Yemen, the Middle East's poorest country, is being reduced to rubble, creating a humanitarian catastrophe as civilians bear the costs of Saudi Arabia's anger after the country's pro-Saudi dictator was chased from the country.
Once again, American money is going towards financing the hideous war crimes of brutal regimes. Writing at his blog Free Association, Center for a Stateless Society (C4SS) analyst Sheldon Richman offered an indictment of US support for Saudi Arabia's illegal war of aggression against the Yemeni people:
The Obama administration is assisting Saudi Arabia in its bombing of Yemen, creating — in concert with the Saudi embargo — a humanitarian catastrophe in the Middle East’s poorest country. Civilians are dying, and what infrastructure the country has is being destroyed.Calling US Secretary of State John Kerry "a liar and a demagogue", the antistatist slammed the false news reports that have attempted to justify the massacre by cynically vilifying embattled Yemeni tribes and political factions as "agents of Iran".
Iran is used by pro-war politicians in much the same way that the Soviet Union was once used, its name being invoked whenever one needs to justify heavy-handed involvement against nonexistent threats around the world. The Houthis, a popular movement in support of Yemeni sovereignty and stability, are vilified in the media as Iranian agents. However, Richman argues that their only crime in the eyes of the US and Saudis was to drive the pro-American dictatorship from power.
Noting that "U.S. intervention is no innocent mistake", Richman's virtuous assessment of the situation offers a compelling indictment of the US and their Saudi allies as aggressors. The US itself has its own history of aggression in Yemen, which continues to rage on despite the US's cynical rhetoric against alleged Iranian and Russian aggression (in the form of aiding rebels which, strictly, according to international law, is not actually aggression).
Richman's op-ed has also appeared at Counterpunch, while originally being posted to his antistatist blog Free Association and the C4SS website. Richman's anti-war ideas and statements have provoked the indignation of the US conservative blogosphere and professed pro-war "patriots" in the past, much to his enjoyment.
