The United States and Britain closed their embassies in Yemen yesterday in the wake of the attempted Christmas Day plane bombing attempt. A branch of al-Qaeda in Yemen has claimed responsibility for the alleged failed attempt by Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, but now intelligence officials are concerned that the embassies would come under attack based on recent reports.

The United States is focusing increased anti-terrorism efforts on Yemen. According to the Christian Science Monitor:

The president also said he had made it a priority to fight terrorism in Yemen by training and equipping their security forces, sharing intelligence and providing support for air strikes against militants. Underscoring the redoubled effort of the U.S. to fight terrorism in Yemen, Gen. David Petraeus visited Yemen Saturday after announcing Friday that the U.S. would double its counterterrorism aid to Yemen, from $67 million in 2009, reported BBC News. According to Agence France-Presse, the US and the UK have agreed to fund a special counterextremism police force in Yemen.

This may be a case of misplaced resources. Instead of focusing attention on places such as Yemen, this country sent thousands of troops to war in Iraq. Despite the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen a decade ago, we ignored the growing threat.

According to the Washington Post:

The U.S. failures have included a lack of focus on al-Qaeda's growing stature, insufficient funding to and cooperation with Yemen, and a misunderstanding of the Middle Eastern country's complex political terrain, Yemeni officials and analysts said. U.S. policies in the region, they said, often alienated top Yemeni officials and did little to address the root causes of militancy. Frustrated American officials say Yemen never made fighting al-Qaeda a top priority, which has stalled large-scale U.S. support. These problems, which ultimately helped enable al-Qaeda militants here to plot an attack on a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day, have forced the United States to open a new front in its anti-terrorism efforts.

Even with these new measures, the United States and Great Britain cannot repeat the steps of the past by pumping money into an area to get rid of one enemy and, in effect, end up creating another, more powerful, well-financed enemy.

It's also time for the West to seriously make an effort to address the underlying causes of terrorism. Princeton University economics professor Alan Krueger, now the assistant secretary for economic policy, has argued that U.S. policy, not poverty, is the underlying cause of terrorism. Many suicide bombers actually come from middle- and- upper-class families.

In his book, 'What Makes A Terrorist,' Krueger writes:

"The popular explanations for terrorism -- poverty, lack of education, or the catchall "they hate our way of life and freedom" -- simply have no systematic empirical basis. These explanations have been embraced almost entirely on faith, not scientific evidence."

Instead, terrorists are responding to "geopolitical issues." In other words, addressing the way U.S. and British policies affect other countries should be looked at as a top priority. Closing embassies and throwing money at the problem will yield only limited results.