Although the Salah government of Yemen is an unpalatable partner, we must side with it against insurgents if we want its support against al Qaeda.

Conditions in Yemen have changed with the onset of the Arab Spring. Political unrest has created openings for the country’s established opposition movements – including al Qaeda – to maneuver for power. Whether the Arab Spring has brought real regime change in Yemen is unclear. While the international community awaits a fully functional government in the capital of Sana’a, al Qaeda may continue to expand its safe haven in the south.

For the moment, all of America's enemies prefer to fight through unconventional or irregular warfare rather than through traditional force-on-force engagements.

If Saddam is still in power and there are no inspectors three years from now, then we will have lost this war, because Iraq is a vastly greater threat to our cities than is Afghanistan.

The Yemeni government faces a pressing security threat in the al Houthi movement.

It is highly likely but not inevitable that the Muslim Brotherhood will win the elections to be held in Egypt this coming September.

Bob Gates is a good man who did a thankless job with grace and skill. But when our military needed a loud and firm advocate, he let Obama offer us, instead, a bleak future of shrinking American power.His successors need to correct course and take a bold stand to keep us strong as well as safe.