The Hamilton Spectator

Get U.S. forces out of Yemen now

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This editorial appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Two new developmen­ts related to Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the world, raise again in stark terms the question of why the United States continues to participat­e in the effort led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to pound that Middle Eastern country of 27 million into uninhabita­ble rubble.

The first of these, a result of years of extensive U.S.supported bombing, drone attacks and other military action against one of the f actions in Yemen, is that a formidable level of famine is threatenin­g the population of the country, including an estimated 2.1 million children. Humanitari­an donors estimate that 12 million Yemenis are already suffering from malnutriti­on. The United Nations gauges that $2.1 billion will be needed to prevent a crisis of dying Yemenis.

The second developmen­t is that even the Yemeni government that the United States and Saudi Arabia support decided in the wake of a disastrous U.S. Special Forces attack in Yemen Jan. 29 that it will agree to no further U.S. raids and other ground operations in Yemen.

U.S. Special Forces assaulted a village deep inside Yemen with President Donald Trump’s approval. In addition to one American soldier, a number of Yemeni civilians including women and children were killed, and the intelligen­ce harvest, the alleged object of the exercise, the total of which remains to be revealed, seems to have been meagre. One acquisitio­n which the Department of Defense first vaunted, then backed away from, was a copy of a 10-year-old training film that had already been on the Internet.

Here is a chance for Mr. Trump’s new national security team to save some money and stop perpetuati­ng America’s participat­ion in what are atrocities in humanitari­an terms by ending U.S. military activities in Yemen, as its government has requested. This could include the expensive bombing which has the United States knee-deep in an intra-Islamic struggle between Sunnis and Shiites, Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Osprey aircraft lost in the most recent raid alone cost $71 million.

Let the Yemenis, Saudis and Emiratis fight it out if they feel the need to. America should not be involved.

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