"This (Arab) nation, in its darkest hour, has never faced a challenge to its existence and a threat to its identity like the one it's facing now," said Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, now the ruler of Egypt.
And you wanted to say: Not the Crusades? Not the Mongol invasion? Not even the European conquest of the entire Arab world between 1830 and 1920? You really think the gravest threat ever to Arab existence and identity is a bunch of tribal warriors in Yemen?
El-Sissi was addressing the Arab League summit in Cairo last week that created a new pan-Arab military force to confront this threat, so overheated rhetoric was standard issue, but still. ... The air forces of Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbors are blasting Yemen from the air, and there is talk of Saudi Arabian, Egyptian and even Pakistani troops invading on the ground, but it all smells more of panic than of strategic calculation.