Green Beret in Yemen

Fundamentals: Greece says that it cannot form a unity government, therefore there will be new elections in June. The hard left is certain to win. This means Greece is almost certain to default on its debt. The entire Euro-zone is now at risk.

Long War: Press reports tell us that at least 70 US Army Special Forces troops are in Yemen, directing the Yemeni Army in a gigantic battle against Al-Qaeda. This is probably understated and there are likely many more Special Forces in country. I say this because we have news of US Navy warships moving into position off the Yemeni coast.

As I've pointed out, Al-Qaeda has an army in Yemen with main battle tanks and all the fixings. This army is being chewed up by the combined US/Yemeni Army. Combined Special Forces and CIA drone strikes are now too numerous to count and the pretense of not providing close air support seems to have been shredded. No Republican would dare criticize Obama for getting involved so heavily and overtly in this war right after AQAP was caught red-handed trying to blow up an American airliner.

I invite you to reconsider and rethink the media accounts of the CIA's foiling of this latest underwear bomb attempt. It is a strange coincidence that this whole incident occurred right before the media got wind that the US has boots on the ground in Yemen. Certainly there really was an underwear bomb attempt on the part of AQAP. But the whole thing is just way to useful to the CIA to be sheer chance.

The Syrian Civil War has spread into Lebanon. This is bad. The only thing that the CIA can do in this war is to somehow help the Free Syrian Army (FSA) purge its ranks of Al-Qaeda fighters and operatives. One way we will know if this is happening would be if suicide bomb attacks against Assad's forces diminish. When and if that happens, then the FSA has to fight and defeat Assad's army. This will take years. I have been saying that the CIA is doing nothing along these lines in Syria. Maybe I'm wrong. If I am wrong, then Iran would know that its ally (Syria) is in Langley's cross hairs. So another clue that the CIA actually is making progress purging Al-Qaeda fighters from the FSA would be if Iran bellies up to the bar in the peace talks with 5 plus 1 that are scheduled to restart in the near future. And indeed Iran made placating statements about the peace talks earlier in the week. This isn't enough to say there is CIA progress in Syria, but it is a hopeful sign. This Long War battlefield is ambiguous.