Among our major achievements in the Yemen war we have managed to accidentally kill the deputy governor of Marib Province, Jabir al-Shabwani, in an air strike. That would be the equivalent of some foreign military force killing the lieutenant governor of an American state in an air strike.

Mr. Shabwani happened also to have been a friend of the president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, although Mr. Saleh appears so far to have gotten over the U.S. action. Al-Qaida in the Arabia Peninsula, some of whose leaders were the putative targets of the air strike, blew up a pipeline in Yemen in revenge.

In fact, U.S. attacks have had no apparent impact on al-Qaida or on anyone else in Yemen, apart from its civilian population who have taken casualties in badly targeted attacks. Al-Qaida in the Arabia Peninsula is now putting out an English-language, online magazine called Inspire, playing up the U.S.-caused damage.

The same New York Times article indicated that U.S. operations, partly military "Special Access Programs" by Special Operations Forces and partly CIA, are active in Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Kenya, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Tajikistan and Yemen.

Actions in one country -- for example, Somalia -- can lead to targets' retaliation in another country, for example, Uganda, where Somalis killed 36 in a retaliatory attack in Kampala, the capital. U.S. forces are using a range of weapons, including unmanned drone aircraft armed with missiles, commando teams, cruise missiles firing cluster bombs and Harrier fighter jets. Personnel include contractors as well as U.S. armed forces.

None of the mini-wars have been authorized by the U.S. Congress under the War Powers Act, which President Barack Obama has felt as free to ignore as President George W. Bush did, making some of those who voted for Mr. Obama in 2008 wonder what the difference is.

In some cases the United States has host government permission to carry out operations on its territory; in some, not. It is difficult to imagine what responsible government could agree to turning the formidable U.S. killing machine loose on its people. But some do, and there are reasons.

A quick look at what the United States has done to Iraq and Afghanistan should make the point. In Iraq, with the possible exception of being able to say that Nouri Kamal al-Maliki sort of in charge is better than Saddam Hussein, it is hard to see past the death and destruction that have occurred there over the past seven-plus years to see anything positive.

Iraq's economy is wrecked. Its health care and education services don't work. Its parliament doesn't meet. It had elections but Mr. al-Maliki has blocked the choice of a prime minister. There is no agreement on how its oil revenues will be divided. America's vaunted construction/reconstruction projects have mostly fallen through, the money ending up in the hands of American, Iraqi and other profiteers. It is very likely that northern Iraq, the Kurdish part, will peel off as soon as the Americans leave. Its armed forces, which fought a credible eight-year war against Iran, containing that country, now amount to virtually nothing.

What leader of what other nation would want to let the United States involve itself in its fate?

For Yemen's president, Mr. Saleh, there are several angles. First, he is not very popular in his country and throughout his career has been regularly and credibly threatened by his Yemeni enemies. Now, with U.S. access to his country depending on him, the United States has a stake in his preservation, maybe the best safety net he has ever had.

And there is money. His country gets aid: he gets money. That's the way it works in that part of the world. Forces loyal to him get arms -- modern arms -- and training to use them. So the Americans accidentally knock off a few women and children and old people here and there in the interior -- from Mr. Saleh's point of view, so what?

Leaders in that part of the world don't worry about stuff like that. They don't have to. They don't face real elections. They have lots of bodyguards from their own tribe and other security. He has been in power since 1978.

The real question for Americans is what are we doing there?

Why is Mr. Saleh our ally? Why are we killing innocent civilians in the back country of Yemen? Why are we stirring up the kind of trouble that can end up trashing Yemen the way we have trashed Iraq and Afghanistan? Does anyone believe for one minute that we are any safer for all that we are doing in those 12 countries -- probably more -- than we would be if we had normal, mutually respectful, mutually helpful relations with them?

We aren't any better off anywhere in the world -- including in Afghanistan -- now than we were on 9/11. Many, many more people hate us. And why wouldn't they, considering what we do around the world?

Then the question becomes, what is Mr. Obama's personal attitude to these "terror" programs?

Does he think they make sense for America? If he does, how does he square that view with what he knows of the rest of the world? Or is he just a man of limited talents and strength who wants a second term, held firmly in the grip of the U.S. military, security services and defense industries and contractors?

If that is the case, where do we go from here? As of now the Republicans are showing us nothing; and the tea partiers, less than nothing.