U.S. diplomacy faces many hurdles
U.S. News senior writer Kevin Whitelaw recently visited Yemen, an impoverished Muslim nation on the Arabian Peninsula that became a surprising U.S. ally in the wake of September 11. The Yemeni government has made some impressive strides when it comes to fighting terrorism, despite a few serious lapses like an embarassing prison break last month when 23 al Qaeda prisoners escaped through a tunnel. But now, Yemen is facing questions about its own crisis, as mounting poverty, declining oil resources, and suffocating corruption combine to threaten the nation's democratic progress–and perhaps its very existence. Whitelaw spent time with Yemenis from all walks of life – those in government, security, business, and education, along with a few of Yemen's legion of unemployed.
SANA, YEMEN–It is not easy being a U.S. diplomat in Yemen these days. From the war in Iraq and U.S. operations in Afghanistan to the long-standing anger over the U.S. backing of Israel, many Yemenis are unhappy with the U.S. government. When that anger is combined with the endemic conspiracy theories of the Arab world, it makes it very difficult for U.S. diplomats to reach out from their fortresslike compound on the outskirts of Sana.
Gamal Shami is the exactly the kind of person that U.S. officials like to seek out in a country like Yemen. He is the chairman of a group called the Democracy School that runs a model parliament for children from around Yemen. The children's assembly has at times managed to embarrass the government with its example of how democracy should work. But after meeting recently with a delegation of more than a dozen U.S. military officials, Shami and his group were castigated in Yemen's press.
"It's bad publicity for you to meet with the American Army," Shami says. "It has created a circumstance for the government to label us as agents of the American Army."
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