America Should Quit Saudi’s War in Yemen: The Senseless Killing Must Stop

Doug Bandow

The latest ceasefire in Yemen is unlikely to prevent Saudi Arabia from resuming its brutal assault on its impoverished neighbor. The Yemeni people are paying the price for Riyadh's determination to reinstate an unpopular government friendly to the royal family. This commitment to rule or ruin apparently comes from deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known more for his ambition than judgment.

Without a vote of Congress the Obama administration has joined the Saudi-led coalition in war. Now the revolutionaries may be firing back. The destroyer USS Mason apparently came under missile attack from Yemen-though US officials admit the ship's radar might have malfunctioned. This presumably is retaliation for US complicity in the murder of Yemeni civilians. No longer can the Obama administration pretend that fighting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's war has no consequences. Washington has turned the US into a foreign target, yet again.

Still, the administration played the victim card, claiming that it destroyed Houthi radar stations in "self-defense." However, the US had provided targeting intelligence, refueled airplanes, trained pilots, and supplied munitions to Riyadh since the latter, backed by several other Gulf states, attacked Yemen in March 2015. The Pentagon even deployed ships to prevent Iranian vessels from approaching Yemen's coast.

By taking an active role in the Yemeni war Washington made Americans as responsible as Saudis for the carnage in the world's poorest nations. Perhaps 4,000 civilians have been killed in the fighting, the majority by the KSA-led "coalition." These deaths also are America's responsibility.

The US made much the same mistake when President Ronald Reagan intervened in the Lebanese civil war to back the "legitimate" government based in Beirut. The USS New Jersey rained death and destruction down on opposing Muslim factions. Colin Powell subsequently explained: "When the shells started falling on the Shiites, they assumed the American ‘referee' had taken sides against them. And since they could not reach the battleship, they found a more vulnerable target," both the US embassy and Marine Corps barracks.

President Barack has developed a reputation for being reluctant to plunge into new Middle Eastern wars. What possessed him to decide to help kill Houthis who had not threatened America?

The administration's involvement appears to be an embarrassed response to Riyadh's criticism of the Iran nuclear deal. Instead of dismissing the royals' presumption that American policy should revolve around their desires, the US backed their aggressive war for regional influence.

Source: Forbes, Edited by website team