Al Qaeda in Yemen

The WSJ reports on Yemen's deteriorating situation:

Arab and Western officials worry that al Qaeda is securing a stronghold in Yemen, where the government's focus on quelling a rebel insurgency is allowing the terror group to strengthen its ability to destabilize neighbors in East Africa and the Mideast.

Yemen's government, which has long struggled to assert control over the country's far-flung tribes and Islamic militant groups, launched a new offensive this summer against rebels living near its northern border with Saudi Arabia. The fighting, now in its seventh week, has shaken a fragile humanitarian situation. United Nations officials warned recently that food aid in the region is running low.

This is in a nutshell the problem with the notion, advanced yesterday by Max Boot, that we need a "comprehensive counterinsurgency" campaign in Afghanistan to stop that country from potentially becoming an al Qaeda safe haven. Is such a program going to be replicated wherever al Qaeda takes root? And if not, why do it in Afghanistan?

(AP Photos)