As the bloody war in Yemen grinds on, civilians continue to be the target of indiscriminate attacks by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in their fight against Houthi rebels they claim are supported by Iran. The U.S. has backed the Saudi-led war by supplying weapons as well as logistics and intelligence support. The conflict has killed between 50,000 and 100,000 people since 2015. According to a United Nations report, 80 percent of the Yemeni population — 24 million people — is now in need of humanitarian assistance due to the Saudi–UAE blockade of food and medical supplies and a deadly cholera epidemic. A recent U.N. investigation also found that the U.S., Britain and France may be complicit in war crimes committed in Yemen.
Over the past year a bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress has worked to end U.S. involvement in the Yemen war. In April both the House and Senate passed a historic war powers resolution to end the U.S. role in the Saudi-led Yemen War, but the measure was later vetoed by President Trump. Now four Democrats in Congress—Sen. Jack Reed, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Rep. Adam Smith, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi—have an opportunity to include amendments in this year’s “must-pass” National Defense Authorization Act (or NDAA) that “prohibits support to and participation in the Saudi-led coalitions military operations against the Houthis in Yemen.”
Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Ariel Gold, national co-director of Code Pink Women for Peace, who talks about her group’s current campaign to pressure Senate Democrats to amend the U.S. military budget in order to end U.S. complicity in the war in Yemen.
ARIEL GOLD: Well, the situation in Yemen is the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet since 2015 when the war began. Over 85,000 children under the age of 5 have died as a result of malnutrition from the war. And the U.S. from the beginning has been largely complicit from providing intelligence to the Saudis to enormous numbers of weapons sales, as well as the mid-air refueling of Saudi war planes. Just a little over a year ago, the Saudi planes with a bomb from a U.S. company, Raytheon, was dropped on a school bus – young children going on a field trip. There were 44 young children killed in that incident alone. So we’ve been working pretty tirelessly to remove U.S. Involvement from this war. So for a number of years, we have been working on legislation in Congress to invoke what’s called the War Powers Resolution, which says that a war is illegal if Congress hasn’t authorized it, which of course, Congress has not done.
BETWEEN THE LINES: What are the prospects that you’ll get the required number of senators to sign onto these amendments that they actually could effectively stop U.S. support for Saudi Arabia and the UAE when it comes to prosecuting the war in Yemen?
ARIEL GOLD: We definitely would like to get the Smith-Khanna War Powers Resolution through. The interesting thing with the NDAA is that it’s already passed through the House and Senate, so now it’s that it has to be amended between the two versions. So the important players is this are Sen. Jack Reed, as well as Sen. Chuck Schumer, Rep. Adam Smith and Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi. So they’ll be determining which amendments make it into this final veto proof version.
BETWEEN THE LINES: What is it that you’re asking listeners to do at this point? What can people at large in the country do to support this effort to literally end U.S. cooperation and support for this very bloody war in Yemen?
ARIEL GOLD: Absolutely. So, I would encourage our listeners to go to CodePink.org/ndaa and you can send a message there to Sens. Reed and Schumer and Reps. Adam Smith and Nancy Pelosi. And I would also encourage you to call each of their offices and let them know that the amendments to end the war in Yemen must make it into the final must-pass version of the NDAA.
Learn more about the group’s current campaign to end the U.S. war in Yemen by visiting Code Pink Women for Peace at Codepink.org
