War on Terror

The U.S. has expanded its efforts on the War on Terror to Yemen. Although it is not entirely due to what happened on Christmas Day when Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian who trained in Yemen with Al Qaeda, attempted to blow up flight Northwest 253, that incident is part of the reason for expanding the efforts of the War on Terror. There is a lot of background leading up to the decision of the U.S. declaring war quietly against Al Qaeda in Yemen (granted, we are not actually declaring war on the Yemeni government itself, as we are working with them in order to attempt to take down Al Qaeda).

We are now in a three front war with Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen.

The article in the NY Times states that the Pentagon will be spending $70 million in the next 18 months to train and equip Yemeni military, which is more than doubling our military aid to Yemen previously.

Yemen is suspected as the next central training hub for Al Qaeda because over the last two years it has been facing growing problems with threats of succession in the south, rebellions in the northwest, and dwindling oil supplies for export and income.

Before Christmas Yemen did carry out air strikes on Al Qaeda with support from President Obama and equipment from the United States. The latest death toll of Al Qaeda militants was over 60, according to officials.

The reason I'm giving such a brief post on all of this is that I think it's important to follow. Reading the NY Times and other such newspapers and sources will give you a broader understanding. I figured I'd just start it off with a few links where you can read more about it.

If you're interested in the amount of money that the United States has spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, click the following link:

Cost of Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

I was shocked, needless to say, at the amount of money our country has spent on these two war fronts.

No wonder we don't have universal health care.