[Pearls Before Swine]

i like your sarcasm, but it also raises a point....

Thanks.

IF they were defensive, defensive from whom? and if not defensive, then offensive, and offensive for WHOM? who is yemen going to attack or defend itself from with SCUDS?

That's exactly what I was getting at without being explict. Yemen is in the middle of nowhere, except for its desert border with Saudi Arabia. Who's going to attack them--the Sudan? Doesn't it seem far more likely this is an example of government/terrorist collusion?

Further, scuds are rather inaccurate. Therefore they are useful against large targets, such as cities, or with highly dispersive weapons, such as WMD biologicals or chemicals. Further, I believe their range is somewhat limited, so I don't know what they could hit from Yemen. But they could be trucked to somewhere closer to their desired target, couldn't they?

I'd bet that target is Israel. The funny thing about inaccurate or unreliable missiles is you don't know for sure whether they'll end up in Israel or Palestine or even Jordan. Can you say "collateral damage?"

[KC_for_Freedom]

I agree, a different firing azimuth for Israel to defend, potentially reducing the effectiveness of the Arrow radars. But now that we know, we can provide another PAC-3 battery to Israel to cover this flank attack.

I at first thought this was a dumb idea, to let them go, but if we are not ready to take on the whole of the Middle East then its probably enough that we caught them (or that Spain caught them, if not for Spain did we know?)

We can use this to add Yeman to our list for later.