Yemen on the Verge of Collapse

Right now in Yemen, civil war is raging from three directions. The Houthi, a group of Shia insurgents from the North of the country have taken over the capital city, San’a after ten years of fighting, displacing the previous ruling party, who represent the majority Sunni population in the country. While these two factions fight for control in the north and central parts of the country, the south eastern area has been taken over by a terrorist group with direct ties to Al - Qaeda. This dire situation was detailed to an audience of nodding old people, me and Spencer by Stephen Seche, a former US ambassador to Yemen. With maps, dates, and geopolitical terms, Mr. Seche described a country on the verge of collapse without ever referencing the people that live there. Sitting in the silent, hot banquet room of the Chicago Club, I had a hard time keeping my mind engaged with the detailed geopolitical landscape that Mr. Seche detailed, and rather found myself imagining a Yemeni kid, living in a war torn village, sitting in on the conversation. Using buzz words like freedom responsibility and justice, its easy to justify the United States’ never ending policy of foreign intervention, especially in a “morally reprehensible” and politically unstable region like the Middle East. However, from a more humanist, objective and rational point of view, our interventions seem misguided, and more like an extension of Imperialism than  an ethical policy intended to help anything other than our own national interest.   But that begs the question, is looking out for national self interest unethical? That’s a question thats never asked at these meetings, where self interest is the foundational priority of decision making. Pragmatically speaking, that is a necessary presumption, because whether or not the US acts in its own self interest, the rest of the world will. But that’s an unsatisfying justification when it leads us to robotically bomb communities throughout the world, and treat our own voice as the gospel of freedom. I guess foreign affairs is no place for an idealist.