As I have been saying, military strikes, freezing the release of Gitmo detainees to Yemen and more mass imprisonment just amount to a band-aid and do nothing to get to the root of the problem. Slicing and dicing the intelligence failures and increasing airport security also are not a permanent fix.

Yemen will become a failed state without aid. Between the rebel tribes in the north, the secessionists in the south and al-Qaida, the Government is out-matched. Add to that its dwindling oil reserves, critical lack of water and horrendous prison system that just breeds more terrorists, and it's a certainty Yemen can't fix its problems on its own.

Saudi Arabia cleaned its country of al Qaida, but they didn't disappear, they just moved to Yemen because it was the easiest place to make a new start. They are co-opting the tribes people, offering them more than the Government offers, which makes them allies not enemies. That has to change.

And it's in Saudi Arabia's best interest to help because the newly reconstituted al Qaida Arab Peninsula (AQAP), has made it abundantly clear they are targets too. There was the August, 2009 "anal cavity" suicide bomber who tried to blow up the Prince in his presence. There was the October, 2009 shootout at the Saudi-Yemen border which killed Saudi guards and AQAP leader Said al-Shihri's brother in law, Yussef (another former Gitmo detainee) who was trying to smuggle 35 suicide vests into Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia and Yemen share a border. In addition to security is