The White House — which had declared the raid "a successful operation by all standards" — had no comment Monday. The Pentagon also declined to comment.

In 2013, al Raymi issued an apology when it attacked a Yemeni hospital killing civilians.

Qasim al-Raymi, [AQAP] military leader, said a fighter had disobeyed orders and targeted medics and patients during the raid on the defence ministry compound in Sanaa that left 52 people dead. Raymi acknowledged "our mistake and guilt" and offered to pay blood money.

al-Raymi's brother was a Guantanamo detainee for many years -- he was transferred to Saudi Arabia in 2016.

In 2011, I wrote this post against targeted killings in Yemen. The last sentence says:

I'd add one final reason the President shouldn't have secret authority to kill Americans instead of capturing them and bringing them before a court: What if one of the loony Republicans running for President in 2012 actually wins?

Putting aside that al-Raymi (unlike al-Awlaki) is not an American, I think I was just four years too early.

Clearly, AQAP and al Raymi are threats. But it's not likely our targeted killings and attacks are going to end the threat. What should the U.S. be doing?

the U.S. [should]drive efforts to fill the governance and security gaps in Yemen that AQAP has exploited and ... facilitate meaningful political dialogue on multiple levels—especially at the regional and local level— to de-escalate the war.

I'm not going to pretend to have a solution to AQAP. While I wrote a lot about them for many years before ISIS began dominating the news, I haven't followed them lately.

But we do seem to have a fool in charge of the White House -- and his first raid caused innocent civilian deaths, the death of U.S. commando and missed its target.