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Yemen: Terror threat? US ally? Nearly failed state?
"Iraq was yesterday's war. Afghanistan is today's war. If we don't act preemptively, Yemen will be tomorrow's war."
That's what U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman, head of the Homeland Security Committee, said he was told by a U.S. government official during a recent visit to Yemen's capital, Sana'a.
Yemen had been creeping into counter-terrorism debates for months, often cited as "a key battleground" for extremism, or, as Gen. David Petraeus suggested in April, an Al Qaeda "safe haven."
But the claim of responsibility from Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) for the failed Christmas Day plot to bomb a Detroit-bound flight has pushed Yemen to the forefront.