Having allowed himself to become almost wholly assimilated into the Washington do-something foreign policy establishment, he's now edging into yet another conflict, this one in the Middle Eastern nation of Yemen.

Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia, which has been waging a bloody air war against Yemen's Shiite Houthi rebels for the past year and a half, vaporized a funeral in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, killing at least 140. The United States has been aiding the Saudi campaign and fragments of our bombs were located at the scene of the crime, sparking a furor across the country. The following day, the USS Mason, a destroyer stationed off the Yemeni coast, shot down two cruise missiles believed to have been fired by the Houthis (although the rebels deny this). The Navy retaliated by destroying three Houthi radar sites, and last weekend the Mason was once again targeted for attack.

This snowballing has gone on for over a week now and the risk of continued escalation is very real. American and British officials are trying to run interference, ramping up their calls for an immediate ceasefire, but to the Houthis this no doubt seems like a tardy face-saver, after months of made-in-the-USA bombs whistling down on civilians. In March, the Saudis used an American munition to blow up a market, killing at least 97. In August, they struck a Doctors Without Borders hospital, killing at least 11.