Trump negotiated the release of American OIL Worker held captive in Yemen for the last Year and a Half

[Illurion + 894]

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/25/politics/donald-trump-daniel-burch-yemen-hostage/index.html

 

I am sure his family is happy....

[John Foote + 1,135]

On 2/25/2019 at 8:57 PM, mthebold said:

Why does the US not bomb countries into oblivion when they hold US citizens? 

The US has been bombing Yemen for years. Just very quietly and discretely and not using manned aircraft.

If bombing resulted in peace, peace would have been achieved long ago. It doesn't.

[John Foote + 1,135]

Americans were highly recommended to get the F out of Yemen for quite some time. A few stayed, others go in and out, and I don't know this individual's story but the list of warnings to stay out has been in place for some time. It's not like some nasty area in Iraq where you are more or less safe in a contract mercenary bubble. We should work to get out US citizens out whenever but realize to get trapped in Yemen, I won't say they asked for it, but they certainly were more than adequately warned. Typically hostage taking there is really for money, not terrorism or politics. We might not pay, but someone will pay on our behalf over our objections, and we get our man back. Yemen is semi-stateless region. Our allies activities in recent years have further armed and strengthened the same group that did 9-11. They hire them to go after Houthies, who were aligned with Rashids to toss out the Sauds not all that long ago and there is still resentment. It's a crazy game.

If there was a clear way to bomb and win, I'd be all for it. Sometimes I fantasize using a B61. Just reset the population counter to zero and start over. But genocide is not an option.

And I've been to multiple places the state department advised against. It's oddly easy to get comfortable with it. But Yemen, even my Yemeni friends in Saudi were afraid to go home. 

[Oil_Engineer + 86]

On 2/25/2019 at 8:57 PM, mthebold said:

Why does the US not bomb countries into oblivion when they hold US citizens? 

In most cases the state department strongly discourages travel or work in countries like Yemen, and when something like this happens they really won’t do much to save you unless you are a diplomat or government employee.