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Saudi War on Yemen: Is Congress Finally Ending U.S. Support?

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CommonDreams reports in Sanders Unveils Resolution to End U.S. Support for ‘Catastrophic’ Saudi-Led War in Yemen“: “Congress abdicated its constitutional powers and failed to prevent our country from involving itself in this crisis,” ‘said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a lead co-sponsor with Sen. Patrick Leahy.’

“As U.S. President Joe Biden visits the Middle East this week, three senators introduced a joint resolution to end the United States’ involvement in the Saudi-led war on Yemen.

“The resolution is sponsored by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — and, according to the trio, it is already backed by a bipartisan group of over 100 House members.“‘We must put an end to the unauthorized and unconstitutional involvement of U.S. armed forces in the catastrophic Saudi-led war in Yemen and Congress must take back its authority over war,’ Sanders said in a statement, detailing the dire conditions in the region.“‘More than 85,000 children in Yemen have already starved and millions more are facing imminent famine and death,’ he pointed out. ‘More than 70 percent of Yemen’s population currently rely on humanitarian food assistance and the U.N. has warned the death toll could climb to 1.3 million people by 2030.’“‘This war has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis today and it is past time to end U.S. complicity in those horrors,’ Sanders declared. ‘Let us pass this resolution, so we can focus on diplomacy to end this war.’“While a cease-fire in Yemen has held over the past few months, peace advocates and progressive lawmakers have continued to call for an end to U.S. support for the yearslong war.”

KATHY KELLY, kathy.vcnv@gmail.com, @voiceinwild

Kelly, a peace activist and author, co-coordinates the Ban Killer Drones campaign and is board president of World Beyond War. She recently wrote for The Progressive: “It seems that [Biden’s] trip will not include Yemen, though if this were truly a ‘sensitive’ visit, he would be stopping at one of Yemen’s many beleaguered refugee camps. There he could listen to people displaced by war, some of whom are shell-shocked from years of bombardment. He could hear the stories of bereaved parents and orphaned children, and then express true remorse for the complicity of the United States in the brutal aerial attacks and starvation blockade imposed on Yemen for the past eight years.
“From the vantage point of a Yemeni refugee camp, Biden could insist that no country, including his own, has a right to invade another land and attempt to bomb its people into submission. He could uphold the value of the newly extended truce between the region’s warring parties, allowing Yemenis a breather from the tortuous years of war, and then urge ceasefires and settlements to resolve all militarized disputes, including Russia’s war in Ukraine. He could beg for a new way forward, seeking political will, universally, for disarmament and a peaceful, multipolar world. “More than 150,000 people have been killed in the war in Yemen, 14,500 of whom were civilians. But the death toll from militarily imposed poverty has been immeasurably higher. The war has caused one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, creating an unprecedented level of hunger in Yemen, where millions of people face severe hardship.“Some 17.4 million Yemenis are food insecure; by December 2022, the projected number of hungry people will likely rise to nineteen million. The rate of child malnutrition is one of the highest in the world, and nutrition continues to deteriorate.”