US-Saudi Terror in Yemen Dwarfs ISIS Attacks in Europe
by William Boardman / March 26th, 2016
Saudi Arabia has been militarily involved and trying to manipulate political outcomes in Yemen for decades. The last time they did this in 2009, they lost militarily to the Houthis.
Hillary Mann Leverett on CNN, Early 2015
The US-Saudi-led war on Yemen started on March 26, 2015, with the Saudi coalitions aerial blitz, using both high-explosive and outlawed cluster bombs, against a population with no air force or other effective air defense. The US-supported year of carnage has killed more than 6,000 people (no one knows for sure), most of them civilians. The US-Saudi criminal intervention in the Yemeni civil war was supposed to be quick and efficient. From the start, the US has helped plan the attacks, provided intelligence, re-fueled attacking planes, and participated in the naval blockade (an act of war) that has pushed Yemens 26 million people to the brink of mass starvation. The American-Saudi genocidal war has continued without significant protest around the world no Yemeni Lives Matter movement and with almost no attention from any of those who will likely inherit this illegal war as the next commander in chief. None of the candidates, despite their tough talk about ISIS, seem to care that the Saudi military focus has shifted from fighting ISIS to killing Yemenis whose primary offense is to want to run their own country. Nobody in authority seems ready to address the possibility that one of the fundamental bad actors in the Middle East is our longstanding ally Saudi Arabia.
One reason the candidates can so easily ignore American war crimes in collusion with the Saudi coalition is that Yemen is not widely reported, much less analyzed. Yemen is not part of the official beltway agenda. The PBS program Frontline devoted an hour to Yemen in April 2015, mostly delivering the Saudi propaganda view that the Houthis are the bad guys, and omitting mention of the naval blockade. The New York Times apparently felt Yemen was not front page news till March 14, 2016, when it ran a disingenuous, seriously truncated piece that misrepresented the US role in Yemen, starting with the headline: Quiet Support for Saudis Entangles U.S. in Yemen (more about this below). Finding relevant, thoughtful commentary about Yemen from any presidential candidate is difficult to impossible. A sampling follows:
Hillary Clintons present silence on the US-Saudi terror-bombing campaign that has killed some 3,000 Yemeni civilians since March 2015 distinguishes her from none of the other 2016 candidates. But Clinton does have the distinction of being the only candidate who contributed materially to the ability of Saudi Arabia to bomb indiscriminately, using American weapons and munitions, against which Yemen is virtually defenseless. As a hawkish Secretary of State, Clinton made arming Saudi Arabia a top priority, supporting more than $100 billion of dollars of arms sales (2010-2015), including F-15s and the bombs the Saudis have used to pummel Yemen for a year. Unlike the US or Canada, European countries have begun to question or block arms sales to Saudi Arabia in response to the horrendous and unrelenting Saudi record of human rights abuses. Code Pink and other human rights organizations say the Saudi-led attacks on Yemen may amount to war crimes, stopping short of naming possible war criminals. The Clinton Foundation has accepted more than $10 million from two of Yemens aggressors, Morocco and Saudi Arabia.
Mainstream media coverage of Yemen continues to be spotty, limited, incomplete, and mostly incoherent. The New York Times article mentioned above is perhaps a sign of increased official attention, but it is no harbinger of completeness or coherence. The premise of the story is fundamentally dishonest, as expressed in the inside headline: Quiet Support for Saudi Allies Entangles U.S. in a Bloody Conflict in Yemen. What the story makes clear is that in March 2015, the Saudi ambassador pitched the White House on starting a new war in Yemen. The ambassador promised a quick campaign to re-install the Yemeni government that had fled to Saudi Arabia. The ambassador hyped his pitch with the standard exaggeration of Iranian involvement (which has actually been all but nil). Despite concern by many advisors that the Saudi-led offensive would be long, bloody, and indecisive, President Obama bought the pitch and authorized the Pentagon to support the Saudi-coalitions attacks on Yemen. Somewhat contradictorily, the Times story also reports:
American intelligence officials had long thought that the Saudis overstated the extent of Iranian support for the Houthis, and that Iran had never seen its ties to the rebel group as more than a useful annoyance to the Saudis. But Mr. Obamas aides believed that the Saudis saw a military campaign in Yemen as a tough message to Iran.
Full article: http://dissidentvoice.org/2016/03/us-saudi-terror-in-yemen-dwarfs-isis-attacks-in-europe/#more-62178
Yemen, its heritage and people are being purposefully and systematically destroyed as HRW and many others report horrendous war-crimes, the starvation of children and much of its population. And the world says nothing.
think
(11,641 posts)polly7
(20,582 posts)shadowmayor
(1,325 posts)We, the US Navy has a blockade on Yemen. The Saudis control the air with American made weaponry. Maybe the Iranians tunneled under the Straight of Hormuz to the UAE or Adan? Bunch of hullabaloo if you ask me.
What did the people of Yemen or Iraq ever do to the people of the USA?
polly7
(20,582 posts)SA wants Yemen as it has for decades, with American made and supplied weaponry, it's a go. It's not doing so well holding the world hostage anymore with oil prices - it needs more. Iraq without sanctions is to become an economic powerhouse in the region, that can't go unchecked, imho.
shadowmayor
(1,325 posts)Yemen is a complete mess. Vice ran an interesting piece on the Houthis sometime last year. It was clear then, that the al qaeda or ISIS faction was a major player. Iran had little input if at all other than support for their fellow Shiite brothers in arms. Our media is defunct, our State Dept. and DoD do whatever they wish and Congress hasn't done their job regarding war since the Viet Nam era.
And we're backing the Saudis 100%. What a bloody mess!
highoverheadspace
(307 posts)He always was a warmonger.