In a double blow to the United State's interests in the Middle East their Special Forces soldiers have been compelled to abandon Yemen while ISIS has escalated their hostilities to include doxxing a hundred members of the United States Armed Forces.

Trouble in Yemen for the United States started two months ago when Houthi rebels ousted the Hadi government in a move that was presented in the media as a stunning surprise. In the interim the United States Special Forces personnel who had initially been deployed to "advise" what were once Government troops had become embedded in military units that are now part of a rebellion as a question of fact.

Meanwhile the United States Central Command has spent the weekend notifying the service members who had recently been doxed by ISIS. Along with their dump of dox, ISIS included an invitation for lonely persons geographically isolated from ISIS to serve the ISIS cause by hunting down and killing the doxed service members. The is in contrast to more typical calls for action which follow doxxing by other groups which have solicitations more in line with actions like conducting prank phone calls, mass ordering unsolicited pizzas and Mormons, as well as other forms of non-violent harassment. Typical doxxing never escalates beyond swatting which does endanger the life of the victim through the act of summoning nervous, heavily armed, and trigger happy agents of the state to the victim's location.

Authorities in the United States have called on members of the Armed Forces to limit the amount of personal information they leak on social media. It has been suggested in some media reports that the United States is not deploying resources to actively protect the service members targeted by ISIS due to the incredible cost of providing such protection to a hundred persons along with their families and loved ones.

These blows to United States influence in the Middle East are also accompanied by criticism from their Western allies in Europe who would like the United States to at least consider allowing Edward Snowden to introduce a public interest defense in the event his case goes to trial. It is not hard to interpret today's event as an indicator of the United State's declining influence with respect to both its enemies and allies.