It's not that alcohol is good, it's that it'd be better than khat for Yemen.

For example: Yemen has 35 cars per 1000 people to the US's 797. Yemen would have to leapfrog through several stages of development for drunken driving to become a blip on their public health radar.

Half of that country currently doesn't have clean water, and they're draining their acquifers dry … to grow khat. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals...

Cholera outbreaks and a water-scarcity exacerbated civil war are simply a different class of problem.