Even if Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian national who planned to blow up a passenger plane over Detroit on Christmas day, botched his job, the implications that the incident created have been sending huge waves in many governments across the globe. He allegedly trained in a militant camp in Yemen. Hence, Yemen is now considered a global security threat.

To say that Yemen is in turmoil is an understatement. There is its own share of Shi’ite rebellion in the north, separatist unrest in the south, and the ever-growing presence of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Yemen has, in fact, already become a failing state. Add to the misery are the scores of refugees that have been fleeing the violence in neighboring Somalia and Ethiopia.

The United States is about to step in, especially after it has admitted that Yemen is now a direct threat to global security. Intervention is in order.

With highly possible military action in Yemen coming up, the US would do well to learn the lessons in Afghanistan. Without changing some of its military tactics, especially the large scale human casualty as war’s collateral damage, the same fate shall befall the US in its intended and impending military presence in Yemen.

Human Rights Watch asserts that “Civilian casualties are always a human tragedy. But they also undermine the US objective of reducing support for al Qaeda. It took six long years for the US military to come to that important conclusion in Afghanistan.”

Image by Reuters featured in source article.