Congress can help end the US-made suffering in Yemen

The Saudi military intervention in Yemen—carried out with U.S support—ranks alongside the war in Syria as the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe.

Without concerted action by Congress, things will get worse before they get better. The people of Yemen have already been subjected to unimaginable suffering by a war that pits a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against Yemen’s Ansarullah movement and the revolutionaries.       

The Saudi coalition—aided by U.S.-supplied weapons and refueling assistance—has bombed and killed thousands of civilians in Yemen. One recent strike destroyed a school bus, killing 40 children. Fragments of a Lockheed Martin laser-guided bomb were found near the scene of the attack. And a recent CNN report—based on its own reporting and on-the-ground research by the Yemen-based Mwatana Organization for Human Rights—documents the presence of fragments of U.S.-made bombs at the sites of a series of strikes on civilian targets, including homes, a factory, a civilian vehicle, and a wedding.

The bombings mentioned above are not isolated incidents. Saudi air strikes have also targeted hospitals, water treatment plants, and even a funeral. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) has argued that “Either the Pentagon should be 100 percent certain that U.S. weapons and funding aren’t being used to commit war crimes in Yemen, or we should cut off U.S. support right now.” Unfortunately, earlier this month the Trump administration ignored this plea when it—falsely—certified that the Saudis were taking due care to avoid killing civilians. The certification was a blatant evasion of a congressional requirement that the United States end its support for the Saudi/UAE-backed war in Yemen if it was determined that the coalition was engaging in the indiscriminate killing of civilians.

Members of US Congress from both parties were quick to denounce the Trump administration’s decision. Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) said that “Pompeo’s ‘certification’ is a farce. The Saudis deliberately bombed a bus full of children. There is only one moral answer, and that is to end the US support for their intervention in Yemen.” Representative Justin Amash (R-MI) stated simply that “This war in Yemen is unconscionable, and the United States should not be a party to it.”

The U.S.-supported Saudi bombings are part of a larger pattern of neglect of human life that includes a blockade that has slowed the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian assistance. The blockade has put millions of Yemenis at risk of starvation, and attacks on civilian infrastructure have sparked the largest cholera outbreak in living memory. Meanwhile, according to private aid groups and UN officials, a Saudi/UAE effort to seize control of the port of Hodeidah from the Yemenis threatens to dramatically worsen an already horrific toll of civilian suffering. 

The challenges now are first, to end the indiscriminate attacks on civilians, and second, to end the war. Congress has shown growing concern for the humanitarian and security consequences of the Yemen war. In March, 44 Senators backed a move by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Mike Lee (R-UT) to end U.S. involvement in the Saudi/UAE war on the grounds that it has never been authorized by Congress. Representatives Ro Khanna (D-CA), Adam Smith (D-WA), Jim McGovern (D-MA), and Mark Pocan (D-WI) are poised to put forward similar legislation in the House. Ending U.S. support for the Saudi/UAE intervention will dramatically reduce civilian harm.

The best way to bring the suffering in Yemen to an end is for Congress to reassert its war powers and end U.S. refueling of Saudi aircraft and other support for this brutal war, and to block a proposed sale of guided bombs to Saudi Arabia and the UAE scheduled to be formally notified to Congress later this year. 

Senior Democrats like Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Representative Adam Smith (D-WA), the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, have stepped forward to take firm action to end U.S. involvement in the Yemen war. Menendez is putting a hold on the proposed bomb sale, and Smith is co-sponsoring the upcoming move to end illegal U.S. support for the Saudi/UAE coalition. Other leaders in both parties should follow suit. Rarely does Congress have an opportunity make a difference in the lives of millions of people. This is one such chance, and the time to act is now.

However, the on-going war on Yemen was never about Saudi Arabia and its bogus concerns; it was always about the United States and its illicit interests and designs in the region. After the United Nations and a host of international aid agencies and human rights organizations, it is now the turn for the Save the Children International to also warn the world that the United States is indeed behind the deliberate starvation, famine and humanitarian crisis in the poorest country in the Arab world. Save the Children International warns that "This war risks killing an entire generation of Yemen's children who face multiple threats, from bombs to hunger to preventable diseases like cholera."

This is tragically true for Hodeida right now, as the deliberate disruption to food and fuel supplies coming through Hodeida port has caused "starvation on an unprecedented scale.” The ongoing US-backed assault by the Saudi-led coalition on the poverty-stricken country is also threatening to provoke a famine that risks the lives of more than 5.2 million children.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt, CEO of Save the Children International, has declared in a new statement released “This war risks killing an entire generation of Yemen's children who face multiple threats, from bombs to hunger to preventable diseases like cholera." The charity group says the total number of children in Yemen at risk of famine is now 5.2 million and that currently more than two-thirds of the country's population does not know where their next meal is coming from.

With the Saudi-led coalition - which receives both political and military backing from the Trump administration and the Pentagon regime - hampering the flow of vital supplies into the country by attacking the port city of Hodeida, a vital lifeline for goods and aid for 80 percent of Yemen’s population, the unlawful war threatens the lives of millions across the country as well.

Make no mistake, this criminal campaign, this deliberate starvation gambit in Hodeida has had a direct impact on children and families right across Yemen. In the long run, this disruption to food, fuel and aid supplies through this vital port means death for hundreds of thousands of malnourished children unable to get the food they need to stay alive. It has already driven up the price of fuel – and as a result transport – to such an extent that families can’t even afford to take their sick children to hospital.

Further still, a full closure of the port, would put the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in immediate danger while pushing millions more into famine and "could result in one of the worst hunger crises in living history,” the charity group warns. Under International Law and International Humanitarian Law, the Trump administration is directly complicit in the violence and resulting humanitarian crisis in Yemen. The American people and their representatives at Congress have it within their country to help end the unnecessary suffering in Yemen.

For this brutal war to end, the international civil society must hold the war profiteers to account in The Hague. The five largest US arms makers - Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics - are also directly involved in the Yemen war. They are dealing directly with two countries: Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

It couldn’t be a grimmer tale, because they gave many and continue to sell weapons worth billions of dollars. Saudi Arabia and the UAE cannot continue this war of hell on Yemen without the much-needed support of the American war profiteers.

The best way to bring the suffering in Yemen to an end is for Congress to reassert its war powers and end US refueling of Saudi aircraft and other arms support for this brutal war, and to block further sales of guided bombs to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Saudi Arabia and its American partners are attacking Yemeni civilians, a charge UN Human Rights Watch has validated. They have no right to continue their relentless bombing of non-military sites. When it comes to the destruction of civilian lives and livelihoods, that may be the least of it. They should also be held to account in The Hague for their illegal naval blockade of Yemen.

By William D. Hartung, the director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy and the author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex.

With courtesy of Fars News Agency

EA