Hollow US Calls for Ending War in Yemen It Launched
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Throughout his tenure, Obama waged US aggression in Yemen – drone war launched by Bush/Cheney in October 2001 he continued for eight years.
It was and remains part of Washington’s war OF terror, not on it, escalated since Trump took office – in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, using ISIS and likeminded jihadists as proxy forces.
NATO, Israel, the Saudis and UAE, along with other countries, are partnered with US regional wars, wanting pro-Western puppet regimes replacing sovereign independent governance.
It’s all about advancing America’s imperium at the expense of world peace and stability, risking eventual nuclear war, threatening humanity’s survival if launched.
Washington continues orchestrating war in Yemen, providing the Saudis and UAE with arms and munitions, intelligence, logistics aid, and mid-air refueling of their warplanes, along with target selection.
They include residential neighborhoods, schools, hospitals, marketplaces, mosques, electric power plants, and other vital infrastructure – virtually everything in the country vulnerable to terror-bombing.
Years of war caused the world’s gravest humanitarian crisis – official death toll numbers suppressed by nations directly or indirectly involved in the conflict.
An earlier UNICEF report said at least one Yemeni child under age-five dies every 10 minutes from starvation alone.
Annualized that’s 52,560 deaths – plus countless thousands of older children and adults, perishing from starvation, untreated diseases, and overall deprivation from blockade, along with from Saudi/UAE terror-bombing.
After endless war since October 2001, earlier Saudi terror-bombing, and full-scale US-orchestrated war begun in March 2015, the lives and welfare of millions of Yemenis are at risk. Perhaps hundreds of thousands already perished.
Why is the region’s poorest country important – with only about four billion proved barrels of oil reserves and modest amounts of natural gas?
For the Saudis, it’s gaining full control of the Arabian peninsula. For Washington and its imperial partners, it’s Yemen’s strategic location – near the Horn of Africa on Saudi Arabia’s southern border, the Red Sea, its Bab el- Mandeb strait (a key chokepoint separating Yemen from Eritrea through which millions barrels of oil pass daily), and the Gulf of Aden connection to the Indian Ocean.
The Iranian factor is also in play, Washington allied with the Saudis, Israel, and other regional partners against the Islamic Republic, wanting the country isolated, pro-Western puppet rule replacing its sovereign independence.
War in Yemen rages with no prospect for near-term resolution, not as long as Houthi resistance remains strong – the human toll of no consequence to the Trump regime and its imperial partners. Western and Israeli media largely ignore it.
US-led NATO rhetoric calling for cessation of fighting belies imperial support for continuing it endlessly.
Trump rejected calls for ending arms sales to the Saudis over the regime’s brutal abduction, torture and murder of Jamal Khashoggi – Britain, France, and other Western countries likely to continue supplying the kingdom with as many weapons as it’s willing to buy.
On Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the following:
“The United States calls on all parties to support UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths in finding a peaceful solution to the conflict in Yemen based on the agreed references,” adding:
“The time is now for the cessation of hostilities, including missile and UAV strikes from Houthi-controlled areas into the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Subsequently, coalition air strikes must cease in all populated areas in Yemen” to ease humanitarian crisis conditions.
“It is time to end this conflict, replace conflict with compromise, and allow the Yemeni people to heal through peace and reconstruction.”
On Tuesday, US war secretary James Mattis said “(w)e have go to move toward a peace effort (in Yemen), and we can’t say we are going to do it some time in the future. We need to be doing this in the next 30 days.”
“We want to see everybody around a peace table based on a ceasefire, based on a pullback from the border and then based on ceasing dropping of bombs.”
“This has got to end. We have to replace combat with compromise. It’s time to stop this.”
Take the above comments from Pompeo and Mattis with a grain of salt. Post-9/11, permanent wars of aggression became official US policy, Republicans and undemocratic Dems allied in waging them.
It’s all about Washington wanting unchallenged dominion over planet earth, its resources and populations, aiming for regime change in all sovereign independent countries, including Russia, China and Iran – war its favored strategy, serving America’s military/industrial/security/media supported complex.
The US wants ongoing wars waged endlessly, Afghanistan the likely prototype, war in its 18th year with no prospect for resolution, conflicts raging in multiple other theaters.
Continuing, not ending them, reflects what US imperial policy is all about. If Washington wanted peace and stability instead, it could end war in Yemen and other theaters where it’s ongoing.
Prospects for cessation of hostilities wherever the US is involved are virtually nil – the disturbing reality of what US imperial rage is all about.
A Final Comment
Instead of laying blame where it belongs for war in Yemen and elsewhere regionally, Mattis accused Iran of “fueling” conflicts in Yemen and Syria.
Blaming others for imperial crimes is longstanding US, NATO, Israeli policy.
Iran wages peace, not war, what Western media never explain, sticking with the official narrative instead of debunking it.
My newest book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
