Get U.S. forces out of Yemen

This editorial appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Two new developments related to Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the world, raise again 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 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 factions in Yemen, is that a formidable level of famine is threatening the population of the country, including an estimated 2.1 million children.

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.

Here is a chance for the new national security team to save some money and stop perpetuating America’s participation in what are atrocities in humanitarian terms.

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