Despite
the growing reports of failure – and despite the death of a Navy
SEAL, and the destruction of a $70 million Osprey aircraft –
Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer has continued to insist that
the mission was a “successful operation by all standards.”
by
Namir Shabibi and Nasser al Sane
Part
2 - Civilian deaths can provide ‘recruitment tool’ for terrorists
This is by
no means the first US counter-terror operation in Yemen which has
killed civilians. Each one has stoked more resentment among the
population. Yemeni foreign minister, Abdul Malik al Mekhlafi, said on
his official Twitter account that the deaths amounted to
“extrajudicial killings.”
A campaign
statement by Donald Trump suggests the new leader of the free world
may view such civilian casualties as inevitable, or even necessary.
“The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out
their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out
their families,” he said in December. “When they say they
don’t care about their lives, you have to take out their families.”
Trump’s
statement led to speculation that women and children might be
deliberately targeted by the US. But Stephen Seche, who was US
ambassador to Yemen from 2007-10, told the Bureau he did not believe
America had changed its attitude towards protecting civilians.
However “the enormous cost in human life” from this
particular raid would damage the legitimacy of American intervention
in Yemen, he told the Bureau. “It’s a horrific calculation to
have to make and the outcome in this case turned out to be as bad as
one can imagine it being.”
Far from
delivering a blow to AQAP, the raid may have strengthened it. “Groups
like AQAP will contend [this attack] shows Trump is making good on
his campaign pledge,” said Letta Tayler, Terrorism and
Counterterrorism Researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Even if
Trump wasn’t serious, armed extremists are likely to jump on every
photo of a Yemeni child killed in a US strike as a recruitment tool.”
“The
use of US soldiers, high civilian casualties and disregard for local
tribal and political dynamics… plays into AQAP’s narrative of
defending Muslims against the West and could increase anti-US
sentiment and with it AQAP’s pool of recruits,” said
International Crisis Group in a report released three days after the
attack.
The alleged
target of the raid certainly appeared to think it had helped AQAP’s
cause, releasing a message on February 5 mocking the US. “The
fool of the White House got slapped,” said al Raymi in an audio
recording which military sources said was authentic, reported NBC.
Source,
photos and links:
Comments
Post a Comment