Tag: Yemen

War Is Coming?

The US is involved in 2 wars in the Middle East as I type…..plus several around the region actions (when needed)…..do we really need another conflict?

I am talking about the actions taken to protect the Red Sea from Houthi tyranny……apparently plans are being made…..

US officials told The Washington Post on Saturday that the Biden administration is planning for a “sustained military campaign” against the Houthis in Yemen even as over a week of near-daily bombing has done nothing to deter the group and has only dramatically escalated the situation.

The officials could not put any timeline on how long the conflict will last, only saying they don’t expect it to drag on for “years,” like the US wars in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. The report said the officials acknowledged they can not identify an “end date or provide an estimate for when the Yemenis’ military capability will be adequately diminished.”

Some US officials are worried the plans for an open-ended conflict against the Houthis will shatter the fragile truce between warring factions in Yemen, which includes a US-backed Saudi/UAE-led coalition. So far, Riyadh has urged restraint and distanced itself from the US’s anti-Houthi operations.

Before the US began bombing the Houthis, Ansar Allah officials made clear they would only stop attacking Israeli-linked commercial shipping if the onslaught on Gaza ended. Instead of pressuring Israel to end the slaughter in Gaza, President Biden chose escalation, and now the Houthis are targeting US commercial shipping, and several US merchant vessels have been hit with missiles.

President Biden acknowledged his strikes on the Houthis were ineffective but vowed they would continue anyway. When asked by a reporter if the attacks were working, Biden said, “Well, when you say ‘working’ — are they stopping the Houthis? No. Are they going to continue? Yes.”

Since the strikes started on January 12, the US has bombed Yemen seven times. Bloomberg reported on Friday that the US and the UK were exploring ways to step up the campaign against the Houthis, signaling the strikes will intensify.

(antiwar.com)

The rhetoric scares me…..we really do not need to fund yet another war….I ask again….why cannot the KSA and UAE do the heavy lift on this after all they have been bombing Yemen into the stone age for years and besides it is their livelihood that the Houthis are threatening.

If you do not like this turn….how about this one…..

President Biden and his top advisors worry that it’s just a matter of time before an American soldier is killed in Iraq or Syria amid a flurry of rocket attacks launched by Shia militias on US bases that started in response to US support for the Israeli slaughter in Gaza, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

US officials suggested that if an American is killed, President Biden would attack Iran directly, which could provoke a major war. Iran is allied with the Shia militias that have been taking credit for attacks on US troops, but Tehran has denied it’s involved in the operations.

In October, the Pentagon said it had no direct evidence Iran was ordering attacks on US troops, and a US official told CNN that how willing the Shia militias were to act independently was always a “persistent intelligence gap.” Regardless, the US is still blaming Iran for the attacks.

and don’t want to “go so far that the conflict would escalate into a full-fledged war, particularly by striking Iran directly.”

However, if an American is killed, the US officials say they may have no choice but to attack Iran. “That is a red line that has not been crossed, but if the Iranian-backed militias ever have a day of better aim or better luck, it easily could be,” the report reads.

It’s unclear from the report if the US would bomb Iranian territory directly or target the Iranian military in Iraq or Syria. Israel recently killed five members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) by targeting them with airstrikes in Damascus, risking a response from Tehran.

(antiwar.com)

Look below the shallow crap on the boob tube and look for the real reason the US is willing to start another war.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“It’s Not Working”

Just last week the US has taken upon itself to start yet another conflict….this time it is Yemen.

These airstrikes were to make the Houthi rebels cease their rocket attacks on commercial shipping….

President Biden acknowledged on Thursday that his strikes against the Houthis were not working to stop the Yemeni group but vowed they would continue anyway as the US military bombed Yemen for the fifth time within a week.

The president made the comments when asked by a reporter if his strikes against the Houthis were working. “Well, when you say ‘working’ — are they stopping the Houthis? No. Are they going to continue? Yes,” he said.

The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, have vowed they won’t back down in the face of the US military. Ansar Allah’s leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, said Thursday that it was a “blessing” for the Houthis to be in a direct fight with the US. “We praise god for this great blessing and great honor — for us to be in a direct confrontation with Israel and America,” he said.

Since Biden ordered the first strikes against them last week, the situation in the region escalated dramatically. The Houthis are now targeting American commercial shipping, hitting two US-owned cargo ships with missiles earlier this week, and more shipping companies have suspended transits through the Red Sea. Before the US escalation, the Houthis made clear they would stop attacks on Israel-linked commercial shipping only if Israel’s onslaught in Gaza ended, but President Biden is determined to continue supporting the slaughter of Palestinians.

The US backed a Saudi/UAE-led coalition against the Houthis in a brutal war that killed 377,000 people between 2015 and 2022. During that time the Houthis only became a more formidable fighting force and developed missile and drone technology that gave them the ability to hit Saudi oil infrastructure. A ceasefire between the Saudis and Houthis has held relatively well since April 2022, and Riyadh is now calling for the US to exercise restraint in Yemen.

(antiwar.com)

The shipping ;lanes of the Red Sea…..should that have not been the area where locals should have handled any problems…..why was the US involved?

If this fiasco does not stop the attacks will the US be prepared for yet another Middle East invasion and war?

What a waste!

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”

The M-IC Wins Again.

I recently wrote a report about the War Department looking at direct attacks on the Houthis in Yemen….

Here We Go!

Just a couple of days later the conflict began.

The US is carrying out airstrikes in Yemen.

Along with allies, the US launched airstrikes against more than a dozen Houthi installations in Yemen on Thursday, retaliation that President Biden said demonstrates that a 20-nation coalition “will not tolerate” the persistent attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. The US strikes involve Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from a Navy submarine, and fighter jets that took off from the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower, the New York Times reports. The Houthis’ attacks, purportedly a message opposing Israel’s offensive in Gaza, had been escalated this week. A 20-nation coalition that includes the US had warned that a response was imminent if the Red Sea attacks did not cease.

The initial wave of airstrikes hit radars, missile and drone launch sites, and weapons storage areas. Senior American officials have blamed Iran, saying its technological and intelligence support of the Houthis made the shipping attacks possible. Britain took part in the strikes Thursday, and US officials said the operation is to also include the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, and Bahrain. The Houthis have controlled parts of Yemen since 2014, per ABC News reports. Earlier Thursday, Houthi leader Abdul Malek Al-Houthi said in a speech that any US attack on Yemen sites “will not go unanswered,” per CNN.

In a statement, Biden said the strikes are in response to the attacks on international vessels, which he called unprecedented. “These attacks have endangered US personnel, civilian mariners, and our partners, jeopardized trade, and threatened freedom of navigation,” he said. The strikes were the first military action by the US since the Houthis’ drone and missile attacks began early in the Israel-Hamas war, per the AP. For the first time, Biden said, the military used anti-ship ballistic missiles. In his statement, the president said he won’t hesitate to “direct further measures” if necessary.

Why?

Why not ask our good buddies in Saudi and UAE to do this after all they have been bombing Yemen into the stone age for years.

I guess the old M-IC saying holds true….’an used weapon is a useless weapon’.

Why did we have to be the ones doing this deed….what we no longer have ‘allies’ in the Arabian peninsula?

If not why are we wasting so much some sucking up to the desert royalty?

This is BS and will probably come back to bite us in the exposed ass.

Stupid has consequences.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Here We Go!

Thje US has been involved one way or another in wars in the Middle East since the 1980s and now the War Department is looking for further involvement in the region.

This time we are eyeing Yemen for the use of our weapons of destruction.

The Biden administration is reportedly drafting plans to bomb Houthi targets in Yemen amid escalating fears of a wider war in the Middle East, where the U.S. is inflaming regional tensions by heavily arming Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip.

Politicoreported Thursday that U.S. officials are “increasingly concerned” that Israel’s devastating war on Gaza “could expand… to a wider, protracted regional conflict.” Citing unnamed U.S. officials, the outlet noted that the U.S. military is drawing up plans to “hit back at Iran-backed Houthi militants who have been attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea.”

Usamah Andrabi, communications director for Justice Democrats, wrote in response to the new reporting that U.S. President Joe Biden is “pushing the United States to the brink of a new endless war in the Middle East, all because he doesn’t want to stop funding Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempted eradication of the Palestinian people and Palestine itself.”

Eli Clifton, a senior adviser to the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, similarly argued that “Biden’s support for Israel’s Gaza war ties the U.S. to Israel’s escalatory cycle that may result in American soldiers dying in yet another Middle East war.”

“Biden has leverage to call for a cease-fire in Gaza,” Clifton added. “He isn’t using it.”

News of the administration’s private planning comes after dozens of advocacy organizations implored Biden not to consider any military assault on Yemen, which has been ravaged by years of Saudi-led, U.S.-backed bombing.

It also comes after several recent U.S. and Israeli attacks in the Middle East intensified concerns that the region is perilously close to all-out war.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/biden-bomb-yemen

Does the US really need another war to finance and possibly fight?

Personally I think we are at our limit and should start dial back our involvement….we cannot afford everybody’s war.

Just a thought.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Yemen For 2020

The saga around the events in the Middle East, especially Iraq and Iran, have made the news but a war torn Yemen falls to the back pages of the paper…..

The people are still suffering and the war continues….but there are a few things that needs to be reported more widely…..but there was a window of opportunity to find a lasting ceasefire…..but that is not so likely now…..

The narrow window of opportunity to end the Yemen war that opened in late 2019 may fast be closing. Fighting along key front lines in northern Yemen, along with Huthi rebel missile strikes and the resumption of Saudi-led aerial bombardment, threatens to tilt the conflict toward a major escalation, reversing tentative steps toward dialogue. There is still a chance to break the cycle by expanding newly opened communication channels between Huthi rebels (who call themselves Ansar Allah) and Saudi Arabia to include the internationally recognised Yemeni government and others in order to negotiate a truce on all major fronts. But success will require a coordinated and continuous regional and international effort.

The swing from stalemate and de-escalation to shooting war was sudden. On 18 January, after a month that UN Envoy Martin Griffiths described as one of the conflict’s quietest periods, the government alleges that the Huthis launched missiles at one of its military camps in Marib governorate (the Huthis refuse to confirm responsibility). The strike reportedly killed more than 100 soldiers in one of the war’s deadliest single incidents to date. It came amid intensified combat along previously stalemated front lines in al-Jawf, Nihm and Marib between allies of the Huthis, on one side, and of the government, on the other. These battles became still fiercer after the strike, with both sides suffering heavy losses. The Huthis have since fired several more missiles at military facilities in Marib. Saudi Arabia, in turn, has ramped up its air campaign, launching dozens of raids in what the Huthis argue is a breach of a putative cross-border truce. Saudi officials label the fighting a Huthi attempt to take advantage of border ceasefire negotiations under way since October. For now, neither the Huthis nor the Saudis wish to abandon the talks, but the de-escalation process is under severe strain.

https://www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/gulf-and-arabian-peninsula/yemen/breaking-renewed-conflict-cycle-yemen

For years if not decades the media and the Pentagon has been spinning the yarn that the Houthi rebels were terrorists….akin to AQ or ISIS….well that may not be as likely as the news reported…..

The death toll in Yemen has reached 102,000 according to data released by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project in October of 2019. Since the war started in 2015, the United States government has maintained one steadfast talking point. The Houthis are an Iranian proxy in Yemen. Government officials and those in mainstream media have repeatedly regurgitated this talking point without ever providing evidence to back up this claim.

By repeatedly claiming that the Houthis are an Iranian proxy, it allows the United States government to try and justify what is happening in Yemen daily. All the United States has to do whenever a government official has to answer a question about the war in Yemen, is mention Iran. No matter how undefendable America’s involvement in the war in Yemen has become the excuse to justify the atrocities in Yemen never falter, its Iran’s fault.

US Admits Yemen’s Houthis Aren’t an Iranian Proxy as the Death Toll Climbs

Just another illustration how the propaganda molds societal attitudes.

As always it is LIES to justify armed conflict……Hitler would be proud the MSM and the Pentagon.

The more you know the less you support war of adventurism.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Saudi Money Well Spent

The Royals of Saudi Arabia spends record amounts of cash every year buying the best equipment the US has to offer…..plus their troops are sent to the US for advanced training or we send our troops to train the soldier of KSA….in other words they get the best the US has to offer in equipment and/or training.

If that is a true statement then how can we explain this kturn of events?

A 72 hour military operation in southern Najran Province of Saudi Arabia was carried out by Yemen’s Houthi movement with very little media coverage. Starting on early Thursday, a major operation raged, and by early Saturday the Houthis reported a major victory.

Three entire Saudi brigades in Najran were effectively wiped out. The reports suggest between 200 and 500 Saudi soldiers were killed, and thousands more captured. Saudi arms and armored vehicles were also taken in the fighting.

Offensives against the Saudis are rare, and usually much smaller. On Sunday, the Houthis released video footage related to the operation. They described the operation as involving a number of ambushes set up around the area, and luring the brigades into a trap.

The Houthis are bragging about this, and unsurprisingly so as this is a military victory like they haven’t seen in quite some time. The Saudis, interestingly, have not made any comments at all about the fight.

The lack of comments from the Saudis speaks volumes, however, as they aren’t even trying to spin this at all. US officials quoted Saturday tried to present the loss as a sign of desperation by the Houthis, an attempt to push advancing Saudis away from the border.

Perhaps the most interesting fact that hasn’t been addressed is that this fight was going on since at least early Thursday, so when the Saudis announced they were joining a partial ceasefire on Friday (of which Najran was not a part), they did so in the middle of this huge battle.

(antiwar.com)

I guess the Saudis need a protector after all.

This lack of military success by the Saudis could explain their statement about Iran…..

In his interview with 60 Minutes, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman tried to do some damage control on the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, and the ongoing war in Yemen. The focus ultimately was brought back to the Saudis’ favorite topic, Iran.

The prince warned that there is still a danger of escalation with Iran, and called on the world to unite with “strong and firm action” against Iran, saying Iran would otherwise threaten world interests.

The prince further predicted that if the world doesn’t stop Iran, oil supplies will be cut off and oil prices will hit levels “we haven’t seen in our lifetimes,” a threat the Saudis have often used to convince the world to support their position.

(antiwar.com)

The region is seldom calm but I believe that it will get even more hyper….but it may depend on who wins the election in 2020. 

Just a thought.

Leran Stuff!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

 

Yemen: More Confusion Within Confusion

The war on Yemen by the Saudis and the UAE have been raging for years…..causing much devastation and death as well as a huge humanitarian crisis.

Recently I read some good news, at least I thought it was, about the UAE’s position in this war…..

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) may have finally learned what Washington will not: that armed interventions with ambiguous aims, unreliable allies, and no exit strategy are doomed to disaster.

Such interventions will rapidly deplete a nation of its blood and treasure while yielding an abundance of dangerous second- and third-order consequences. That’s why, after four years of fighting, the UAE announced that it is withdrawing a significant percentage of its forces from Yemen. It will now pursue a “peace first” strategy as opposed to a “military first” strategy.

The narrative around the UAE’s withdrawal from Yemen has been carefully managed in the American media with the help of some sympathetic Washington-based think-tanks. The shift in policy has been cast as a “mission accomplished” moment for the UAE. But the UAE is getting out of Yemen not because it is winning—or has won—but because the country’s leadership understands they cannot win. 

Why the UAE Cut Their Losses and Pulled Out of Yemen

So twenty days later I read that UAE is still involved and killing civilians in Yemen…..

An estimated 20,000 fighters involved in the Saudi-led invasion of Yemen split in half earlier this month, with half backed by the UAE and a separatist movement, and the other half Saudi-backed forces loyal to the Hadi government.

That fighting has raged, but the Saudis and UAE had talked of working something out. Thursday suggests the chances of a deal are shrinking, with the UAE getting directly involved in the fighting, and launching airstrikes against Saudi-backed government forces.

The UAE confirmed its involvement in the airstrikes, saying it was engaged in self defense of its forces, as well as civilians threatened by “terrorist militias,” and insisting it was in keeping with international law.

Yemen’s President Hadi, however, is angry with the “blatant aerial bombardment,” and is calling for the UN Security Council to hold a session. Hadi also called on the Saudis to directly intervene militarily against the UAE.

Saudi officials haven’t addressed that possibility, but historic closeness to the UAE makes it unlikely. Still, this could mean a third war-within-a-war for Yemen.

(antiwar.com)

As my grandmother use to say…..”Clear as mud”…..

Only thing to say about Yemen is that there is nothing good to say about the war on Yemen…

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Yemen–What Was The Point?

We all mostly know about the conflict raging between the Saudis and their allies and the Houthi minority in Yemen.  In other words it is basically a North versus South Yemen……and the that would return the nation to 1962.

The northern portion of Yemen was ruled by imams until a pro-Egyptian military coup took place in 1962. The junta proclaimed the Yemen Arab Republic, and after a civil war in which Egypt’s Nasser and the USSR supported the revolutionaries and King Saud of Saudi Arabia and King Hussein of Jordan supported the royalists, the royalists were finally defeated in mid-1969.

The southern port of Aden, strategically located at the opening of the Red Sea, was colonized by Britain in 1839, and by 1937, with an expansion of its territory, it was known as the Aden Protectorate. In the 1960s the Nationalist Liberation Front (NLF) fought against British rule, which led to the establishment of the People’s Republic of Southern Yemen on Nov. 30, 1967. In 1979, under strong Soviet influence, the country became the only Marxist state in the Arab world.

The Republic of Yemen was established on May 22, 1990, when pro-Western Yemen and the Marxist Yemen Arab Republic merged after 300 years of separation to form the new nation. The poverty and decline in Soviet economic support in the south was an important incentive for the merger. The new president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, was elected by the parliaments of both countries.

And now it appears thanks to the involvement of the Saudis that the nation of Yemen may once again become two….the US backed conflict by the Saudis will once again divide Yemen into North and South Yemen…..back to the future?

Here we go again (shades of 1962)

Clashes in the port city of Aden between secessionists and loyalists of the internationally recognised president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, threaten to tip southern Yemen into a civil war within a civil war. Such a conflict would deepen what is already the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and make a national political settlement harder to achieve. In the past, half-measures helped de-escalate simmering tensions in the south; today’s circumstances require robust diplomatic intervention from the UN, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to avoid the worst and help forge a durable solution.

https://www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/gulf-and-arabian-peninsula/yemen/preventing-civil-war-within-civil-war-yemen

Image result for images of South Yemen

The Deeper Meaning in a Lost War

If Yemen splits (again) what was the last few decades all about?

Amazing no matter how much things change they stay the same.

Learn Stuff!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

COWARDS!

The armed conflict in Yemen has been raging and the Saudis have with their allies destroyed most of the country and displaced millions to the point of starvation with disease running rampant…..

Back in February I wrote that the Congress was about to do something bold to cease US support for the Saudis genocide of the Yemanis…..

In no place is congressional action more urgent than in Yemen, where approximately half of the population—nearly 14 million people—remain on the brink of starvation due to the war and the ensuing economic collapse in the country. Although congressional pressure caused the Trump administration to finally call for an end to the war last October and cut off U.S. refueling support in November, the United States remains intimately involved in the Saudi- and UAE-led military operations in the country.

https://lobelog.com/congress-poised-to-move-forward-with-bold-agenda-on-yemen/
 
The Congress passed the bill and it has gone to Trump for his veto….which he did (did the Saudis pay for that veto?).  Now the bill goes back to the Congress for an attempt at an override of the veto.
 
The M-IC will use all its muscle to see that the override attempt is a failure……Pompeo voiced his contempt for the bill…..
With the Senate planning this week to “process” President Trump’s veto of the War Powers Act challenge to the Yemen War, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took the reins to try to defend US involvement in Yemen as in America’s best interest.

Pompeo’s argument centered on the idea that the US was obliged to help Saudi Arabia defend itself from retaliatory fights, now that the Saudis had launched a war and provoked that retaliation.

On top of that poor argument for an obligation, Pompeo relied on what the administration seems to believe is the most compelling argument, even if it is wholly based on a lie. He argued that the whole war was Iran’s fault, and not intervening would make Iran happy.

This was the argument Saudi Arabia successfully used to sucker the US into this war, though to be fair that didn’t take much effort. The Iran never had more than tentative links to the Shi’ite Houthi movement, and that they’re not even the same type of Shi’ites, was lost on the administration, and Pompeo seems to hope it will also be lost on the Senate.

Pompeo’s argument is effectively that the US has blundered so deeply into a foolish war they have to keep plugging away, and to the extent we can fool ourselves into thinking we’re somehow sticking it to Iran we might feel a little better about all the harm we’re doing to Yemen.
 
(antiwar.com)
The Saudi money is well spent……the COWARDS in the Senate has failed to override……
Calls to reassert Congressional authority over US war-making failed to muster enough votes to override President Trump’s veto of the Yemen War Powers resolution, which demanded Trump withdraw US involvement from the unauthorized war. The vote was 53-45, short of the two-thirds majority needed to override.

Opposition to the war was driven by the war crimes being committed by the US-backed Saudis, and the Saudi assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, which had some in Congress questioning the US backing them in a war.

The Trump Administration argued variously that Yemen didn’t count as a war, that Trump had unilateral authority on the war, and that the war in Yemen would be bad for Iran and therefore in America’s interests.

Though none of these arguments stood up to close scrutiny, the Republican leadership in the Senate broadly echoed them. Ultimately, this was still enough to keep the veto from being overridden.
 
(antiwar.com)
Time for the money the Saudis are spreading around like peanut butter come to light….and the cowards that accept the bribes step out of the shadows.
 
And those “bribes” turn into money cash in support of this war…..

Michael Knights, Ken Pollack, and Barbara Walter make an unpersuasive case that the U.S. should increase its support for the Saudi coalition war on Yemen:

True peace in Yemen will remain elusive unless both sides accept that they have nothing to gain from more fighting. We are not there yet. To get there will require not cutting off U.S. support for Saudi Arabia but threatening to doube down on it unless the Houthis honor their commitments to the UN and are ready to disgorge most of their initial conquests. If Washington is serious about ending the war, it must come to terms with this uncomfortable fact.

The “fact” mentioned here is not a fact at all. It is an unfounded opinion offered in support of a truly reprehensible policy idea. Trying to get the Houthis to “disgorge most of their initial conquests” is what the Saudi coalition has been trying and failing to do for more than four years. Threatening to increase U.S. support to the coalition isn’t going to change this, and actually increasing U.S. military assistance to an indefensible war is an unacceptable option that would only serve to escalate and prolong the conflict.

 
The US support of the Saudi’s war is costing more than money.
 
It needs to cease!
 
Turn The Page!
 

What Happened To Yemen?

WE have heard, usually on slow news days, about the war on Yemen by Saudi Arabia, UAE, US, et al…….small amount of info in the MSM about the humanitarian crisis (keep this silent we cannot have too many knowing the crisis we, the US, are helping to create)…….sadly civilians are still dying from war and then from hunger and disease but you know some mythic border crisis is far more important than people dying at our hands whether directly or indirectly.

A few in Congress have been trying to end our involvement with the Saudis and others over their crimes against the Yemeni people.

Last week the work began……

The newly minted House Foreign Affairs Committee’s first priority was to follow up on the Senate’s unprecedented passage of the war powers resolution on Yemen last December that positively influenced ceasefire negotiations in Sweden. It did so by marking up Congressmen Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Mark Pocan’s (D-WI) (along with 68 bipartisan colleagues) war powers resolution on Yemen. The committee reported the resolution favorably out of committee this week, and there may be a floor vote by the end of February.

Senators Sanders (I-VT), Lee (R-UT), and Murphy (D-CT) have also reintroduced their war powers resolution, setting up another Senate vote to send the legislation to the president’s desk. Should the resolution pass both chambers as it is likely to do, it will set up a confrontation with Trump. He will have to decide whether to listen to the will of Congress in asserting its constitutional authority over matters of war or side with the Saudi and Emirati governments, whose support his administration views as essential to pursuing its primary goal of military confrontation with Iran.

Congress Poised to Move Forward with Bold Agenda on Yemen

Good for it is time to end this damn involvement in the Saudis push to be the head cheese in the Middle East………

Congress is seeking to trim presidential war powers in Yemen. Unfortunately, the Republican Party leadership continues to defend unrestrained executive authority. Outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan used procedural legerdemain to block a vote on Washington’s support for Saudi Arabia’s murderous assault on Yemen.

Contrary to Trump administration claims, memorialized in an atrocious op-ed under Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s name, not everything in the world is about Iran. The conflict in Yemen continues decades of internal strife. Saudi Arabia’s invasion internationalized a decade-long domestic fight. Riyadh’s hubris gave Tehran an opportunity to bleed the Saudis militarily.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/skeptics/its-time-end-us-support-saudi-war-yemen-39062

Looks like we have a deal to drop our support for the Saudis rape and destruction of Yemen.

Now the question is….if a bill hits Trumps desk because of his awe and envy of the Saudis wealth will he veto the bill making it his first veto, which should be easy for Trump for “veto” only has 4 letters in it……

the House of Representatives issued a stinging rebuke of the White House’s holding pattern in support of the Saudi coalition in Yemen. The vote was the culmination of multiple years of efforts by realists on Capitol Hill and their allies. House Joint Resolution 37 demands the removal U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities in or affecting Yemen within a month unless: Congress authorizes a later date, or issues a declaration of war, or specifically authorizes military force. The vote was not close: 248-177.

“The vote today is a step toward more sensible U.S. policy in Yemen and the Middle East, a welcome admonishment of Saudi Arabia, and an overdue assertion of nearly-dormant war powers. In each of those senses, though, more is needed,” says Benjamin H. Friedman of Defense Priorities.

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/will-yemen-be-trump%E2%80%99s-first-veto-44597

We will see which is more important….people’s lives or the Saudis monetary influence….my money is on the dollars.