One of the Middle East's bloodiest conflicts is
also one of its most overlooked.
It's not Syria or Iraq.
It's in a different place entirely.
Yemen.
The twenty month old civil war there
killed more than ten thousand people
and triggered a massive humanitarian crisis
but press coverage is been minimal overshadowed by
the fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq
In Yemen one side has the Houthi rebels
backed by Iran. On the other you have the
former Yemeni government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Al-Hadi
backed by a coalition of ten countries led by
neighboring Saudi Arabia who is ultimately also backed
by the US
The civil war there erupted in 2015
when the Houthis
a Shiite group who receive money and weapons
from Iran
took up arms to overthrow Yemen's government which
is Sunni and backed by Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis complain that the government discriminated
against them for years. Mistreating them on a
large scale and that their fight is a fight
to be treated fairly.
Many in the region by contrast see it very differently
They think it's the latest front in a
shadow war between
Saudi Arabia and Iran for control over the
entire region.
In March of 2015
Saudi Arabia began bombing Houthi held territory
across Yemen
Causing mass civilian casualties.
They've destroyed targets ranging from marketplaces to hospitals
from schools
and even to a funeral recently where
one hundred forty people were killed in a single strike.
In August the Saudis bombed the vital part
of al-Hudaydah severely damaging a main source
of Yemen's food
any humanitarian aid shipments.
And increasing the chances of mass starvation
and what is already an impoverished country.
the indiscriminate bombing has prompted investigations by the
U. N.
for possible war crimes
While the Saudis are leading this bloody campaign,
the blame also spreads to great power whose
support is directly
contributing to the carnage
to the United States.
the US has supported Saudi Arabia militarily since
World War II
selling arms
providing military aid
training the Saudi military on how to use
US manufactured planes
tanks and other weapons
in recent years
Saudi Arabia has bought more weapons from the
U. S. than any other country in the
world
just since March of 2015
the U. S. authorized twenty two billion dollars
worth of weapons sales to Saudi Arabia
the most recent deal includes twenty Abrams tanks
listed as battle damage replacements.
The battle of course
is Yemen.
The weapons the U. S. sells also include
cluster bombs
banned by most of the international community
and F-15 fighter planes
which is making up the vast bulk of
what the Saudi airforce is currently using
as it bombs Yemen.
But America's aid to Saudi Arabia goes way
beyond weapon sales.
And it's directly contributing to the current fight.
That's because Washington is literally helping to refuel
Saudi planes.
while they strike targets across Yemen.
When the Saudis ask
the U. S. to
refuel one of their planes,
giant American tankers such as
KC-135 Stratotanker
take off from
Incirlik air base in Turkey
or from US carriers in the Arabian Sea
they then linked up with Saudi F-15s
in international air space
these airborne refuels
give the Saudi planes a much longer range
and allow Saudi air campaign to become more
lethal.
because the planes can stay in the air
longer and hit targets much more frequently
as of late November the U. S. have
flown more than sixteen hundred refueling missions
to over sixty three hundred aircraft in the
skies bombing Yemen that's an average of two
a day
so why is the U. S. so supportive
of this bloody campaign? The most important reason
is the Iran nuclear deal. In 2015,
the Obama administration offered to drop its crippling
economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for Iran
limiting its nuclear program
Without those sanctions
Iran's political and economic power has significantly increased
making Saudi Arabia nervous that they're enemy will
gain new influence in the region.
To countries from Iraq to Lebanon
and Syria to Yemen. Now that Iran and
influences in Saudi Arabia's backyard the Saudis fear
that Houthi rebels loyal to Iran
will now be literally on the footsteps of
their country. They want U. S. help beating
them back.
Secondly the intervention Yemen is also a part
of the U. S. is broader counterterrorist strategy
for the Middle East
the goal of US policy in Yemen is
to make sure that Yemen cannot be a
safe haven that extremists can use to attack
the west and to attack the United States
Yemen is home to the most active and dangerous
branch of al Qaeda
The US has a major interest in preventing this
terror group from taking advantage of the power
vacuum in Yemen to plot new attacks.
Finally the US is the only one of
its longstanding most important allies
since World War II Saudi Arabia has been
a vital partner against communism
and now terrorism
the Yemen campaign is a high priority for
Saudi Arabia
and that makes it a priority for the
United States. But as the war devolves
into bloody stalemate
the administration is increasingly worried about being complicit in
actual war crimes
State Department documents obtained by Reuters
a meeting agenda from January 2016
talks about limiting exposure to LOAC.
which means the law of armed conflict.
Some in the White House worried that the
U. S.
was potentially violating that law
because of its assistance to
Saudi Arabia.
In those documents
State Department Officials
also discuss
the implications of a 2013
international court decision
implying that if the US were to provide
practical assistance
encouragement or moral support to the Saudis
the U.S. could be charged with war
crimes
In an effort to avoid this
the U.S. issued a no strike list
to the Saudis try to mitigate civilian casualties
it included things like
known hospitals
universities
schools cemeteries.
The Saudis appear to be ignoring it.
The U.N. estimates
10,000 people have died in the fight
three hundred seventy thousand children are malnourished.
and the ten thousand other children have already
died from preventable diseases.
nearly three million people
have been pushed out of their homes in the last
year of fighting alone
Truces have come and gone.
While hopes for peace talks falter.
The Houthis continue to run the government
in the capital of Sana'a
raising questions about what Saudi Arabia
has actually accomplished
and whether any of it could possibly be
worth the cost
Here at home in Congress some lawmakers in
both parties have talked about stopping weapons sales
to Saudi Arabia
Until there's more to keep
the air war in Yemen
from causing massive human rights abuses.
Others argue
that America's relationship with Saudi Arabia is so
important
that the US needs to keep selling weapons
despite the carnage in Yemen.
The Obama administration for its part
has repeatedly urged the Saudis
to do more to avoid
accidentally hitting targets like schools and hospitals
the White House is also condemned individual attacks.
But the reality is that the U. S.
finds itself
increasingly complicit
with the actions of a coalition led by
Saudi Arabia
That means president Obama will leave office
with America helping an ally fight a bloody
war
causing mass civilian suffering
that shows no signs of ending
and that
is not a legacy to be proud of