Congress, End America's Role In Saudi
Arabia's War On Yemen
By
Lawrence Wilkerson and Gareth Porter
October 12, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
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The Saudi Arabia-led war in Yemen is a
tragedy of epic proportions in which the
United States is deeply and directly
involved. The war has caused
mass
starvation and a cholera epidemic
that is worse than any the world has
witnessed in the past 50 years, with the
latest estimate of Yemeni victims at
well over half a million.
This horrific situation is the result of
Saudi/UAE bombing of roads, hospitals,
bridges, water and sewage facilities,
and the main port of Hodeida combined
with a Saudi/UAE naval and air blockade
that prevents large-scale humanitarian
assistance from reaching the Yemeni war
victims.
The Saudi/UAE coalition could not
execute the war without U.S. direct
involvement — specifically the refueling
of their planes carrying out the bombing
— and the further assistance of
providing bombs and targeting
intelligence.
Even apart from the need
to
halt this growing
humanitarian disaster, Congress has a
Constitutional obligation to deal with
U.S. participation in this war. Flatly
stated, U.S. participation is illegal.
When
President
Barack Obama
ordered U.S. involvement,
the Saudi-led war was not covered by the
Authorization for the Use of Military
Force (AUMF) issued by Congress in the
wake of 9/11. The Houthis and the
forces of former Yemeni president Saleh
against whom the Saudi coalition is
engaged are not affiliated with al Qaeda
or any other entity associated with the
9/11 terror attacks.
That is why
a bipartisan group of House members —
Mark Pocan
(D-Wis.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Ro
Khanna (D-Calif.) and Walter Jones
(R-N.C.)—have introduced
H. Con.
Res. 81,
giving Congress an opportunity to end
U.S. support. The resolution instructs
the president to withdraw U.S. military
personnel from the war — except the U.S.
military elements that are strictly
aimed at al-Qaeda elements in Yemen.
Even if House members are indifferent to
the fact that Congress did not authorize
U.S. support for the war, they should
take account of the fact that such
support has increased the security
threat to all Americans. The Saudi-led
war in Yemen, enabled by U.S. support,
has strengthened America’s most
dangerous enemies in the Middle East —
al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
U.S. intelligence and counter-terrorism
officials have regarded AQAP as even
more of a
foreign terrorist threat to the United
States than ISIS.
It mounted efforts to bring down U.S.
airlines three times between 2009 and
2012, and nearly succeeded twice. But
the Saudi/UAE war in Yemen has made them
the most powerful indigenous armed group
in southern Yemen, with more money, arms
and territorial control than ever
before. The Saudi-led coalition and the
forces of the Saudi backed former regime
have
allied
openly with AQAP
and even fought alongside them. As a
result of the war
AQAP is now poised for
the first time to compete for national
power In Yemen.
The war is
also increasing anti-American sentiment
in Yemen. As Senator
Chris Murphy
(D-Conn.) has
pointed
out,
Yemenis believe the war is being waged
by the U.S., not by the Saudi/UAE
coalition, which they view as a U.S.
proxy. “(W)e are helping to radicalize
the Yemeni population against the United
States,” Murphy warns.
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Some Members of Congress refuse to
support H. Con. Res. 81 because they
accept the official rationale for U.S.
involvement in the war created by the
Obama administration. They argue that
the United States has no choice but to
support the Saudi-led war because it is
necessary to oppose an expansionist
Iran. But it is widely recognized that
the
Houthis are not Iranian proxies;
they pursue
their own interests and
strategy.
Before the war began, in fact,
U.S.
intelligence learned
that Iran had advised the Houthis
against seizing power by force in Sanaa
in 2014 but the Houthis ignored the
advice and had instead responded to
encouragement from their erstwhile foe,
former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The Obama administration promoted the
idea that Iran had been supplying arms
to the Houthis by sea for years before
the war started. But that argument was
based on old recycled claims by the
Yemeni government that were
contradicted by the publicly available
evidence.
After seizing power in 2014, the
Houthis did obtain a bonanza of arms,
but it wasn’t from Iran; it was from
U.S.-supplied arms held by the Yemeni
Army units still loyal to Saleh.
Although some Iranian arms have
certainly reached Yemen, a careful
assessment by a UN panel of experts on
Yemen in
January 2017 was
unable to
confirm
“any direct large-scale supply of arms”
from Iran to the Houthis. And whatever
Iranian arms that were supplied were not
the cause of the Saudi/UAE attack on
Yemen; they were a response to the
beginning of the Saudi air assault.
U.S. fealty to Saudi Arabia has worsened
the chaos and suffering sweeping across
the Middle East. It’s time to break with
such destabilizing policies that
threaten fundamental U.S. security
interests. By passing H. Con. Res. 81
the House of Representatives can reduce
threats to U.S. security, assert the
power of Congress to authorize U.S.
participation in wars of choice and end
the infliction of massive starvation and
cholera on the Yemeni population.
Lawrence Wilkerson is a retired U.S.
Army Colonel and former chief of staff
to Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Gareth Porter is an investigative
journalist, historian and author on U.S.
wars and national security policy.
This article was originally
published by
The Hill
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