Forbes,
America Should Quit Saudi Arabia's War In Yemen: The Senseless Killing Must Stop
The entire article should be read. Here are some quotations from the article, as teasers:
✳︎ ✳︎ ✳︎
Secretary of State John Kerry explained: “we’re not going to step away from our alliances and our friendships.” Even with an essentially totalitarian state which has promoted illiberal, intolerant religious teaching and Islamic extremism, and whose citizens have contributed both money and people to terrorist attacks against America.
✳︎ ✳︎ ✳︎
America still must worry about terrorism, and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) remains a dangerous force. Alas, the KSA’s aggression has created a vacuum, freeing AQAP to grab more territory and plot more terrorist attacks. The Houthis, no friends of liberal, democratic values, disliked the U.S. even before the American military joined with the Saudis to rain bombs down upon Yemen, but they never attacked or even threatened America. Ansar Allah did, however, fight al-Qaeda—that is, until the movement was forced to concentrate on the Saudis. Last year Defense Secretary Ashton Carter acknowledged the terrorist group’s resulting “great gains.”
✳︎ ✳︎ ✳︎
The KSA’s last resort has been to justify its murderous military campaign by pointing at Tehran. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad calls all insurgents “terrorists,” trying to appeal to Washington in the latter’s fight against terrorism. The Saudi royals similarly call all Yemenis “Iran-supported” to camouflage Riyadh’s depredations. It is an equally deceitful claim
✳︎ ✳︎ ✳︎
Moreover, Saudi Arabia is less free politically and culturally, allows no religious liberty, and has done more than any other country to promote Islamic intolerance and underwrite terrorist groups which have attacked the U.S. and the West. Exactly how the KSA differs from the Islamic State, except in relative refinement of repression, is not obvious.
✳︎ ✳︎ ✳︎
The Yemen war could go on for years. President Obama should end America’s participation. If he doesn’t care about the loss of innocent life he should look to his legacy. At least President George W. Bush could claim humanitarian and security reasons for his misbegotten invasion of Iraq. There is no justification for America to play bloody handmaiden to the Saudis in Yemen.__________
Here are some images from the article:
US President Barack Obama speaks with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud) of Saudi Arabia alongside Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.jpg
A Saudi F-15 fighter jet landing at the Khamis Mushayt military airbase, some 880 km from the capital Riyadh, on November 16,2015 as the Saudi army conducts operations over Yemen. (FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP/Getty Images)
Yemeni children stand amid empty jerrycans as they wait to fill them with water from a donated source amid ongoing widespread disruption of water supplies in an impoverished coastal village on the outskirts of the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah.jpg
No comments:
Post a Comment