A U.S.N.S. supply ship docking to take on supplies is one thing. A U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier MOORING PIER SIDE for Port of Call or supplies is quite another. I understand how to replenish and such terms as VERT-REP that were traditionally done. Now I ask you if you understand this. The USS COLE IF it was in company of fleet instead of two days away could have taken fuel from a U.S.N.S. oiler OR another ship in company. BUT someone either in the State Department or Pentagon wasn't thinking like a military planner they were thinking like a Diplomat which is the entire problem right now in the Middle East. Understand? I sure do.
You make a fundamental mistake when you equate port safety of Yemen with UAE.
Cole was taking supplies portside because that's how the Clinton administration wanted it. That came from the Oval, not the Pentagon. It was an effort to have a presence in port, to be some kind of good will gesture...suicidally foolish.