The international community must earnestly thank Libyan dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi for his ability to be the perfect scapegoat. In a region filled with corrupt, American-sponsored brutes and dictators, Qaddafi represents a tyrant who has never been influenced by the West and is willing to fight to the death to maintain his vice grip over his country.
As a result, NATO and the United Nations have jumped all over the opportunity to participate in the Libyan civil war by launching a no-fly zone, ignoring the severe repercussions of the protests still ongoing in Bahrain, Jordan, Syria and most importantly Yemen.
Yemen’s chaos is especially important when one considers the over $190 million dollars in aid the nation was receiving from the U.S., which considers Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh a pivotal ally in the ongoing albatross that is the war on terrorism.
This is the same Ali Abdullah Saleh who just last week declared a 30-day state of emergency, which suspends the constitution, bars protests and allows security forces to gain even further powers of arrest.
The reason for the state of emergency is the surge in protests that have gripped Yemen since February. People have been protesting Saleh’s 23-year reign, which has been notorious for corruption, torture and the false promise of democracy.
While Saleh’s regime has cracked down on protests, particularly in the capital of Sanaa, he has been unable to quell the outrage. Even claims that he would not run for the presidency in 2013 fell upon deaf ears, as many were reminded of a similar claim he made last election. Now promising to step down at the end of the year, his pledges are being contradicted by authoritarian actions like declaring this state of emergency.
And while Saleh makes inflammatory statements about how he will only relinquish power if the nation he has abused is in “safe hands” following his resignation, the international community has ignored his actions and words, choosing instead to focus entirely on Libya.
By ignoring Yemen, we are ignoring a nation where Al Qaeda has gained significant foothold despite the hundreds of millions of dollars America has poured in wantonly, as evinced by the recent capture and subsequent blast of a munitions factory that left over 100 people dead.
We are ignoring a nation that has been in the throes of a civil war for years now and whose army seems determined to subvert the protests that have been generated by the people.
As important as the ramifications of Libya’s civil war is for the international community, the unrest that was initially sparked by Tunisia has engulfed the entire region. And although it may be against American interests to create an arbitrary sense of order by focusing only on one nation’s struggle for freedom, there is no point in hiding the truth and sacrificing some people to help others.