As Canada prepares to enter the Syrian civil war, red flags are everywhere. The latest comes from Yemen. Tom Walkom writes:
In Yemen, it’s hard to figure out who the good guys are. The Saudis and Egyptians back President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, the person they regard as the country’s legitimate leader.
He was the consensus choice of the country’s two main political parties in a 2012 election where he was the only candidate.Both the Houthis and southern secessionists boycotted that vote.Hadi’s enemies now include the Houthis and forces aligned with Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen’s former president.Saleh used to be Washington’s man in Yemen, helping America in its fight against Al Qaeda terrorists. At that time he was viewed as a good guy.But the U.S. eventually decided he was no longer useful. As part of U.S. President Barack Obama’s embrace of the so-called Arab Spring, Saleh was persuaded to step aside.
Now, for the time being at least, he is a bad guy.
The problem in the Middle East is that the good guys and the bad guys keep exchanging white and black hats. Stephen Harper lives in a world where it's easy to tell the bad guys from the good guys -- and where international law has no meaning.
Given Harper's simplistic view of the world, foreign military intervention only makes matters worse.
