What our country is doing to the Yemeni
Yemen is one of the Arab world’s poorest countries. If you’ve followed the humanitarian disaster in Yemen, you’re aware of the worsening famine and cholera epidemic; especially as they affect children. The World Health Organization has warned that it’s possible more than two-thirds of the children may die of malnutrition in the next few months.
The United Nations now considers this the worst humanitarian crisis, even surpassing South Sudan. Since Saudi Arabia joined the offensive against the Houthi rebels in 2015, the U.N. considers 17 million Yemeni “food insecure.” The Famine Early Warning Systems Network, an organization created by the U.S. Agency for International Development, recently warned that in three to four months, much of Yemen will be suffering from famine. The U.N. and International Criminal Court consider the use of hunger as a weapon of war “a crime against humanity.” You may also be aware that the cause is the Saudi-led coalition that is bombing Yemen’s capital Sana’a and other areas occupied by the Houthi Shia group they oppose.
The Sunni (Wahhabi) Saudis don’t want a Shia nation on their southern border; they already have Iraq on their northern border, and Iran just across the narrow Persian Gulf. Both countries are majority Shia nations.You may not realize that the U.S. is part of the coalition, and is the major arms supplier to Saudi Arabia. This year, Saudi Arabia surpassed Israel as the largest purchaser of U.S. weaponry.
The U.S. is, by far, the world’s largest arms supplier. We are providing the planes, the ammunitions and even intelligence to the Saudis. The only things we don’t supply are the pilots and troops. We do fly with the coalition planes on some bombing sorties. I think you, like me, feel our country attempts to promote peace in the world. If so, how do we understand our country’s actions in Yemen?
Dr. T. Douglas Reilly is a physicist, retired after 38 years, and lives in Los Alamos.