What the Media Not Telling Us about Yemen | Ramzy Baroud
The Bloody War that Doesnt Exist
Ramzy Baroud -- World News Trust
May 16, 2014
In Yemen today, the U.S. embassy is closed to the public. Officials telling CNN there is credible information of a threat against Western interests there, a CNN news anchor read the news bulletin on May 8.
This is CNNs Yemen. It is a Yemen that seems to exist for one single purpose, and nothing else: maintain Western, and by extension, U.S. interests in that part of the world. When these interests are threatened, only then does Yemen matter.
Yemen of Western Interests
Every reference in that specifically-tailored discourse serves a purpose. It is as if al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) exists to justify U.S. military intervention and unending drone war. Last April, 63 Yemenis were reportedly killed in U.S. drone strikes allegedly targeting al-Qaeda. No credible verification of that claim is available, and none of the victims have been identified. Signature drone strikes dont require identification, we are told. It could take months, if not years, before rights groups shed light on the April killings, which are a continuation of a protracted drone war.
The Western narrative of Yemen is unmistakable. It is driven by interests and little else. It is ultimately about control of strategic areas. Yemens massive border with Saudi Arabia, and access to major waterways -- the Red Sea, Gulf of Eden and the Arabian Sea -- and its close proximity to Africa and Somalia in particular, all point to unrivalled significance of Yemen to the United States and other Western powers. In this narrative, Yemen is about oil and security. It is about the kind of "stability" that guarantees that the status quo concerned with Western interests remain intact.
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