Yemen's Death Spiral: How the Economy and the Military Will Play

http://www.thebeerbarrel.net/showthread.php?7526-Yemen-s-Death-Spiral-How-the-Economy-and-the-Military-Will-Play


Yemen's revolution has been a slow-burning one. Three months after an 18-day whirlwind of protests tossed Egypt's Hosni Mubarak from power, Yemen's youthful protesters are still in the thick of their own Arab uprising. However, though hounded and abandoned by senior members of his party army and tribe, President Ali Abdullah Saleh somehow continues to cling to power.

Time and again, Saleh has reneged on apparent agreements to step down. But time may now truly be running out as rival factions of the military begin to turn on each other and the economy heads into a death spiral.
(See scenes from Yemen.)

The events of the week so far are ominous. Yemen's youthful protesters decided to go on the offensive and tighten the screws on their embattled ruler, who was holed up behind the high walls of his presidential palace, still dithering over an initiative brokered by gulf states that would see him exchange power for immunity. The Civic Coalition of Revolutionary Youth, one of the leading protest groups, unveiled a plan to escalate efforts to oust Saleh that includes national hunger strikes, civil disobedience, blockades of roads and ports, as well as a march on the presidential palace.