Yemen's stage set for al-Qaida

By Jeremy Brigham

Last November, after the Fort Hood massacre, and again in December after the failed bombing of an airplane at Detroit, Yemen was in the news. Both men responsible allegedly had had contact with al-Qaida in Yemen.

However, there is much more to Yemen than al-Qaida. Americans need to understand more of the country's culture and history as we consider how to respond.

Yemen was unified on May 22, 1990, after a conflict between north and south lasting nearly three decades. North Yemen is a region of tribes, many living in narrow valleys, hamlets and small towns. In the past couple of decades, many of these people moved to larger cities. North Yemen has had both Shi'ah and Sunni Muslim communities for over a thousand years.

South Yemen's major city, Aden, came under control of the British in 1839 because of its strategic location near the straits connecting the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. For 30 years, Aden was one of the world's most important ports, as the region's oil industry grew and Suez Canal served as a major thoroughfare for oil and goods.

Because Aden and its industrialized port dominated South Yemen, labor issues became paramount. Marxist socialism gained hold, toward which both Egypt and the Soviet Union were sympathetic as they sought allies in Arab countries.

Egypt took the side of the south in a civil war, tying up tens of thousands of troops for half a decade.

In 1967, after losing a war to Israel, Egypt withdrew from Yemen. In the 1980s, oil was discovered near the border of south and north Yemen, which prompted them to consider establishing a peaceful union. When the Soviet Union and its support for south Yemen ended in the 1990s, there was little reason to continue the separation, and they united in May, 1990.

In August, Iraq invaded Kuwait. Yemen supported Iraq. This angered Saudi Arabia, threatened by Iraq's invasion, to the extent that Saudi Arabia expelled several hundred thousand Yemen guest workers. This was an economic and social catastrophe for Yemen, an already impoverished and overcrowded country. The U.S. also reacted, cutting aid to Yemen.

Since 1990, the population has nearly doubled, and in recent years thousands of Somalians have fled to Yemen. The basis of the economy has also switched from coffee to khat, a mild sedative with a high street value.

Thus Yemen, stressed by a long civil war, an influx of unemployed workers, refugees from a broken state and loss of a major source of foreign revenue, has become a stage for al-Qaida.

Since 2003, adjunct instructor Jeremy Brigham, Ph.D., has taught a course on the Middle East at Kirkwood Community College.