Food and aid for Yemen

Spare a holiday weekend thought for men, women and children halfway around the world in Yemen, who are sick and starving and desperate for humanitarian aid. For many months now, Saudi Arabia and its poor gulf neighbor to the South have been engaged in a war — one that has made Yemen’s already brutal civil conflict even more vicious.

Yemen’s authoritarian government is under fire from rebels from the Iran-backed Houthi movement, which champions the country’s Shia Muslim minority, as well as from Al Qaeda.

On the government’s side is the firepower of Saudi Arabia, which — with U.S. military aid and arms — has bombarded the country, killing not only rebels but civilians by the thousands. Saudi blockades have kept out humanitarian supplies.

The crisis is cascading. A cholera outbreak now infects nearly a million Yemenis and has killed thousands. An estimated 3 million people, including nearly a million malnourished children, are at dire risk of death from famine.

Though the Saudis assure the United States they are doing their best to prevent civilian casualties, there’s no evidence to back up that claim. That led the U.S. House this month to overwhelmingly pass a resolution stating that American military assistance is not to be used for the war in Yemen.

The United States must take great care not to backslide into a dangerous proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. While as a general strategic matter American influence should check Iranian aggression, Yemen is not our fight.

Meantime, in the strongest possible terms, President Trump must demand that the Saudis enable food and medicine to get to innocent people there. Their blood must not be on our hands.