Senator, Bernie Sanders, says that he has enough votes in the Senate
to pass a resolution that he refers to as the Yemen War Powers Resolution.
It would effectively block US support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.
Now that Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, of course,
is fighting against the Houthi rebels.
They have agreed to a ceasefire but that ceasefire has since expired.
So it is incumbent upon Congress to pass this resolution to make it
clear that should Saudi Arabia decide to get back into it,
increase the violence, begin the war in Yemen again,
the US will not be providing any support.
Now, he says he's got the votes in the Senate, which means he would
need quite a few Republican lawmakers to vote in favor of it in order to
overcome that 60 vote legislative filibuster within the Senate.
But let me give you the details as reported by the intercept and we can
discuss what we think about the future of this resolution and whether it could pass.
Now the war powers resolution is considered privileged in the Senate.
So actually let me correct myself right away because it does work a little
differently from other legislation in the Senate.
So, when I say that it's privileged in the Senate,
it means that the sponsor of the bill in this case, Bernie Sanders can bring it to
a floor vote without approval from the chamber's leadership.
So he would not need approval from Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer.
He would be able to bring this forward for
a floor vote as soon as possible and he expects to do it soon.
Asked whether Sanders expected to have the votes to pass the resolution,
Sanders said in typical Bernie Sanders fashion, I think we do, yes.
Likes to keep it short and sweet I love it.
Now, it's not that hard to believe that Bernie does have the votes and I'm
typically not optimistic about legislation like this, resolutions like this.
Because the fact of the matter is,
a similar resolution had bipartisan support previously.
As the intercept reports in 2019,
Congress advanced a bipartisan version of the current Yemen war powers resolution,
only to see it vetoed by President Donald Trump.
So for all the pretend lefties out there,
all of the anti-American imperialism people out there
who tried to pretend as if Donald trump outflanked the left in foreign policy.
You would be mistaken, those people lied and there's no way in hell Donald Trump's
foreign policy was significantly better than previous presidents.
Not only did he veto this resolution into 2019, he also, of course,
he ripped up the Iran nuclear deal which increased hostilities between
the United States and Iran.
It actually made the world less safe because Iran is now free to
develop nuclear weapons since that nuclear deal, it has been done away with.
And there are lots of other issues that we can get into, but
let's get back to the main story here.
The positive story about what Bernie Sanders is trying to accomplish with this
resolution.
Now, the House also had its own version.
The House version is sponsored by outgoing Representative Peter Defazio,
who's a democrat from Oregon.
And needs the support of Representative Jim McGovern,
a democrat from Massachusetts, to get through the rules committee.
But McGovern is a co-sponsor of the resolution,
as is Representative Adam Schiff, chair of the House Intelligence Committee.
So it does appear that what Bernie Sanders is saying here is correct that
this resolution is likely to pass and he is planning on bringing it for
a floor vote in the Senate as early as next week.
Now in the Senate it's co-sponsored by Senator Dick Durbin,
who is not just the chamber's number two, but he also serves as the chair of
the appropriations committee, which of course doles out that pentagon funding.
But this could complicate something for Biden.
And this is what I'm very curious to see play out in the near future.
So, Biden has been warming his relationship with
Saudi Arabia in recent months and a lot of that has to do with oil.
Now, we've been experiencing higher prices at the gas pump since the Russian
invasion into Ukraine happened, that increased the cost of oil,
which translates to higher prices at the pump.
And the Biden administration is trying to of course convince members of the so
called OPEC cartel to increase their production of oil,
to increase the supply and deal with the high demand for
gas at the pump energy, we all understand this, right?
At first, Saudi Arabia wasn't really into it,
they wanted to keep the supply low, keep profits up.
Well, though Saudi Arabia has used its oil exports as a cudgel to attack the current
administration which it views as opposed to its own economic interests and
human rights record, relations began to thaw last month.
The Biden administration moved to grant sovereign immunity to
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the lawsuit over journalist Jamal Khashoggi's
death, angering advocates.
And we're gonna do a more detailed story on that in just a moment.
But, it is interesting because if Biden sees this resolution on his desk and
he gets to make a decision as to whether he signs it to enact it,
or he vetoes it to nix it and save his relationship with Saudi Arabia.
Well, it'll say a lot about who Biden is and what he actually represents.
Because if you can recall, Biden on the debate stage,
said that he wanted to make Mohammed bin Salman,
the Saudi Crown Prince a pariah for what he did to Jamal Khashoggi.
But then once you realize there are resources involved here,
there are economic interests involved here,
maybe we can all pretend like the Khashoggi thing didn't happen.
It just gives you a sense of what really matters to political leadership.
Whether you're talking about democrats or republicans when it comes to economic
interests, when it comes to business interests based in the United States.
There's no question that whether you're talking a democrat or republican,
they will suck up to some pretty questionable people,
questionable regimes in order to ensure that our economic interests are met.
And so I am curious to see how Biden is gonna treat this resolution.
Should it end up on his desk, will he sign it?
I guess we have to wait and see.
Now, what would the legislation block the United States from doing exactly, okay?
So the resolution defines hostilities in a number of ways.
Including sharing intelligence for the purpose of enabling offensive
coalition strikes and providing logistical support for offensive coalition strikes.
Including by providing maintenance or transferring spare parts to coalition
members flying warplanes engaged in anti-Houthi bombings in Yemen.
And it's also worth noting,
that while Saudi Arabia has agreed to the ceasefire and
there hasn't been an exchange of violence in recent months.
The Saudis continue to maintain a blockade of Yemen, strangling the country's
economy and producing a humanitarian crisis of biblical proportions.
Including a devastating famine,
where as many as 80 newborns are dying every day in the country.
And we had been aiding and abetting that by giving the Saudi
led coalition the weapons they needed to just direct absolutely awful,
horrendous, tragic violence toward the people of Yemen.
And to see a bipartisan effort to prevent that from happening in the future is
a good thing.
The question is, will Biden stand in the way?
And we'll wait and see.