Trump Does The RIght Thing Concerning Yemen

Friends and patriots, 

The U.S. and Trump are now on the right side of the Yemen issue.

The White House has issued a statement Wednesday saying that President Trump has instructed officials to call Saudi Arabia and call on them to lift the blockade on Yemen immediately, saying “this must be done for humanitarian reasons.”

This follows reports a few weeks ago in which the US was praising the Saudis for slightly easing the blockade, but also defending its continuation. Unspoken in all such statements is that US warships have participated in the blockade at various times.

The blockade has gotten more intense since early November, and chronic malnutrition in northern Yemen is rapidly heading toward mass starvation, with large numbers of people dying because of a lack of medicine.

The sudden US interest in halting the blockade is a major change, but may reflect growing concerns within Congress and among legal experts that the US government’s participation in the Saudi war, and endorsement of the Saudi war makes them legally culpable for the many, many war crimes being committed.

The current war in Yemen has had devastating consequences for the population. The indiscriminate Saudi bombing includes schools, water purification plants, hospitals, and electricity plants, leading to the death of over 10,000 and the wounding of 50,000 more. By the end of 2017, the International Red Cross has projected that over a million Yemenis will have suffered from cholera. So far, 900,000 people have been infected, and 2,000 have died, 1,200 of them children. Faced with no fuel for its water-treatment plant due to a Saudi blockade that relies on US military support, Yem en is starving, has little access to clean water. An outbreak of diphtheria has further complicated the crisis.

The Saudis see the current conflict, which originates in a Houthi-led insurgency in 2015 and follows years of sectarian strife, as a border threat, which has only been exacerbated by a ballistic missile launched from the mountains of Yemen at Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, on November 4. On November 6, the blockade began, creating more misery among a population already suffering from years of war, including atrocities committed by the Houthis.

Americans, as Saudi-coalition allies, are providing an aircraft carrier, electronic intelligence, and guided aircraft to target bombing locations. Yet this war receives little attention, with few exceptions, from US “lame stream presstitute media”. Labeled a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, this conflict has come to the attention of Congress, where the House of Representatives passed a resolution calling US action “unauthorized” (compared to counterterrorism measures, which are authorized).

The blockade, put in place to “stop the flow of arms from Iran,” had not even allowed chlorine-disinfecting tablets for water to pass to Yemen’s desperate citizens. A recent temporary lift of the U.S/Saudi Arabia blockade of Yemen may provide a temporary respite for millions of starving Yemenis. But with an unsanitary environment that is degrading rapidly, and a dearth of clean drinking water, far more than a temporary lift is needed to ameliorate this catastrophe.

Led by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), who will become a king upon the death of his ailing father, the king, the Yemen blockade is just one of the first actions the crown prince has taken in his grab for power both internally and internationally. He attempted to install a friendly government in Yemen with Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi as president. Hadi currently lives in Saudi Arabia for fear that rebels will kill him.

MbS is running this war against Yemen with a vengeance and a total disregard for humanitarian consequences. He wants to prove his prowess and the power of his new ideas.

The Saudis are quick to point out that Iran is smuggling weapons to the Houthis, even though there is little evidence that Iran is sending a lot of weapons to the Houthis. The Saudis, however, are building their arsenal. They recently signed an agreement to buy over $110 billion of US weapons over and above the many billions of dollars authorized in previous trade deals.

The Crown Prince’s interference throughout the region is an ambitious undertaking for a 32-year-old leader.

Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world. The war is taking Yemen back to the dark ages. It is an immoral war, and a humanitarian disaster. Thank God Trump is taking a second look at this war and the U.S. should not participate in such a slaughter.