Saleh in the U.S. is not the worst of it

My gut tells me I’m with Andrew Exum, who objects forcefully to allowing Yemen’s former President Saleh into the U.S., supposedly for medical treatment.  A serial human rights abuser and murderer of unarmed protesters, he merits neither our sympathy nor our safe haven.  It is hard for me to imagine that an angry someone won’t find a way to drag him into a U.S. court.*  But does the brain confirm the gut feeling?

I can imagine what John Brennan, the White House counter-terrorism “czar” and chief administration spokesman on Yemen, is arguing.  Getting Saleh out of Yemen will remove an obstacle to the transition process there.  It will also enable the U.S. to continue support for security forces that fight Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the local Al Qaeda franchise.  This is Brennan’s first concern.

Unfortunately those forces are under the control of Saleh’s relatives.  So continuing our support for them also helps Saleh to keep his regime in place, if not for his own return then for the ascendancy of one of his sons to power.  What we are seeing is the emergence into the open of something that has clearly been true all along:  the Americans don’t want too much change in Yemen, as it threatens their top priority, which is the fight against Al Qaeda.  The American Ambassador’s recent denunciation of the protesters is part of this picture.

This is a big mistake, a bigger one than allowing Saleh into the U.S.  The conditions that enable Al Qaeda to thrive in Yemen are not going away so long as Saleh and his family maintain their autocratic rule.  It may be tactically convenient to get Saleh to the U.S., but it is strategically stupid for the United States to remain in his pocket, snookered into supporting his sons as the only bulwark against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.  The problems that make Yemen home to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula go far beyond terrorism:  sectarian and secessionist rebellions are raging north and south, water and oil are running out, qat is king, poverty is endemic and abuse of the population is reaching epic proportions.

Any serious counter-terrorism effort in Yemen should include this bigger picture, as John Brennan knows.  But I fear it does not.  If Saleh comes to the U.S. it will be a symptom of a much bigger problem with U.S. policy in Yemen.

*This option is outlined by William F. Schulz at Huffpost.