Four years of hell: to crush Yemen’s independence, US-Saudi war created world’s worst humanitarian crisis
On
the fourth anniversary of the US-Saudi war on Yemen, the Middle
East’s poorest nation suffers from the worst humanitarian
catastrophe on Earth. But the Houthi movement — and Yemeni people —
remain unbroken.
by
Ben Norton
Part 1
March 26, 2019 marks the fourth anniversary of the US-Saudi bombing campaign in Yemen. These four years have unleashed Hell on Earth for millions of civilians. It would be impossible to overstate the devastation, destruction, and death they have experienced.
March 26, 2019 marks the fourth anniversary of the US-Saudi bombing campaign in Yemen. These four years have unleashed Hell on Earth for millions of civilians. It would be impossible to overstate the devastation, destruction, and death they have experienced.
For
1,460 days, Saudi Arabia, one of the richest countries on the planet,
has relentlessly bombed the poorest nation in the Middle East, with
crucial help from the United States and United Kingdom.
The
United Nations has repeated for more than two years that Yemen is
suffering from the “largest humanitarian crisis in the world,”
due entirely to this war.
Yet the
US government, through the administrations of both Donald Trump and
Barack Obama, has said strikingly little about the catastrophe in
Yemen, which it is directly responsible for creating and continuing
to exacerbate. (Contrast Washington’s muted response to the
calamity it created in Yemen with the exaggerated claims of a
“humanitarian crisis” it has deployed to justify a right-wing
coup attempt in Venezuela.)
The UN
World Food Program (WFP) warned on the fourth anniversary of the war
on Yemen, “Today 20 million Yemenis – some 70 percent of the
population – are food insecure, marking a 13 percent increase from
last year.”
Nearly
10 million Yemeni civilians “are one step away from famine,”
WFP said.
This
hunger is not natural. It has been created, artificially,
intentionally, by an international coalition hellbent on putting
Yemen back on the leash, unseating the Houthi movement that presently
governs most of the country, and crushing any attempt at
independence.
Since
March 2015, the Royal Saudi Air Force has, with US assistance,
launched nearly 20,000 air raids in Yemen — an average of more than
13 per day, for four years straight. This bombing has targeted
civilian homes, schools, hospitals, funerals, food facilities, and
even buses full of children.
While
corporate media outlets have invariably described the war as
“Saudi-led,” systematically whitewashing the role of the United
States in overseeing war crimes in Yemen, it has been quietly
admitted that Riyadh could not wage the war without Washington.
President Trump himself even boasted that the Saudi monarchy would
collapse in “two weeks” were it not for American
patronage.
Most of
the bombs, missiles, planes, and other military equipment used in
Yemen have been made in America and Britain. The US and UK have sold
tens of billions of dollars of weapons to Saudi Arabia and its ally
the United Arab Emirates as they wage war on Yemen, profiting
handsomely from the slaughter and ruin.
American
and British military officials have been physically present in the
Saudi command and control center and enjoyed access to the lists of
targets, directly assisting Riyadh with the bombing. The US Air Force
has also provided in-air refueling for Saudi bombers. (Washington
eventually halted this policy for public relations reasons, in a
decision that the Associated Press noted had “little impact”).
Many
thousands of Yemeni civilians have died in the violence — the exact
number is impossible to calculate. And well over 100,000 Yemeni
children have died from preventable causes due to the war. In 2016
alone, 63,000 Yemeni children died of hunger, malnutrition, and
disease.
Source,
links:
https://thegrayzone.com/2019/03/26/4-years-yemen-independence-us-saudi-war-worst-humanitarian-crisis/
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