Thomas P.M. Barnett

THE FLIGHT 253 BOMB ATTEMPT: "U.S. Looks to Intensify Yemen Campaign," by Peter Spiegel, Jay Solomon and Margaret Coker, Wall Street Journal, 30 December 2009.

For the record:

Oct 2000 AQ bombs USS Cole in Port of Aden

Nov 2002 drone hit on former AQ head

Feb 2006 prison breakout of 23 AQ

Sept 2006 AQ-linked suicide bombers hit two oil installation

July 2007 AQ-linked bomber attack Spanish tourists

Sept 2008 AQ-linked attack on US embassy

Aug 2009 AQ claims attempt on Saudi deputy interior minister (first underwear bomb)

Dec 2009 Yemen gov-launched attacks on AQ strongholds, with US assistance

Dec 2009 attempted attack on US-bound jetliner.

Back when I used to count up US military operations, I'm sure some of these would have registered and others not. But the underlying reality would be the same: periodic episodic ops are the norm inside this Gap country. Basic frontier policing. Nobody likes to do it and it's a complete pain.

But the U.S. military, in various forms, participates here and there, building local capacity wherever possible.

Every so often events conspired to push the country above the white-noise line--like Detroit, and then suddenly the public and media and politicians care most demonstrably.

But most of the time the subject remains rather esoteric--talked about across the community regularly but rarely brought up publicly.

That is the essence of the Gap's security environment and the U.S. military's role there these past two decades.