Spinning plates

This week The UK, US and French Governments have closed their Embassies in Yemen. This is as a result or possibly response is the better word (knee jerk maybe), to the attempted bombing of an American plane by an extremist it is alleged was recruited and trained there.

Following that the governments are also making noise about something being done to combat extremism and Al-Quaida's influence there.

It just seems to me that we are increasingly being shown that this is a battle we simply cannot win with conventional Western bullying of small nations. It is no surprise that Employment and a hardline, allegedly corrupt government exist in this country. It is easy to see why Al-Quaida choose it is a place to ferment disaffection.

So what can be done ? We are barely holding a peace in Afghanistan and Iraq. Pakistan is becoming more unstable by the week. That's before we get to how fragile the grip on Iraq still is.

I don't know where to start with this. I would have thought it was obvious to anyone that we cannot keep all these plates spinning forever and eventually will have to admit that we cannot run the whole of the Middle East and Central Asia and eventually re-negotiate a way of dealing with that part of the world.

What the fuck that involves I don't know. I don't have answers. I can just see this ain't working.