How much contempt must you have for your audience if you continue to insist that Yemen is a success story?

No.  That's genuine question.

From The Blaze:

ABC reporter Jonathan Karl noted that “complete chaos” has gripped Yemen as the country faces a bloody struggle against radical rebel forces and asked if the White House still views Yemen as a counterterrorism “model.”

The reporter seemed surprised when Earnest said the White House is maintaining its position.

Earnest told reporters on Wednesday that a “successful counterterrorism strategy is one that will build up the capacity of the central government to have local fighters on the ground to have local fighters take the fight to extremists in their own country.” He added that the counterterrorism strategy is a “template that has succeeded in mitigating the threat in Yemen and Somalia.”

“That’s astounding,” Karl responded. “You’re saying you still see Yemen as a model? Building up a central government, which has now collapsed? A president who has apparently fled the country? You know, Saudi troops massing on one border, the Iranians supporting the rebels? You consider this a model for counterterrorism?”

To the credit of ABC, they are actually reporting this disaster, even referring to Obama's declaration last year of Yemen "the model for counter terrorism." You can even hear some criticism of Obama's policies.

Meanwhile NBC's Andrea Mitchell notes the problems in Yemen, but no reference to the fact that Obama considers Yemen a success story.  They continue to run clips of Obama reassuring people that everything is going well.  In fact, now that Saudi Arabia is intervening, it's passing along Iranian propaganda, accusing the Saudis of committing atrocities.  

CBS makes a passing mention of Obama's brags about the Yemeni model.

The government's collapse raises serious questions about the Obama administration's "light footprint" model of combating terrorism. As recently as September, as President Obama announced the campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, he cited Yemen as an example of a successful U.S. counterterrorism strategy.

"I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ... this strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years," Mr. Obama said.

Raises question? The accompanying video begins with the question: "Why should American care?"  A question like that is a prelude for a story later that will say that the American retreat from Yemen is no big deal.

US removes remaining personnel from Yemen

Wait, wasn't Yemen an example of Smart Diplomacy?

Four months ago, Obama called Yemen’s war on terror a success. Now the Yemeni government may fall.

Yemen in Chaos: Portrait of an Obama 'Success' Story

Obama Tonight: Yemen and Somalia Are Models of Success (!)

“But I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil. This counter-terrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground. This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years.”

After all the mocking of Bush standing before a banner on an aircraft carrier proclaiming "Mission Accomplished" why is the MSM silent about Obama's "success story in Yemen?

The question is rhetorical; Democrat operatives with bylines don't question other Democrats about failure.

Instapundit:

JUST SIX MONTHS AGO, IT WAS AN OBAMA “SUCCESS STORY.” Losing Yemen.

The last US special forces have been withdrawn from Yemen without exciting much notice from the US press. Max Boot tweets: “All US SOF evacuating Yemen. Huge win for AQAP, huge defeat for US. How many foreign policy disasters can we handle?” Reuters reports, “the United States has evacuated its remaining personnel, including about 100 special operations forces, from Yemen because of the deteriorating security situation there, U.S. officials said on Saturday.” This means that the last vestiges of what the Obama administration only recently touted as their model counter-insurgency operation are gone. The collapse has flown largely under the media radar.

Last week Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post reported that $500 million dollars in American supplied weapons are now in the hands of “Iranian-backed rebels or al-Qaeda”. The Islamist blitzkrieg is living off huge quantities of captured US materiel.

Don't go to war with the President we have

There were news reports yesterday that there was going to be an attack by American, Iraqi and Kurdish forces on ISIS in Mosul.  The attack is scheduled for a month or two or three from now: April, May or possibly later.

Please don't.

This is a disaster waiting to happen.  Forget the reasons given for telegraphing our intentions months ahead of time.   They make no logical sense.  

What will happen is that the ISIS forces will have months to prepare, to reinforce, to dig in, to booby trap ... in other words to create a killing field.  And it will get quite a few Iranians, Kurds and Americans killed.

You can be sure that the hard core of the attack will be American troops, probably Marines.

In small numbers without heavy equipment.

Mosul has a population of over a million civilians.  Fighting will be house-to-house.

There will be rules of engagement that will get more of our troops killed .... or prosecuted for war crimes.  Take your pick.

Small enough to insure defeat, big enough to create a media meme.  Like Tet, which was a military disaster for the North Vietnamese.  But transformed by the media into an American military disaster, proof that we were losing.

It can have the effect of destroying American military morale as Viet Nam did.

The Left will say that Conservatives are demanding a forceful military response.  Some are.  People like John McCain - a Republican but not a conservative - have been demanding all kinds of very forceful military action.

But count me among a growing number of people who are not.  "Be careful what you wish for" is wise advice.  We knuckle dragging Neanderthals have seen how well Obama has handled Iraq, Iran, Libya, Yemen, and Afghanistan.  He reset our relations with Russia so well that Putin is swallowing Ukraine and there is now talk of war in Europe.  

His team dithered in a failed attempt to rescue hostages that missed by a few days; perhaps hours. Susan Rice - she who blamed a video for the Benghazi attack - claimed it wasn't Obama's fault.  “It can’t happen any faster than that . . . particularly given the complexity of the risk” she claimed.  Who are you gonna believe, known liar Susan Rice or the Pentagon spokesman who said it took a week from the time they sent a plan to the White House until the rescue attempt was made.

It should be crystal clear by now that Obama likes to micro-manage the military, even to the point of picking the victims of drone strikes.

“He is determined that he will make these decisions about how far and wide these operations will go,” said Thomas E. Donilon, his national security adviser. “His view is that he’s responsible for the position of the United States in the world.” He added, “He’s determined to keep the tether pretty short.”

This is reminiscent of Lyndon Johnson's management of the war in Viet Nam, where he picked the bombing targets.  That did not turn out well.  Wars are not won by politicians, especially politicians taking half-measures.  Compared to Obama, Johnson was W.T. Sherman who said "war is hell."  For Obama, war is icky.  The fastest way to end a war is to lose.  The president who doesn't "love America" (he may not even like America) could lose us another war.

No thanks.  No Mosul attack with Commander in Chief Obama in charge.  Let's pretend to do something but never really do it.  Let General Obama drone on.  Set up Facebook sites calling random terrorists bad names, without naming their religious affiliation.  

If Obama starts feeling belligerent, unleash the hash-tags of war.  Then pray.