He said that he would employ the Yemen model in his effort to "degrade and ultimately destroy" ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

But just a week ago, the government in Yemen fell to a Shiite militia movement thought to be friendly to Iran. The US embassy in Yemen's capitol was forced to evacuate personnel and shut down operations.

If Yemen is any kind of model, it is a model of how badly US interventionism has failed.

In 2011 the US turned against Yemen's longtime dictator, Saleh, and supported a coup that resulted in another, even more US-friendly leader taking over in a "color revolution." The new leader, Hadi, took over in 2012 and soon became a strong supporter of the US drone program in his country against al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula.