The Rest of Obama's War

[On December 17, a Navy ship offshore of Yemen fired] a cruise missile loaded with cluster bombs [on what was believed to be a Qaeda training camp in Abyan Province] according to a report by Amnesty International. Unlike conventional bombs, cluster bombs disperse small munitions, some of which do not immediately explode, increasing the likelihood of civilian causalities.

[...]

An inquiry by the Yemeni Parliament found that the strike had killed at least 41 members of two families living near the makeshift Qaeda camp. Three more civilians were killed and nine were wounded four days later when they stepped on unexploded munitions from the strike, the inquiry found.

[...]

[An airstrike in May that hit a group of suspected al Qaeda operatives in Yemen] also killed the province’s deputy governor, a respected local leader who Yemeni officials said had been trying to talk Qaeda members into giving up their fight. Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, accepted responsibility for the death and paid blood money to the offended tribes.

The strike, though, was not the work of Mr. Saleh’s decrepit Soviet-era air force. It was a secret mission by the United States military, according to American officials, at least the fourth such assault on Al Qaeda in the arid mountains and deserts of Yemen since December.

  NYT

I wonder what we paid Saleh for taking the blame. I have no doubt we reimbursed him his blood money.

While the stealth war began in the Bush administration, it has expanded under President Obama, who rose to prominence in part for his early opposition to the invasion of Iraq.

Just in case you had forgotten. Apparently he has.

In contrast with the troop buildup in Afghanistan, which came after months of robust debate [...], the American military campaign in Yemen began without notice in December and has never been officially confirmed.

Instead of “the hammer,” in the words of John O. Brennan, President Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, America will rely on the “scalpel.” In a speech in May, Mr. Brennan, an architect of the White House strategy, used this analogy while pledging a “multigenerational” campaign against Al Qaeda and its extremist affiliates.

As though we weren't saddled by the force of our illegal, immoral wars, with a “multigenerational” campaign whether we want one or not.

The May strike in Yemen [...] provoked a revenge attack on an oil pipeline by local tribesmen and produced a propaganda bonanza for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. It also left President Saleh privately furious about the death of the provincial official, Jabir al-Shabwani, and scrambling to prevent an anti-American backlash, according to Yemeni officials.

He must be getting paid quite handsomely indeed.

They like to call this "Obama's War," but the truth is, this is a continuance of long-standing US foreign policy. It would be hard to find any real change in Obama's handling of that.

Michael G. Vickers, who helped run the C.I.A.’s campaign to funnel guns and money to the Afghanistan mujahedeen in the 1980s and was featured in the book and movie “Charlie Wilson’s War,” is now the top Pentagon official overseeing Special Operations troops around the globe. Duane R. Clarridge, a profane former C.I.A. officer who ran operations in Central America and was indicted in the Iran-contra scandal, turned up this year helping run a Pentagon-financed private spying operation in Pakistan.

[...]

The Yemen operation has raised a broader question: who should be running the shadow war? White House officials are debating whether the C.I.A. should take over the Yemen campaign as a “covert action,” which would allow the United States to carry out operations even without the approval of Yemen’s government.

Much cheaper.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.