Kushner will arrive in Yemen in a few days with a Sheeite plan to divide the country with the Houthies. That is if he can persuade the UN at its emergency meeting to approve the plan. Kushner, as always, is working in secret with Gen Mattis. I wish him good luck.
1
I can hear William Tecumseh Sherman now... as he marched through Georgia. If you don't like the consequences of war, surrender.
Eight million at risk of starvation? A potential death toll of the same magnitude as the Holocaust. Only this time the US is colluding with the Nazis.
6
Yemen is a religious war. No one can stop people from killing each other because God told them to kill each other. U.S. get out of Yemen. Get out of Saudi Arabia. Get out of Syria. Get out of Israel. Get out of Iraq. Getting involved in religious wars is the most senseless waste of life.
3
The article's headline is wrong. The "worst humanitarian crisis on earth" is in Gaza, the world's largest open-air prison. Thankfully the overwhelming majority of the world's nations resolved yesterday to protect Gaza civilians from further slaughter by Israel in a 120-8 vote in the UN General Assembly. Regrettably, the USA was again isolated on the wrong side of history and morality. Another American tragedy.
3
It's part of the larger Israeli-USA plan to rid the ME of Arabs. When the people are gone, expect expanding settlements for a greater Israel. What could be more obvious? More bad karma being harvested by the late, great USA.
3
The popular narrative seems to be to blame either the Saudis or the US, as the Saudi's supplier, for the crisis. I would like to point out that had the rebels not deposed the legitimate government of Yemen, there would not be a crisis for them to intervene in.
The rebels needed to remember the adage, If you shoot at the King, be certain to kill the King. They did not, the Saudis formed a coalition to restore the government to power, and the storm broke.
It is truly impressive that there is nary a word here about the Obama administration's primary role in the military actions that destabilized Yemen to spark the current humanitarian crisis.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-yemen-war_us_562a9ac0e4b0443b...
3
Disgraceful that the US is aiding this war crime.
3
It is high time the world begins to pay attention to what may be genocide. We, the USA are definitely involved, if the facilitating the whole affair, but we are not supposed to notice? Saudi Arabia is the main instigator, for religious purposes?
I assume that we will see calls for regime change in Saudi Arabia from Trump soon and a call for an arms embargo and and attempt to sent the butchers of the Saudi Royal family to The Hague soon?
After all, Trump is a guarantee for humanitarian solutions?
Ohh wait...
Sorry, does not apply to his cronies and those who pay him....
Bad luck Yemenis, you just landed on the wrong side of US humanitarian standards, go and die silently please, Don Trump does not like to be disturbed when doing business with his friends.
Better luck next life.
3
I wish I could afford to send Mr. DT and all his family and Whitehouse administration to Yemen, for a long vacation. There, they could experience first hand, the spoils of their mentality, policies, desired policies and lack of empathic understanding of MISERY. It might be the only way to teach them what being a human being can mean. Of course they would have to miss their Sunday church services and comfortable family values discussions.
2
We pay for this with our tax dollars.
The US is the new Soviet Union to the world.
1
Well I’m glad the story of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world—and that’s saying something in this day and age—almost made it above the fold. Because, Trump!
2
It is bad to equate religion with governments since religious wars never end.
1
Who supplied the weapons to the UAE and Saudis? America
3
On one side you have: The US, The UK, France of course, Saudi Arabia, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, Pakistan, Bahrain, and few others I can not remember
Against the Houthis : A group that do not exist outside one mountain in Yemen...most likely they are barefoot...
Some claim that Iran through its magic powers supports them....
This world is a science fiction novel....
4
"An estimated 1.25 million people in South Sudan are on the brink of starvation."
www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jan/10/brink-starvation-sout...
Evidently the author of this article has no idea of what is going on in the rest of the world.
1
The article’s paragraphs are in the wrong order. What you wanted was a quick intro to the nightmare, then you go into the full history of US support for this war, from official to Gulf-funded thinktanks who provide the propaganda cover, to the deep background of the US’s insane views of Iran. Then you get into what our proxies and/or allies and/or partners are now doing with full US permission.
2
Since 2015, the United States has provided the Saudi-led air campaign...
More accurate: With President Obama , the US started to provide the Saudi-led air campaign...
Why not name the person who started it ?
3
Sadly there aren’t more than 10 people in a million in the US who care about any of these people.
11
It's good to know that the $110B in weapons that the U.S. recently sold to the Saudis (brokered by Jared) is being put to good use by slaughtering (and starving) innocent civilians in the mighty enclave of Yemen . . . MAGA!
28
When can we expect an Arab drafted UN resolution at the General Assembly? Or Security Council? I assume right after the Arab drafted resolution on Syria and the Arab drafted UN resolution on South Sudan.
5
To quote one of my former students, when asked to share something about themselves at the beginning of the semester:
“I am from Yemen. It is the most beautiful place. Now there is war.”
When I read those lines I burst into tears.
6
8 million people are at risk of starvation in Yemen? That’s horrifying, especially since we’re supporting the wholesale carpet bombing of that very impoverished country. What have we become? An evil menace to the entire world.
19
The map marks the blue area as "Houthi presence" while naming another area as controlled by the "Saudi coalition". These map designations are misleading as Houthis are Yemenis fighting against Saudi invaders who have been committing war crimes with the full knowledge of the Pentagon which has been directing the Saudi air war for over three years against a country that has neither an air force nor air defenses.
Even calling the invaders "Saudi-led coalition" is an attempt at giving the aggression a veneer of legitimacy, especially since the U.S. uses the term "coalitition" when trying to portray its own military interventions as having broad international support.
13
The crisis in the Horn of Africa, exacerbated by Saudi attacks and international, especially US, arms dealers, is a true tragedy.
How can anyone turn away from disaster on this scale:
EIGHT MILLION AT RISK OF STARVATION
Caps intentional!
17
I'm concerned that the pressure from Raytheon to sell these precision guided munitions has to do with insider knowledge that there will soon be countermeasures against this generation. Seems like a big opportunity for corruption to enter the scene.
5
Are there any plans for a trade embargo on the countries perpetrating this humanitarian disaster?
8
Quite the reverse. Trump is wholly behind his profitable relationship with the Saudis (and the US has always compromised with them). Geopolitics is a dirty game, fraught with unintended consequences.
8
Saudi Arabia?! That is rich.
NOT GOOD !
4
Do we know when Jared Kushner will reveal his plans for peace in the Middle East? I realize he can't really prioritize people starving while he has been so busy lining up lines of credit in Israel and elsewhere throughout the region, but still, it would be great to at least see his preliminary outlines. I realize he has also been very busy with Abbe Lowell, his attorney for the Mueller investigation, but perhaps we could at least hear a statement of concern. I realize that he has been busy working with his accountants on his multi-millions in earnings last year, but it would be nice to know he is at least doing something related to government work while he is in Washington.
And finally, I realize I am not asking for much. In this Administration, the philosophy seems to be "To whom much has been given, little should be expected."
33
Does he call Trump “Daddy”? The smart money says yes.
This is off-topic.
The crisis in Yemen is ongoing, and getting worse. It's a humanitarian disaster.
Nobody in the US government cares. Just as they don't care about the concentration camps in North Korea.
What happened that the US lost all morality and credibility? Rhetorical.
What does it say when, after being up on the Home Page all day, this article has only thirty-six comments and relatively few Recommends? If it were about Palestinians or immigrants coming toward our or European borders or any of several other things, the comments section would be deluged by now.
The article says it is about the"... worsening [of] what is already the world’s most severe humanitarian disaster...." Why are readers generally very selective about who's disaster they are concerned with?
There is something very patronizing about assuming that the peoples of the region could not, have not, do not, and will not slaughter each other without American help. Why assume Arabs are any different from Europeans, Asians, and Africans? Does the United States have irons in the fires of the Arab world? Sure, and so do Persians, Ottomans (a.k.a. Turks), and others.
The hundred-year old description of the Middle East, "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom" by T. E. Lawrence, not only gives an excellent grounding in the roots of today's political realities but still pretty much describes contemporary reality. There is a real sense with this region that the more things change, the more they remain the same.
21
Patronizing has nothing to do with it. Obviously the Saudis would try to slaughter people in Yemen without our help. It is their idea. But we are helping them do it.
I have seen people use this “patronizingargument before and all it amounts to is a way to doge our responsibility for the choices that we make. The Saudis need our help to murder people inlarge numbers. We shouldn’t give it to them.
11
Thank you for the reminder of "Pillars of Wisdom". I have it but have not read it in 30 years. About to pull it off the shelf.
A new World Pact formed of America, India, Israel, North Korea, Russia and Saudi Arabia aligned against China might be formidable, but how it would impact on our country and its policy of democracy might make some of us feel doomed.
Sounds like there's another Syria like imbroglio imploding in Yemen. And there is and will continue to be harsh suffering felt within the population. The ME is a complete, total mess.
6
Horribly that the world is not reacting... I guess is because the culprit are the USA, KSA, and the UK. The mainstream media at exception of the NYT appears uninterested in covering this disgrace.
10
Religious fundamentalism hurts these civilians in the Middle East. The different religions fight to the death based simply on principle, more brutal in a religious war than in a nationalistic war. It is so sad to see so many civilians lose their lives in part because of their devotion to religious labels.
4
Please don't tell me we're now going to have a wave of Yemeni refugees coming to us.
3
You won't. The people are too poor to go anywhere. Even to neighburing countries.
This week the world's attention was on two obese men, plump, preening and self-important, ultimately concerned only with their power. All this while the 8 million Yeminis on the verge of starvation and millions of hungry North Koreans are ignored. Trump nor Kim could not function after missing one meal much less a famine or, in North Korea's case, willful severe rationing of food.
Just next to this sad update is a story about Trump's rich billionaire friend who brokered his bond with the Saudis and Emirates. All it took was flattery and a reminder of their wealth. There's no concern for humanitarian crises in Trump's administration. It's a strong-arm regime that does not even notice the weak.
8
There is no need for body shaming.
As soon as the US suspends support of the Saudi Air Force the British will follow suit and the air assault in Yemen will stop immediately. Congress could then tell Raytheon the rocket deal will not get approval. This won’t stop the slaughter but will relieve some of the pressure on the Yemen civilian population.
12
Actually, only the Americans will be the losing side if such a deal doesn't go through. The World market's open, Russians and Chinese will be even more eager to sell.. The Saudi-led coalition would be able to get more, for less! Not only that, if the West continues to shun its eyes away and think of tackling the coalition nations' plans for a more peaceful and prosperous Middle East, there won't be a way other than halting it's military exercises with the West and would be losing it's grounds throughout the region. Neither Donald Trump, nor Theresa May, would be happy to lose the billions of dollars they're getting.
We would never compensate on our region's peace and stability. Enough is enough, it's time for us to also say GCC first!
Not to be glib, but the biggest crisis facing humanity is global warming, which will kill our descendants (if not us) and will only be addressed when we think of ourselves as global citizens first...
4
The people who starve to death or are blown to bits in Yemen won’t have any descendants.
By all means, continue supplying Saudi Arabia with my taxpayer funded military aid so they may continue this savagery in my name. So...so wrong and disgusting. Where are our lawmakers?
20
A divided Yemen is nothing new. Remember the separate nations of North Yemen and South Yemen. They might have merged in 1990, but South Yemen was for decades after the Ottoman collapse a secular Marxist state. And North Yemen was mired in a long civil war that became Egypt’s Vietnam.
Unlike the rest of the Arabian peninsula, economic development and family planning never reached Yemen. The lack of natural resources, an epidemic of khat abuse, and explosive population growth mean hunger and death will stalk Yemen long after the bombing stops.
4
The hundred-year old description of the Middle East, "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom" by T. E. Lawrence, not only gives an excellent grounding in the roots of today's political realities but still pretty much describes the way things are now. There is something very patronizing about assuming that the peoples of the region could not, have not, do not, and will not slaughter each other without American help. Why assume Arabs are any different from Europeans, Asians, and Africans? Does the United States have irons in the fires of the Arab world? Sure, and so do Persians, Ottomans (a.k.a. Turks), and others.
2
And what if anything did the money moved by Mr. Thomas Barrack have to do with this war in Yemen? The NYT article about this billionaire trading dollars and influence for his "friends" in Saudi Arabia and the UAE is just below this one.
And America's support for this war?
Let's connect the dots.
11
The US could stop the war tomorrow and advert hundreds of thousands of painful deaths by starvation. But the chances of the US government doing anything is zero. Why? Oil. Enjoy filling you’re gas tanks with blood this summer! Sure came cheap!
10
I don't believe that the Saudis and Emiratis have any intention of allowing the port to function if they derive military advantage from shutting it down. This "country" was only put together in the 1990s. The British broke it in half in the 19th century. The Houthis are in control of what their people were in control of during the Muttawakkilite kingdom.
At a very minimum, Raytheon must not be allowed to sell weapons into a humanitarian disaster. And if Mr. Mattis is the military genius he was reputed to be, he can find another way to watch Al Qaeda in the South without paying in Yemeni blood for it to the Saudis.
Thank you for putting this closer to the front page.
14
Oh, well maybe the UN can save us? I'm thinking of their many wonderful success stories over the years. Oh wait, other than the WHO, there are no UN success stories, no impact, just wasteful bureaucracy and partisan talk. Let's shut down the UN, and use the funds for humanitarian aide.
2
UN peacekeepers have made a difference in many countries. In very difficult - often appalling - circumstances.
Google it.
Besides, when is the last time the US made a meaningful financial contribution to the UN. I recall Ted Turner paying the US's share - and that was some time ago.
5
The UN Security Council wanted to place an embargo on arms sales to Saudi Arabia, due to the situation in Yemen. That was vetoed by the US and UK, both of whom sell arms to the Saudis.
Don't blame the UN. Blame the US and Great Britain.
5
Or we could just stop giving Saudi Arabia military aid. That would be humanitarian.
3
Is it too late to buy Raytheon stock? When the richest country invades the poorest it is money in the bank for those who supply the weapons. We,us,you,and me get to share responsibility for murdering the people of Yemen with the added bonus of increased stock dividends. "I tremble for my country when I reflect that god is just..." Thomas Jefferson
13
Not to worry, Trump will drop paper towels to the folks there like he did in Puerto Rico and call it tremendous aid.
7
Ninety-five percent of Americans can’t point to Yemen on a map. Thanks, in part, to Trump’s demonization of Muslims, most Americans don’t care about the war and its human costs. Whatever the United State’s best ally, Saudi Arabia wants, they can have. You remember Saudi Arabia, they provided 15 of the 911 terrorists and offer major support Of Wahhabism, the father of Isis.
9
Yemen is another venue for a multi-layered conflict. The US role in Yemen has been conducting counterterrorism operations following the 9/11 attacks. It expanded its mission there since 2011, when the Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) declared the its emirate in Yemen. In December 2014, ISIS establishes a presence there, clashing with AQAP. In March 2015 the conflict escalated into a full-scale civil war, after the Saudi-backed president, Mansour Hadi was forced to resign by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Since King Salman ascended the throne, appointing his inexperienced and impetuous son, Mohammed bin Salman as defence minister, the Saudi-led coalition launched its military action in May 2015. Relationship between King Salman and Obama was icy. So Riyadh was overjoyed when Trump, the kleptocrat took office, knowing he could be bought.
Yet the pro-government forces - which make up of Sunni southern tribesmen and separatists - are divided themselves. The separatists fight for secession and seek to restore South Yemen with the backing of the United Arab Emirates, which are now at odds with the Saudis with whom they formed the coalition.
The Houthis received backing from former president, the late Ali Abdullah Saleh, who planned a comeback. But they fell out with one another, leading to his killing.
9
The United State and United Kingdom are supporting the barbarism of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. We need to immediately end our support for the Saudi led destruction...
37
Because freedom of speech only pertains to like minded people like yourselves, I am cancelling my digital subscription. On numerous occasions my comments were relegated to the garbage bin. This is why our country is in the mess it is in, ''if you see something say something''.etc. If we knew all the details of what is really going on in the West Bank, Gaza and Yemen, these atrocities would end over night. See how nice our foreign policy is working out? We walk around looking to ''see something'', and our ''best friends'' walk around, sleep, make breakfast, and make love with machine guns wrapped around their torsos. Nice way do go through life.. God does indeed work in mysterious way. Come home ''Punch'' all is forgiven.
Image there was a Christian minority in Yemen and they had been repressed and had risen up against the Saudi-supported government! Now they were being bombed to smithereens by Saudi Arabia. What would be the stance of the US government? Not hard go guess! So why has Donald Trump declared Iran to be the biggest evil in the Middle East, while Saudi-Arabia wages a genocidal war against a minority in Yemen with religious links to Iran. In the case of Yemen, one can understand to some degree why Iran supports the Houthi shia-led minority.
13
And no mention of the cholera epidemic which has already killed at least 2,000 people, and which WHO expects to resurge in August with the rainy season.
16
“OK,” sez Kim Jong Un, “we’ll denuclearize.” Then, he adds, “once negotiation begin, we can sell our bombs to Iran. After all, there is no more Iran deal, and I never stated in the signed agreement with Trump that I wouldn’t sell our 60 nukes and 60 missiles to the highest bidders. Iran will pay a high price for our bombs. As will ISIS, Asad, the Taliban, the Chechnians, the PLO, Hamas, Israeli settlers, Saudi Arabia, the Klu Klux Klan, and Fox News. Actually, there is big, ready market out there for our bombs. Soon, we can afford to provide every North Korean with a speed boat.”
6
You are right on the mark!
1
"An increasing number of Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Congress are criticizing the American role, accusing the Pentagon of being complicit in the bombing campaign."
It's good to know that Congress is beginning to do something about this humanitarian crisis, but the truth is it's been going on for some time, and unfortunately our country has been aiding and abetting the Saudi government.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/inside-yemen/
20
I watched that film on your link and it was heartbreaking. I knew Kushner teed up the huge sale of our arms to the Saudis so trump could come in and close the deal but I failed to realize that the Yemenese know that we did that until now. I am ashamed.
The Iraqis, for example, knew that we manufactured the grenades used in their fields -- they said "made in America." Add to that the fact that we invaded them and they did not cause our 9/11. Is it any wonder that the middle easterners hate us?
3
You have to give the UN credit for continuing to try. I’m glad we gave them that river bank.
2
Why don't we get Trump involved here. Like with Kim, he is good lauding, making deals with and propping up dictators, butchers and war criminals that is going on here with both sides.
5
"The United States has backed the Saudi-led coalition in this war..."
To the hilt, boys and girls. We are all funding genocide.
76
The crisis in Yemen is a religious war. U.S. KEEP OUT!
4
As US supplies weaponry, intelligence, military training, drone surveillance to Saudis, US is already fully deeply involved on behalf of Wahhabis responsible for 9/11 Twin Towers demolition.
17
PLEASE raise the visibility of stories like this one, and publish them more frequently.
Several weeks ago the NYT devoted multiple articles and op-ed pieces to the conflict over what was alternately described as an unarmed protest, or an attempt to breach the border between Gaza and Israel. These stories were front and center for days. What is currently transpiring in Yemen involves loss of life on a far more vast scale, in a country that it on the verge of completely depleting it’s supplies of potable water. Without casting the Saudis or Iranians as heroes or villains, it would be good for the entire readership of the NYT to be better informed on Yemen, as well as multiple other places around the world that are on the precipice, and about to be the countries of origin for hundreds of thousands, or millions of refugees and displaced persons.
43
The hundred-year old description of the Middle East, "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom" by T. E. Lawrence, not only gives an excellent grounding in the roots of today's political realities but still pretty much describes contemporary reality. There is something very patronizing about assuming that the peoples of the region could not, have not, do not, and will not slaughter each other without American help. Why assume Arabs are any different from Europeans, Asians, and Africans? Does the United States have irons in the fires of the Arab world? Sure, and so do Persians, Ottomans (a.k.a. Turks), and others.
2
Except the US is the only country providing mid-air refueling to Saudi bombers (as well as the source if all the aircraft and bombs as well as intelligence choosing the targets). So, yeah.
3
You wouldn’t know it from the headline or the top half of the article, but the bottom half — which a lot of readers won’t get to, it which The Times is aware — is where details on the American role in this humanitarian catastrophe are at least (tepidly) addressed.
But simply stated, none of this would be happening if we weren’t contributing our own arms, military intelligence, funding and so on. And that awful fact should have been acknowledged in both the headline and initial paragraphs of this whitewashing.
In addition, The Times fails to mention that the Saudis bombed a clearly marked Doctors Without Borders makeshift hospital, despite also having ample intelligence to prevent them from bombing it. That is a war crime.
59
It appears that President Eisenhower's warning against the industrial-military complex has been fully realized. Raytheon seeks to sell more arms into this mess. A huge increase in the military budget thanks to Trump and his enablers in Congress. Meanwhile, roads crumble, water is unfit to drink, and children still go to bed hungry in America. Make America Great indeed.
27
The United States has abandoned its role as leader of the free world and gone to the dark side of geopolitics. "We don't care if you kill them, heck, we'll actually help you. Just don't bomb this hospital or that mosque, please, so we don't have to answer questions about collateral damage"
15
I thought Trump and Kim discussed human rights. Sounds like Trump is ignoring him when it comes to the Yemen.
2
"The Pentagon insists that all of its military aid is noncombat assistance, such as advising the Saudi Air Force on adopting bombing practices that kill fewer civilians."
But we know for a fact that this is a complete lie.
The Trump administration's very first military action in office was to permit an offensive strike in Yemen, which resulted in the deaths of American service people. Remember that?
Since then, American forces have been actively deployed to Yemen, and it has been in a combat role, not an advisory one. Maybe the combat arm of the American forces aren't working directly with the Saudis and the UAE (who have no business receiving ANY American help in the first place, given their actions against US ally Qatar), but they are certainly present and active.
This has been very visible on the news for the last year and a half. Donald Trump has made a point of mentioning it.
To advocate now for a withdrawal of troops is to abdicate your responsibilities. You don't get to just jump into a country, mess around, and then leave the blood for someone else to clean up. No one gets to do that and still sleep at night.
As the United States of America, you have a responsibility to restore peace to a situation you exacerbated. If you can't handle your allies, then they're not your allies (and Saudi and UAE really aren't, regardless of parades and fancy dinners). But you have a duty to the civilian population.
Don't let Yemen become the next Syria.
34
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children....This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from an iron cross." President Dwight D. Eisenhower
True then, true now. But there is money to be made and power to be exercised, and so it goes, horrifically real death and destruction in the pursuit of these imaginary things.
26
It must be included in coverage that U.S. ally Saudi Arabia just bombed a Doctors Without Borders facility in Yemen - even though (from NPR) "the facility had clear markings on the roof identifying it as a health care building and that staff had shared its coordinates with the Saudi and United Arab Emirates-led coalition."
Bombing hospitals and clinics is a war crime. Selling weaponry to, and remaining allies with, war criminals - and the home country of almost all of the terrorists who bombed us on 9/11 - is unconscionable.
47
But both of our political parties do it. They both support Israel and both support Saudi Arabia and sell massive weapons to both. Whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton were president, this stuff will happen. Why? Because there is not a draft so Americans do not really care what happens. Reinstate a draft and see how long before '60's style protests become the norm.
Both parties will continue the war in Afghanistan even though one party claimed they would end the war if elected.
Both parties will continue beating war drums on Iran.
6
Yemen has nice beaches too. So what's the problem?
8
It's nice to see the Times finally getting around to exposing some of the horrible things Saudi Arabia is doing in Yemen.
84
Purity--...with the assistance of the US and the don the con, let's not forget that. When I think of all the children and mothers he's helped to kill, I am reminded that he, and his fellow warmonger Christians, want to stop women from having safe, legal abortions, because of their deep "reverence for life. "
21
They're not "Houthi rebels", they're an Iranian proxy army. The Houthi people are living in fear of displeasing their Persian masters.
10
Not true. The Houthi are tribal fighters, and part of the the Zaidi Shia, who make up 40% of the population of Yemen. In fact they ruled Northern Yemen for over 1.000 years.
Even the CIA admits that the role of Iran in this conflict is overstated. Until now, not one Iranian has been found on the ground in Yemen, though some small arms, mainly AK47s, have been smuggled into Yemen, possibly from Iran.
1
If wars have become the method-of-choice in Middle East to clamp down on population growth, so be it. And judged from the lack of comments for this article, the rest of the world doesn't seem to care too much about it.
15
Population growth? These nations have smaller populations than many states in the US! Not to mention they are typically wealthy and have families of similar size as Americans. Your comment is rooted in a bit of imperialist naïveté.
6
I worked in Al-Hodeidah for several years and can only imagine the horrific conditions there now.
19
Indeed. The city is on the coastal plain of Tihama and is unpleasantly hot and humid, unlike much of Yemen which is mountainous, somewhat cooler and certainly less humid. I was there in the 1990s when the country and the region were different places. We should not forget that this latest civil war is a mere successor to numerous internal tribal conflicts, fuelled by easy access to firearms, poverty and over-population. I say over-population because average family size is way off the charts even compared to other Middle Eastern countries.
14
What's happening in Yemen is Siege Warfare and that is a war crime. It must be prosecuted.
https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_rul_rule158
We now live in the consequences of Pres. Obama's illegal failure to prosecute Bush era war criminals. They are back and thriving.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
52
I really doubt if me clicking on either of those links is going to change anything. But I am impressed.
"Since 2015, the United States has provided the Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen with air-to-air refueling, intelligence assessments and other military advice"
This US response is both morally unsupportable and politically stupid. What is the moral benefit in the US supporting the Saudis illegal military intervention into one of their poorest neighbors? If the Saudis are, or are not, successful, how does the US benefit politically either way? How is US complicity justified if it leads to the destruction of Yemen's infrastructure and the mass starvation of its people?
68
I fear the main bond between the Saudis and the US is the easy access to cheap oil for the US, and the petrodollars that are returned to the US economy by the purchase of weapons and military related services by the Saudis. The fossil fuels are killing the planets, and the weapons sales are doing a great job of killing and maiming poor brown peoples all over the world as well. Really a sad, deplorable, morally bankrupt situation.
48
And the US support of Siege Warfare is a war crime.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
35
In this case, it's not primarily about oil, as the US is self sufficient in this respect.
It's mainly about the $ billions in US arms sales to the Saudis and the UAE.
"Since 2015, the United States has provided the Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen with air-to-air refueling, intelligence assessments and other military advice"
In other words the US has been directly involved in this savage bombing campaign that has already killed over 25,000 civilians.
The stories from European news sources state that the Saudi's have bombed schools, hospitals, clinics, farms, factories and urban areas. They are doing today what we did to North Vietnam fifty years ago.
Without out refueling support, our radar coordination and our targeting assistance this air war could not be waged. Without the sale of American jets and bombs it would not have occurred at all.
But the Pentagon doesn't care because they get to test our new weapons systems on human subjects.
Despite the tepid objections from some members of Congress these atrocities continue. Congress should immediately cut off all military sales to Saudi Arabia and tell the Pentagon that they cannot spend another penny of our tax dollars on this war.
Of course that won't happen because the arms industry makes too much money off of the suffering of the Yemani people and Congress cares more about those campaign contributions than they do about a few thousand dead children.
God help us for what we have become.
129
I agree. The Military-Industrial Complex that Eisenhower warned us about in his farewell speech is alive and healthier (unhealthier?) than ever.
31
Nice, meek, mild, polite Canada brokered our biggest arms deal ever in 2015.
We sold almost $15 B worth of light armoured vehicles to the Saudis. Maybe some of them are in that picture.
https://www.opencanada.org/features/ten-facts-about-canadas-arms-deal-wi...
We all have blood on our hands.
If any thinking American wants to understand why so much of the developing world hates us, please stop saying "they hate our freedoms", and carefully review what we have done to support and enable the Saudis in creating this humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen over the past several years. No words....
71
This is another "Never Again", and people will say never again until again. Wondering why this atrocity, this humanitarian crisis, this man's inhumanity to man has not been in the news more often – supported, funded and backed by the USA.
29
I'm ashamed and horrified that the U.S. is in the arms-and-terrorism business. A bloated DoD funded at $770 billion this year. Really?
3