Ummm… OK.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest says the success of U.S. foreign policy in Yemen should not be assessed in relation to the success or the stability of the country’s government, noting that the Middle Eastern nation — the region’s poorest — has long been in a “chaotic situation.”

“The measure of U.S. policy should not be graded against the success or the stability of the Yemeni government. That’s a separate enterprise,” Earnest said in a roundtable discussion on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday, adding that “the goal of U.S. policy toward Yemen has never been to try to build a Jeffersonian democracy there. The goal of U.S. policy toward Yemen is to make sure Yemen cannot be a safe haven that extremists can use to attack the West and to attack the United States.”

Pressed on the administration’s earlier assessment that Yemen was a “model” for successful counterterrorism strategies, Earnest said the U.S. still has the capacity to strike when necessary against extremists within the country.

First, Obama is spinning like crazy. OF COURSE we should judge our policies by their consequences. One of the consequences of our policy in Yemen is that the America-friendly regime is falling and will be replaced by America-hating, Iran-backed, Islamic terrorists.

Second, Earnest’s own standard for judging success is stated as, “the goal of U.S. policy toward Yemen is to make sure Yemen cannot be a safe haven that extremists can use to attack the West and to attack the United States.” Large chunks of Yemen are already controlled by terrorists who want to attack the West and the U.S. The rest of it will soon follow and all American forces were forced out. By Earnest’s own standard, our policy has failed.