article_snippet: (CNN)It shouldn't come as a surprise that Yemen has collapsed -- again.  
article_snippet: What is surprising is that U.S. policy ignored all of this and proceeded on the premise that simply drone-bombing al Qaeda terrorists could keep Yemen intact and stable.
article_snippet: Indeed, last fall, when President Barack Obama pointed to U.S. policy in Yemen as an example of a "success" and a model for the plans that would roll back the Islamic State (also known as ISIS), I shivered.
article_snippet: Yemen does have value as a lesson -- this is what happens when you ignore the basic foundations of social stability.
article_snippet: Rather than working to secure these things, the U.S. administration has succumbed to the illusion that precision bombing or other surgical interventions to remove "dangerous elements" will sustain broader social and political stability.
article_snippet: Anyone could see that the conditions for collapse were progressing in Yemen and that aerial attacks on al Qaeda terrorists would have no effect on al Qaeda terrorists.
article_snippet: aerial attacks on al Qaeda terrorists were a sideshow -- like firing a lousy band performing on the deck of an ocean liner, while a hull full of holes is taking on water fast.
article_snippet: In other words, what has happened in Yemen, although predictable, is about the worst outcome imaginable for U.S. policy.  
article_snippet: That America ever deluded America into thinking airstrikes were enough to deal with the problems of failing states in the Middle East and North Africa -- and the crisis of ISIS -- is a notion that could only be made more frightening if America keeps on doing America.
highlights_snippet: Goldstone: U.S. policy of drone-bombing al Qaeda terrorists ignores need to build social stability .
  
highlights_snippet: Goldstone: U.S. policy of drone-bombing al Qaeda terrorists ignores need to build social stability .
   