The Man-Made Catastrophe in Yemen: Made Possible By the U.S. and U.K.

The American Conservative:

The Post reports on Yemen’s worsening humanitarian crisis:

“This is no accidental disaster — it is a man-made disaster driven by national and international politics,” Katy Wright, the head of advocacy for Oxfam said last week in a statement, referring to the cholera crisis. “In backing this war with billions of dollars of arms sales and military support the U.S. and the U.K. are complicit in the suffering of millions of people in Yemen.”

Readers of this blog know all of this very well already, but it bears repeating. I keep emphasizing the role of Western support for the war because it tends to be neglected in much of the coverage, and because it is crucial that the American and British publics hold their governments accountable for enabling this catastrophe. It is also important to remember that the Saudi-led coalition war effort depends to a large degree on U.S. and U.K. support, and if that support were withdrawn the coalition would be under much greater pressure to come to terms with their enemies. Contrary to official claims, the U.S. has considerable leverage with the leading coalition governments, especially the Saudis, and could press for a halt to the fighting and an end to the blockade if it chose to do so. The fact that both the Obama and Trump administrations did not choose to do this is an enduring mark of shame in the annals of U.S. foreign policy.

Cont....