{"id":116461,"date":"2018-08-13T12:02:02","date_gmt":"2018-08-13T11:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=116461"},"modified":"2018-08-11T12:10:54","modified_gmt":"2018-08-11T11:10:54","slug":"u-s-is-complicit-in-child-slaughter-in-yemen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/08\/u-s-is-complicit-in-child-slaughter-in-yemen\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Is Complicit in Child Slaughter in Yemen"},"content":{"rendered":"

11 Aug 2018 – <\/em>On August 9, a U.S.-supported Saudi airstrike bombed a bus carrying schoolchildren in Sa\u2019ada, a city in northern Yemen. The New York Times<\/em> reported<\/a> that the students were on a recreational trip. According to the Sa\u2019ada health department, the attack killed<\/a> at least forty-three people.<\/p>\n

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, at least twenty-nine<\/a> of those killed were children under the age of fifteen, and forty-eight people were wounded, including thirty children.<\/p>\n

CNN aired<\/a> horrifying, heartbreaking footage of children who survived the attack being treated in an emergency room. One of the children, carrying his UNICEF issued blue backpack, is covered with blood and badly burned.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the tragedy, CNN\u2019s senior correspondent Nima Elbagir emphasized<\/a> that she had seen unaired video which was even worse than what the CNN segment showed. She then noted that conditions could worsen because Yemen\u2019s vital port of Hodeidah, the only port currently functioning in Yemen, has been under attack for weeks of protracted Saudi coalition-led airstrikes. Ms. Elbagir described the port of Hodeidah as \u201cthe only lifeline to bring in supplies to Yemen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis conflict is backed by the U.S. and the U.K.,\u201d Elbagir said, concluding her report with, \u201cThey are in full support of the Saudi-led activities in Yemen today.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. companies such as Raytheon, General Dynamics, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin have sold billions of dollars\u2019 worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries in the Saudi-Emirati-led coalition which is attacking Yemen.<\/p>\n

The U.S. military refuels Saudi and Emirati warplanes through midair exercises. And, the United States helps the Saudi coalition warmakers choose their targets.<\/p>\n

Isa Blumi, an associate professor at Stockholm University and author of the book Destroying Yemen<\/em>, has said<\/a> the United States is \u201cfront and center responsible\u201d for the Saudi coalition attacks.<\/p>\n

Looking for a helpful way to describe U.S. support for the Saudi-Emirati operation in Yemen, journalist Samuel Oakford recently offered<\/a> this comparison: \u201cIf an airstrike was a drive-by and killed someone, the U.S. provided the car, the wheels, the servicing and repair, the gun, the bullets, help with maintenance of those\u2014and the gas.\u201d<\/p>\n

The August 9 attack against children and other civilians follows a tragic and sordid list of Saudi-Emirati attacks causing carnage and extreme affliction in Yemen. On June 12, Doctors Without Borders reported<\/a> an airstrike which destroyed its newly constructed facility for treatment of cholera, in the town of Abs, built in anticipation of a third epidemic outbreak of cholera in Yemen.<\/p>\n

Scores of people were killed and wounded in an August 3 attack near the entrance to the port of Hodeidah\u2019s Al Thawra hospital. Analysts examining the munitions used in the attack believe<\/a> the killing and destruction was caused when United Arab Emirates forces situated near the Hodeidah airport fired mortars into the area.<\/p>\n

Why have the Saudis and Emiratis led a coalition attacking Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab peninsula, since March of 2015?<\/p>\n

Professor Isa Blumi<\/a> believes the goal is to bludgeon Yemenis into complete submission and exert control over \u00a0\u201ca gold mine\u201d of resources, including oil reserves, natural gas, minerals, and a strategic location. Blumi notes that the war against Yemen costs the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 200 million dollars per day, yet Saudi Arabia\u2019s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman<\/a>, who commented that a prolonged war is in the interests of Saudi Arabia, seems to believe the cost is worth it, considering potential future gains.<\/p>\n

Business profits seem to also motivate U.S. weapon companies that continue benefiting<\/a> from weapon sales to the Saudi-Emirati led coalition.<\/p>\n

The United States is deeply implicated in the appalling carnage in Yemen. It is our responsibility as citizens to do what we can to demand an end to this complicity.<\/p>\n

___________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Kathy Kelly is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>,<\/em> an American peace activist, pacifist and author, one of the founding members of <\/em>Voices in the Wilderness, and currently a co-coordinator <\/em>Voices for Creative Nonviolence<\/a>. <\/em>Three times since 2000, she has been nominated for the <\/em>Nobel Peace Prize. As part of peace teamwork in several countries, she has traveled to Iraq twenty-six times, notably remaining in combat zones during the early days of both US-Iraq wars. Her recent travel has focused on Afghanistan and Gaza, along with domestic protests against U.S. drone policy. She has been arrested more than sixty times at home and abroad, and written of her experiences among targets of U.S. military bombardment and inmates of U.S. prisons. She lives in Chicago.<\/em> Kathy@vcnv.org<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On August 9, a U.S.-supported Saudi airstrike bombed a bus carrying schoolchildren in Sa\u2019ada, a city in northern Yemen. The United States is deeply implicated in the appalling carnage in Yemen. It is our responsibility as citizens to do what we can to demand an end to this complicity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":84212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}