U.S. Embassy in Yemen

[Peachdejour]

The U.S. Embassy will not be evacuated despite the fighting near the presidential palace. A cease fire has been negotiated and no imminent threat as been detected towards Americans inside the embassy. However, Americans in the capitol have been urged to leave the capitol on commercial jets for their own safety. This lurks for me as a "one bitten, twice shy" scenario. We did not evacuate an embassy quickly enough once and it was tragic and a red tape mess. Are we making a mistake here?

 

[Scorpion]

What embassy are you talking about? US embassy in Iraq?

 

[Peachdejour]

OH Duh. They US Embassy in the Yemen capital. I was so busy typing along, I forgot to mention what part of the world we were in. Thank you for pointing that out.

 

[Scorpion]

OH Duh. They US Embassy in the Yemen capital. I was so busy typing along, I forgot to mention what part of the world we were in. Thank you for pointing that out.

Its alright

The ongoing clashes between the Yemeni government and the Houthis is not that far from the embassy and the fight is escalating. Its hard to tell whether an immediate evacuation is required or not but you don't wanna repeat the same mistake as that in Libya.

 

[Peachdejour]

Its alright

The ongoing clashes between the Yemeni government and the Houthis is not that far from the embassy and the fight is escalating. Its hard to tell whether an immediate evacuation is required or not but you don't wanna repeat the same mistake as that in Libya.

That's exactly what I was thinking. I feel like we had so many warning signs in Libya and we were careless with our people there. I feel like if it's close, we should be thinking that their safety is of the utmost importance. If we are recommending that our civilian citizens leave the capital, why are we not having our embassy staff leave also? I will be saying extra prayers for our overseas men and women.

 

[KimberlyD]

I must admit, after reading the article about the Yemen girls as young as 4 and 5 being married to grown men and some of them dieing from their wedding night, I have not had much in the way or care as to what happens to them. However, there are innocents there (as well as our own people) and so my heart does go out to them and I hope they can get them out if things get worse. Though, in my opinion, the minute the fighting started they should have been evacuated because it is usually during times like this that places like the Embassies are targeted heavily. Is there any updates on this situation?

 

[Peachdejour]

I just saw the headline that the U.N. has backs the Yemeni president against the rebels and has condemned the rebel capture of the palace in the capital. The U.S. still see no imminent threat to the embassy; however, a navy warcraft remains in flight distance in case an evacuation is order. The rebels in question are against Al-Qaeda, but are hostile towards the U.S.

 

[KimberlyD]

Thank you for the update. It is good to hear that they are setting up contingencies just in case of an attack on the Embassy, I hope nothing happens and it all blows over. Seems the we are gaining more and more enemies along the way, wonder where their hostility stems from?

 

[saastil]

I was in Cairo during the Egyptian revolution, and while some embassy workers there were required to evacuate, a sizable crew remained on the grounds. As an ex-pat, it was a very scary three weeks but there was no immediate threat to foreigners as it was an internal conflict and as long as we didn't go asking for trouble, we were safe.

However that was before Benghazi, and Libya and Yemen are much more tribal than Egypt. Also, Egypt is a major ally of the US and they were very invested in protecting American expats, in Yemen not so much. I'm pretty sure the US will err on the side of a premature evacuation if they have any sense that American lives are in danger, no one wants a repeat of Benghazi. Also, Benghazi was a consulate, not an embassy, so procedures may have differed.

The hostility in the Middle East stems from an incredibly long list of exploitations, interference, resource extracting, and human rights horrors that the USA and Europe have perpetrated on the civilians in the region for decades now. It's no surprise if you actually do your research.