Crimes Against Humanity In Yemen

The daily Trumpanzee circus has certainly kept the spotlight off issues that would otherwise be top news stories-- like the brutal and tragic war in Yemen, for example. Ted Lieu (D-CA), the first member of Congress to come forward and demand President Obama stop aiding the Saudis, told me this morning that "It is clear that the conflict in Yemen is a humanitarian disaster. The Saudi-led coalition-- either willfully or due to incompetence-- continues to kill innocent civilians. U.S. support for their efforts weakens our moral authority in the global community and makes us less safe. I am also deeply concerned that continued U.S. support to the Saudi-coalition in Yemen could qualify as aiding and abetting potential war crimes, placing our own troops and officials in serious legal jeopardy."

A year ago Ro Khanna (D-CA), working with Mark Pocan (D-WI), Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Walter Jones (R-NC), introduced a resolution to require U.S. forces halt aerial refueling and targeting intelligence against Houthi rebels within 30 days of passage. It didn't go anywhere. Then last month Mike Pompeo certified the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are "undertaking demonstrable actions to reduce the risk of harm to civilians"-- utter bullshit to begin with, but right after the Saudis hit a school bus killing lots of children. The certification allows the U.S. military to continue its assistance to the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen was also backed by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

Khanna called the certification "a farce... The Saudis deliberately bombed a bus full of children. There is only one moral answer, and that is to end our support for their intervention in Yemen. If this executive will not do it, then Congress must pass a war powers resolution." Suddenly the ideas behind his 2017 resolution has a new life and is being re-introduced-- this time with the backing of the Democratic leadership.

"They thought I was nuts. They thought, why am I taking this on as a freshman member, bucking leadership," Khanna said. "And now that opinion in our party has changed, and I estimate 20-25 percent of Republicans are increasingly asking these questions." Bernie and Elizabeth Warren-- a likely presidential ticket in 2020-- are taking up the battle in the Senate.

In the House there Khanna's new resolution-- introduced Wednesday-- was over 50 co-sponsors already. On Thursday morning, Khanna told me that "when I introduced the bill a year and a half ago, we had very little support. Yesterday we introduced it with the support of Steny Hoyer, Adam Smith and Elliot Engel. It’s extraordinary that the position of getting out of the civil war in Yemen is now the mainstream Democratic position. It shows that progressive advocacy and grassroots mobilization can truly have an impact."

And a third Republican has joined on as a co-sponsor, Raul Labrador (ID). Massie: "Congress never authorized military action in Yemen as our Constitution requires, yet we continue to fund and assist Saudi Arabia in this tragic conflict. It’s long past time Congress held a debate and vote as to whether U.S. soldiers and personnel should be involved in this war."

Yesterday Nick Kristof wrote a blistering column in the NY Times, Be Outraged by America’s Role in Yemen’s Misery making the point that it's the U.S. supplying the bombs "for the war that’s killed civilians and is creating famine." He calls the tragic episode "crimes against humanity."

Trump didn’t mention it at the United Nations, but America is helping to kill, maim and starve Yemeni children. At least eight million Yemenis are at risk of starvation from an approaching famine caused not by crop failures but by our actions and those of our allies. The United Nations has called it the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and we own it.

An American bomb made by Lockheed Martin struck a Yemen school bus last month, killing 51 people. Earlier, American bombs killed 155 mourners at a funeral and 97 people at a market.

Starving Yemeni children are reduced to eating a sour paste made of leaves. Even those who survive will often be stunted for the rest of their lives, physically and mentally.

Many global security issues involve complex trade-offs, but this is different: Our behavior is just unconscionable.

“Yemen’s current crisis is man-made,” said David Miliband, the former British foreign secretary and current president of the International Rescue Committee, who recently returned from Yemen. “This is not a case where humanitarian suffering is the price of winning a war. No one is winning, except the extremist groups who thrive on chaos.”

The United States is not directly bombing civilians in Yemen, but it is providing arms, intelligence and aerial refueling to assist Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as they hammer Yemen with airstrikes, destroy its economy and starve its people. The Saudi aim is to crush Houthi rebels who have seized Yemen’s capital and are allied with Iran.

That’s sophisticated realpolitik for you: Because we dislike Iran’s ayatollahs, we are willing to starve Yemeni schoolchildren.

“The Trump administration has made itself complicit in systematic war crimes,” said Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch.

Let’s be clear, too: This is a bipartisan moral catastrophe. The policy started under President Barack Obama, with safeguards, and then Trump doubled down and removed the safeguards.

“The war in Yemen has prompted today’s worst humanitarian catastrophe worldwide,” said Robert Malley, a former Obama aide who acknowledges missteps by the administration in Yemen-- which Trump has aggravated. Now president of the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit working to prevent conflict, Malley added, “By our actions and inaction, we inevitably are complicit in it.”

I know, I know. All eyes are focused on the reality television show that is the Trump White House. But we can’t let Trump suck all the oxygen away from life-or-death issues. Trump drama cannot be allowed to nullify global tragedy.

The carnage in Yemen hasn’t stirred more outrage because the Saudis use their blockade to keep out journalists. I’ve been trying for two years to go, but the Saudis bar aid groups from taking me on relief flights.

Both sides in this civil war have at times behaved brutally, and the only way out is diplomacy. But Saudi Arabia’s crown prince seems to prefer famine and a failed state in Yemen to compromise, and the more we provide him weapons the longer we extend the suffering. We should be using our influence to rein the Saudis in, not cheer them on.

To their credit, some members of Congress are trying to stop these atrocities. A bipartisan effort this year, led by Senators Mike Lee, Chris Murphy and Bernie Sanders, tried to limit U.S. support for the Yemen war, and it did surprisingly well, winning 44 votes. New efforts are underway as well.

World leaders are gathered for the United Nations General Assembly, making pious statements about global goals for a better world, but the Assembly is infused with hypocrisy. Russia is up to its elbows in crimes against humanity in Syria, China is detaining perhaps one million Uighurs while also shielding Myanmar from accountability for probable genocide, and the United States and Britain are helping Saudi Arabia commit war crimes in Yemen.

That’s pathetic: Four of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council are complicit in crimes against humanity.

Many Americans erupt in fury every time Trump lies, or tweets some inexcusable comment. Please do, but also save outrage for something even more monstrous-- the way we are contributing to starvation of children and exacerbating the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.