Tag Archives: qaeda

Drones and the YPC Report

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A few months ago, the Yemen Polling Center released a report on Public Perceptions of Security Sector and the Police Work in Yemen. The report’s summary runs 86 pages and tackles a pretty decent array of issues, ranging from Yemenis thoughts on female police officers to their confidence in security forces. Ultimately, however, a decent—and arguably inordinate—degree of attention has been placed on a single question, which is copied below.

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I’ve been dealing with Yemen long enough to know that anything drone related will eventually prove to be a lightening rod for attention, so I guess its not surprising. But looking at some of the discussion of this small excerpt of the report, the question remains: what, if anything, does page 32 of the latest YPC report tell us about the perceptions of US drone strikes in Yemen.

On a superficial level, the result could be used to suggest that Yemenis don’t really care about the strikes; only .8% listed drones as the greatest threat to their personal security. It may be worth noting that, ironically, that is a greater percentage than those who answered the same question with “Al Qaeda;” still, it isn’t difficult to imagine how some would seize upon such an interpretation to legitimize certain policies or cast aspersions on certain assertions.

Of course, the results to the query come with two significant caveats—it was an open question and only a single response was recorded. It wasn’t, ultimately, a question aiming to divine anything specifically related to Yemenis thoughts on drones. That being said, it is rather troubling that, according to the survey, there are over 100,000 Yemenis who see American airstrikes in Yemen as the greatest threat to their personal security.

Nevertheless, in my opinion, it is rather foolish to see these results as significant evidence of anything one way or another on Yemenis’ perceptions of drone strikes. Respondents were unable to offer more than one answer—to state the obvious, seeing financial matters as the greatest threat to one’s personal safety, for example, doesn’t preclude a person from seeing drone strikes as a danger as well, especially considering the areas where drone strikes tend to occur are quite poor and underdeveloped. It is also important to remember that strikes are largely concentrated in certain parts of the country. The majority of Yemenis live in provinces where drone strikes have never taken place; it would be difficult to imagine that a Yemeni living in, say, Taiz or Hudayda, would see drones as a threat to their personal safety—regardless of how they feel about them on an abstract level. That itself is another key aspect: a Yemeni from the province of Taiz, where a drone strike has never occurred, can still vociferously condemn drones as a violation of Yemen’s sovereignty even if they feel that they present no personal threat to their own safety.

In the end Yemeni perceptions of drone strikes are a complicated issue that can’t be covered in a single question—especially a question in a report that’s devoted to a completely different topic.  The YPC has put out a useful report on an important subject. The temptation to use said report to attempt to derive answers to a question it wasn’t asking is probably one that’s best avoided.

Two Cab drivers, two (unintentional) monologues

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1. Cab driver from Sanhan, diverging as he answered a question regarding his thoughts on yesterday’s military decrees:

You know, as a people, we’re tired. But every Yemeni knows what’s possible. We’re sitting in one of the world’s oldest cities in a country that is the birthplace of the Arab people. Drive through the countryside—whether to the north or to the south: where else is nature that incredible? Walk through the old city: have you ever seen buildings that beautiful? We’re tired, yes, but we’re capable of so much. And within every Yemeni is the ability to make this country into something that would fill Saudi Arabia and the Emirates with envy.
2. Cab driver from Ibb, offering his thoughts on why Yemen seems to weather unrest and instability better other nations in the region two hours later:

The situation is completely different here, and the reason has nothing to do with the (GCC) initiative or the international community. People say we’re backwards, that Yemenis are violent, that the country is filled with guns. They have no idea what they’re talking about. There’s poverty, yes, and unfortunately, there’s a lot of illiteracy and a low level of education. Still, look at 2011—any other country would have fallen into civil war a thousand times. But even when the bombs were exploding and people were dying, I didn’t think it would happen. Maybe its our culture, or something we’ve learned from everything we’ve had to put up with in our history. But within nearly Yemeni is this real wisdom. And that’s why what’s happening in Syria, God willing, could never happen here.

Photo is of a poster in my favorite dessert place. Text is a remark said to have been made by the prophet Mohamed (PBUH). “الايمان يمان و الحكمة يمانية:” faith is Yemeni and wisdom is Yemeni.”

After the Drone

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I’d always imagined that I would make it to Beit al-Ahmar at some point. The village, a short drive outside of Sanaa, was the birthplace of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and number of the key players in his rise and fall to power. Regardless of whether I’d end up gaining any profound insights from any prospective visit, a trip to Saleh’s hometown seemed like a necessity, if only to say I’d been there.

Even if I still find it hard to believe it took place, it was a November 7th drone strike on the outskirts of the village targeting an alleged Al Qaeda militant from a prominent local family that finally brought me to Beit al-Ahmar. Through a series of events I can’t really get in to, I managed to secure passage to now-even-more-notorious town, escorted by the late target’s brother and his driver, who conveniently offered to pick me up a few minutes walk from my house.

It’s hard to describe how it feels, as an American journalist, to drive through Sanaa in the back of an SUV coated in posters commemorating the ‘martyrdom’ by drone of an alleged Al Qaeda militant as his brother sits in the front seat.  All the obvious triggers of ill ease almost contradicted each other, mostly leaving me with a low level of paranoia that was largely focused on all the possible ways I could screw things up, ranging from incorrectly conjugating Arabic verbs to failing to suppress nervous laughter. The ride was far from painful; that being said, I’m glad it was short.

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