On Feb 3, Ambassador Barbara K. Bodine titled her Georgetown U. lecture, “Yemen: If this is a Policy Success, What Does Failure Look Like?” Eight days later the U.S. embassy in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, fell to Houthi rebels. Writing for Campus Watch, Andrew Harrod reports at FrontPage Magazine on Bodine’s lecture:
Yemen has been an “always almost failing state” for as long as Ambassador Barbara K. Bodine can remember, she affirmed in her February 3 Georgetown University luncheon lecture, “Yemen: If This is a Policy Success, What Does Failure Look Like?” The truth of Bodine’s sobering presentation to a fifty-person conference room packed to standing-room-only was confirmed when, eight days later, America’s embassy in the capital Sanaa fell to Houthi rebels and U.S. Marines were forced to destroy their weapons before fleeing the country to prevent them from falling into rebel hands. The humiliating failure of American policy demonstrated that, President Barack Obama’s wishful thinking notwithstanding, Yemen will not be a policy success anytime soon.
