now showing itself to be an able student of the same technique.[…]

From Saleh’s perspective, he has likely learned from Pakistan how rewarding al Qaeda’s presence — largely benign to him — can be. The impending deluge of U.S. aid, with Brown’s conference to add to the bounty, illustrates the perverse incentives offered to leaders like Saleh.

 

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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