This past week, Trump vetoed a bill passed by both the Senate at the House ending support for Saudi Arabia’s genocidal war in Yemen. Since the war began in 2015, it has become what the International Rescue Committee called last October the world’s worst humanitarian crisis:Josh wrote:So far, in terms of deeds, we haven’t started new wars and we’ve pulled out of old ones. Unfortunately, that’s more than every other President has done in my lifetime.
While both sides in this war have been doing horrific things, the US has been supporting Saudi airstrikes that frequently target civilians.Yemen is facing the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. Over 22 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, the country is on the brink of famine, and a million people have suffered from the worst cholera outbreak in modern history.
Since 2015, Yemen has been in the grip of a brutal civil war. After rebel groups overtook the government, the Saudi- and Emirati-led coalition has been attempting to regain control by launching thousands of airstrikes, many of which have hit homes and public areas such as schools, health facilities and markets. Thousands of civilians have been killed and tens of thousands injured as a result. In fact, August 2018 was the deadliest month so far, with nearly 500 civilians killed in the first nine days.
https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/201 ... ikes-intl/
This month, Congress invoked the War Powers Act and passed a bipartisan bill to end US support for the Saudi Arabia’s combat in the war. A couple of days ago, Trump vetoed it.The incidents give a snapshot of US involvement in Yemen’s conflict through its support for the Saudi-led coalition that is battling a Houthi-led rebel insurgency. The United States says it does not make targeting decisions for the coalition. But it does support its operations through billions of dollars in arms sales, the refueling of Saudi combat aircraft and some sharing of intelligence.
As Daniel Larison writes in the ”American Conservative:”
All of the aid organizations involved in providing humanitarian relief in Yemen have been clear and consistent in urging an end to U.S. support for the Saudi coalition. They understand what the consequences for the civilian population will be if the war is not brought to an end, and they can see that the war won’t be stopped as long as the foreign patrons of the warring parties continue providing unconditional support. When Trump vetoed S.J.Res. 7, he was proving yet again that he valued good relations with despotic war criminals more than the lives of the many millions of Yemenis being starved and subjected to the most horrific conditions imaginable.
