Conan O’Brien tweeted Tuesday night: “Wow. The rule for the Farm Bill approved tonight by House Rules strips privilege from any War Powers resolution that limits U.S. involvement in Yemen for the rest of the year. The rule still must pass the House.”

Congressman Ro Khanna ‏tweeted Wednesday morning: “This is why people hate Congress. @SpeakerRyan is not allowing a vote on my resolution to stop the war in Yemen because many Republicans will vote with us and he will lose the vote. He is disgracing Article 1 of the Constitution, and as a result, more Yemeni children will die.”

See this just-published piece in Bloomberg. “U.S. Crackdown on Saudis Over Yemen War Imperiled by House Move.”

REESE ERLICH, ReeseErlich at yahoo.com, @reeseerlich
Erlich writes the syndicated column “Foreign Correspondent.” His recent columns include “Senate tumult reflects popular discontent with Yemen War.”

Erlich was in Turkey when Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered there. He wrote the pieces “What the Khashoggi case tells us about terrorism” and “Murder of Saudi journalist builds opposition to Yemen war.”

He writes: “International relief organizations now consider the Yemen War the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The country faces a devastating cholera epidemic. An estimated 14 million Yemenis are on the brink of starvation and 85,000 children have already died of hunger. The Royal Saudi Air Force intentionally targets civilians according to a UN report and human rights groups. …

“[The Saudi government claims that] the Houthis are controlled by Iran and part of an Iranian plan to dominate the region. In fact, the Houthis are an indigenous political Islamist movement allied with, but not controlled by Iran. The Saudi military promised a quick victory, but the war has dragged on for over three and a half years.”

Erlich’s books include The Iran Agenda: the Real Story of U.S. and Policy and the Mideast Crisis. Listen to his recent interview on WAER, the Syracuse University public radio station: “Horrors of Yemen War and How U.S. Policy Shift Could Help.”

Background: Paul Ryan used a similar maneuver last month. See Institute for Public Accuracy news release: “Paul Ryan Tries to Keep Saudi Attack on Yemen Going.” Vox reported at the time: “The War Powers Act of 1973 allows for declaring a special privilege, essentially letting the matter come to a vote, and congressional parliamentarians said Khanna’s resolution met those requirements, a Democratic source said.”