US Lawmakers Want to Stop Trump from Supporting Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen
Yamanyoon- 9 Oct 2017
The US is helping Saudi Arabia wage a war in Yemen, largely in secret. A congressman from California wants to bring it into the open.
Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat, and three other members of the House have co-sponsored a resolution that requires debate on US military involvement in Yemen. In 2015, President Barack Obama supported Saudi Arabia’s war effort on Yemen, and President Donald Trump has continued the mission. Khanna, who represents voters in Silicon Valley, says it’s time for an open debate over America’s role in the Yemen conflict.
I wish someone had brought up the vote earlier,” he says. “We should never have been part of aiding the Saudis in this effort.”
On March 26, 2015, Saudi Arabia and an Arab coalition attacked Yemen and conducted thousands of airstrikes . The Saudi-led coalition brought massive firepower to a complex battle between forces loyal to Yemen’s president and Anaroallah, a group known as the Houthis. The United States supplied weapons, logistics and intelligence to help its Saudi allies control Yemen’s airspace, blockade Yemen’s seaports and conduct a bombing campaign called Operation Decisive Storm.
The Saudis prayed for a “quick and decisive victory.” That was 31 months ago.
The fight for control of Yemen shows no sign of stopping. The war has killed thousands of civilians, caused widespread food shortages and triggered a cholera epidemic. Yemenis have been plunged into the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
“There is a huge difference in being complicit with doing harm and not being able to stop harm,” says Khanna. “Right now the problem is that we’re complicit with Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations.”
Khanna and his three House colleagues —Republicans Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Walter Jones of North Carolina, and Democrat Mark Pocan of Wisconsin — are looking forward to the vote on their resolution, which has picked up dozens of co-sponsors.
Trump is not the first president to take military action without consulting Congress. In recent years, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama did the same.
“It’s done without informing the American people, and it’s done precisely that way because these leaders know that they would not get the consent of the American people,” he says. “So my goal in Congress with this resolution is to help bring greater transparency — and greater accountability — to our foreign policy. And let the American people weigh in.”