Presidential Powers transferred to Yemeni VP; Saleh in Saudi Arabia

(CNN) -- Effective Saturday night, Yemeni Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi took over Ali Abdullah Saleh's responsibilities as president, Yemeni government spokesman Abdu Ganadi told CNN.
The power transfer comes as a source close to the Saudi government said that the long-time Yemeni ruler arrived in Riyadh around midnight Saturday, a day after being hurt in an attack on a mosque in his palace.

Official: Powers transferred to VP after attack on President Saleh - CNN.com

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Supposedly this is just a temporary transfer of power, and Saleh will resume his presidency after he recovers from his injuries. I'm guessing he never returns to Yemen.

Can a mod fix my typo in the thread title?

Initially, I believed that the U.S. should conduct a strategic reappraisal of its relationship with the embattled authoritarian regime (a more modest step than calling for its ouster). IMO, events since that time have demonstrated that the regime is embattled not by liberal elements, but by radical ones in a slow-motion reignition of the country's former civil war. The benefit of the former approach is that it would have put the regime on notice that the U.S. took seriously legitimate complaints against it, but that it would not cut its feet out in a fashion that emboldened the radical elements unless clear and objective reason for such a course existed. It would also have allowed the U.S. to gain an understanding as to the nature of those arrayed against the government. The latter approach has emboldened the radical elements and also might have increased some Al Qaeda activity.

The reality is that Yemen is less geopolitically important than it was during the Cold War and early on in the fight against Al Qaeda. It has long been sliding toward failed state status. A reappraisal would have been constructive even if the country were not gripped by violence, which likely is more the result of that evolution than some new-found desire for democratic governance. Nevertheless, it still is not relatively unimportant that the U.S. can be indifferent to events there.

IMO, going forward, the U.S. should work closely with Saudi Arabia and Yemen's neighbors to try to develop a stabilizing solution. However, Yemen poses a far more difficult challenge than Bahrain and, in the end, such a solution might have to be largely focused not on Yemen, but on preventing the problems from Yemen from spilling over into its neighbors. Whether President Saleh returns to power or not is less important, though if the radical elements believe they have driven him from power, they could step up their pressure on the weakened government in the context of a power vacuum. A fall of Yemen's government could lead to the country's shifting from a less than reliable U.S. partner to a largely unreliable or even hostile entity.

today attacks on the palace continue:

Gunmen attack presidential palace in Yemen - Middle East, World - The Independent

yemen may or may not be as significant to united states interest as it used to be but it still surely poses a more direct threat to, for example, the carter doctrine which guaranteed the free flow of oil thru the gulf than does obama's redefining of american regional interests as the protection of civilian life in libya or the maintenance of nato's and the un's credibility over there

Carter Doctrine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Remarks by the President in Address to the Nation on Libya | The White House

The Prof said:

today attacks on the palace continue:

Gunmen attack presidential palace in Yemen - Middle East, World - The Independent

yemen may or may not be as significant to united states interest as it used to be but it still surely poses a more direct threat to, for example, the carter doctrine which guaranteed the free flow of oil thru the gulf than does obama's redefining of american regional interests as the protection of civilian life in libya or the maintenance of nato's and the un's credibility over there

Carter Doctrine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Remarks by the President in Address to the Nation on Libya | The White House

Click to expand...

I agree. Yemen still has greater strategic importance to the U.S. than Libya does. Libya is little more than a peripheral interest. The extent of U.S. intervention in Libya is inconsistent with the importance of American interests. It is little more than an expression of hope that the anti-government elements will be more inclusive and democratic than the regime with little or no credible evidence to support that hope. It is a gamble at a time when U.S. resources should be more focused than ever on the national interest, especially as the nation faces a fairly lengthy period of fiscal consolidation (preferably by choice, but possibly from circumstances should it maintain a business as usual course).

word

and libya as well, if the president's "mission" is ever "successful," puts us on the very dangerous end of the powell doctrine

syria is also scary, the rosey hopefulness of arab spring's early mornings is running up against some cruelly red realities

pray for that part of the world to find its peace