The most basic metric of a friendly nation...

...would be if they pursue criminal sanctions against residents who kill your citizens.

That is - the state controls the administration of violence within its borders. Someone in that country decides to kill visitors from other countries - the state will pursue the offenders and capture or kill them.

By this standard - Yemen is pretty worthless as a friend:

Almost eight years after al-Qaeda nearly sank the USS Cole with an explosives-stuffed motorboat, killing 17 sailors, all the defendants convicted in the attack have escaped from prison or been freed by Yemeni officials.
(via DangerRoom)

Read the whole mess on MSNBC, it really does get worse.

And this is an example of a battle against Al Qaeda that should be fought - and won. We don't need to bomb Yemen - we need to stand on their heads until they lock these guys up. I'd say extradite, but Gitmo and Iraq have made an already tough sell pretty much impossible.

Yemen is Pakistan on a smaller scale and without nukes. A history of hosting bad guys and a government with questionable motives. Getting results in Yemen is absolutely vital to our success against groups like Al Qaeda.

The lack of media coverage doesn't necessarily translate into a lack of action in the region, but clearly our sideshow in Iraq cannot help us with our necessary work in places like Yemen.