On December 25th a man from Nigeria and allegedly trained in Yemen attempted to set off a bomb on a Northwest flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. The plot was ultimately foiled by passengers on the plane.
Many U.S. lawmakers, including Senator Joe Lieberman, are calling for a new front in the war on terror, this time in Yemen. The Yemeni government has spoken out against the U.S., stating that if the U.S. had intelligence on the bombing suspect before the incident, they should have shared it.
The problem with this entire scenario is that there has been a lot going on behind the scenes with Yemen that no one is talking about. Since the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11, the Yemeni government has been buying massive amounts of weapons from the American government, where previously they had been banned from doing so. The local media in Yemen has reported numerous Al-Qaida training camps within or facilitated by the Yemeni military, and many of these terrorists receive military salaries.
The Yemeni government, who is endorsing terrorism in their country, stands to gain a substantial amount by pretending that they aren't. The U.S. offers foreign aid, weapons, and training to the militaries of countries who report Al-Qaida training camps on their soil. This would be nothing new for Yemen; the country has been receiving foreign aid from the U.S. for years based on the fact that one-third of the country lives in poverty. Sadly, the aid never reaches the people who need it - the government would lose their foreign aid entitlement if their people weren't poor. Rather than use the money to help those impoverished citizens, the Yemeni government uses the money to their own advantage, paying themselves massive salaries and using the money for corrupt purposes, such as buying weapons from the U.S.
So the United States has ensured, through the offering of aid and weapons to foreign countries, that the war on terror will be a never-ending war. What corrupt government wouldn't invite Al-Qaida into their country if it meant money from the U.S. government? These governments have already proven that they care nothing about the people of their country because they keep their countries in poverty in order to receive aid.
The perpetual cycle that the U.S. government has created will ensure many a loser and a handful of winners. The American taxpayers will lose because the money for the foreign aid ultimately comes from them. The men and women sent to fight this ongoing battle are American citizens who do not deserve to be put in harm's way because of some greedy governments. The impoverished people in the countries receiving foreign aid will constantly feel the heel of their government at their throat and will never be allowed to rise up and meet their potential as a productive society. But the winners, the governments that feel no shame when they hold down their country, the American weapons industry which makes millions of dollars selling weapons to the U.S. government, who in turn sells them to governments who invite terrorists...these are the real truths that should be talked about when we discuss the attempted bombing of the Northwest airling on December 25th.
Instead of talking about these truths, congressmen are talking about opening up a new front on the war on terror. It is time that they face the fact that their foreign policy is the reason why we are in this never-ending war.
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