美国有线新闻 CNN 2015-04-01

 Let's talk about today's news and those daylight raids on targets in Yemen. What do you think of the airstrike strategy thus far?

 
Um, you know, the Saudis, what I give credit for is that Arab coalition 1 over there made a decision, and they went for it. They did not get everyone else involved. And again I think from our perspective back here in the U.S. what we need the think positive about is this, we have been talking about for months now is these Arab countries are starting to take control themselves. They are looking to do this themselves and not always leaning on the U.S. to be this worldwide policeman.
 
Well, let's walk through that a little more because we know that Reuters videos emerge that these military trucks hauling tanks down a highway in Saudi Arabia and this talk of potential ground incursion to come. Talk about the challenge that's in front of this joint 2 Arab coalition. They're strong in number, are they well equipped? Are they well trained? Are they ready for a ground offensive?
 
Well, the first thing, Michaela, everyone has to realize is Yemen is a very difficult environment to work in and to fight in, if ever need be. The years I've traveled through Yemen in counter-terrorism support operations, it's mountainous, it's very difficult. Again, any time a force, a military force has to go into an "away game" as I call it, it's difficult. The Houthis have an advantage. Even though the Saudis have a strong military, great Air Force and they bring numbers and M-1 tanks and everything else. It could be a very bloody 3 fight for the Saudis trying to do a ground incursion into Yemen.
 
U.S. obviously is providing some support sort of logistically and they voiced their approval of these airstrikes. But do you anticipate the U.S. is going to have get involved, or will get involved at some point?
 
Michaela, I don't. I do not see the United States getting involved. I don't think we need to get involved. There are eight Arab countries that have a very strong air force throughout all of them. They have been training for years, they have very dynamic aircraft that can do these things and again the Saudis and the Egyptians who are leading this fight both have very strong and very large militaries. The only concern militarily on the ground side is they're both trained very heavily in conventional-armored warfare 4. When you go into Yemen on the aspect, it really becomes a gorilla 5 warfare type of aspect.
 
And with Yemen becoming a failed state, people have said it might become a failed state. I believe it's been a failed state for a while, that gives al-Qaeda and these other terrorist organizations that want to bring harm on us a taste.