Yemen Is Still Suffering

Some six years into the Saudi-led invasion of Yemen, the United Nations is reporting that 233,000 people have been killed, calling this unacceptable and demanding both sides work on an immediate ceasefire to the conflict. Though a lot of people have been killed directly in the war, UN figures show the majority of the civilian deaths were from airstrikes as well as lack of food and medicine, diseases and lack of other general infrastructure.

That’s not a surprise. Beyond the starvation and malnutrition, war-torn Yemen has also been the site of cholera epidemics, and medical shortages so extreme and so long that some chronic illnesses, like diabetes, killed the bulk of those inflicted simply from going untreated too long. No one is really healthy in Yemen, there’s not food and medicine for that, but the really sick probably already died from lack of treatment.

On top of that, Saudi airstrikes continue to kill large numbers of people, mainly civilians, and those strikes have fuelled international outcry, yet no decisive action by the UN to force an end to the conflict and hold the Saudi-led culprits to account. Meanwhile, the United States and its European minions continue to sell the Saudis so many bombs, which means they must also be held to account for this humanitarian catastrophe in The Hague.

After six years, it’s safe to debate that Saudi Arabia and its criminal allies failed to win the protracted war. This is an important sign that international pressure is building on the US and the Saudi coalition because of the many documented war crimes that they have committed in broad daylight. The call for ending the war is six years late, but it is nonetheless welcome by the international civil society.

Unfortunately, the war criminals ignore the call to end the war just as they are ignoring the conditions set by the UN for an immediate ceasefire. The UN will have to do much more than that if they are going to force the US and NATO to cut off the Saudis and their allies. Challenging their unlawful support that has only led to the killing of innocent men, women and the elderly is the only sure way to do this. It is essential that the UN recognize that the war on Yemen is both abhorrent and illegal, and they must put a stop to it.

Just as the way the senseless military campaign failed to restore Saudi Arabia’s desired status quo throughout the region, it has also failed to serve US and Western interests. On the contrary, the murderous rampage has undermined US and Western security, bolstered Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and made many Western governments complicit in numerous war crimes. Their participation in the war has been a shameful and ugly affair that will go down as one of the worst policies in modern history.

As maintained by the UN, however, there must be a sustained ceasefire right now in order to get the people and resources into Yemen that are necessary to stop the bloodshed and the famine. Under the circumstances, it is hardly surprising that the US government would be directly responsible if things continue to go from bad to worse in the winter.

In this pandemic season of ours, the US government has put more effort into this war than any Western government. It has been out on the hustings in Saudi Arabia from the early moments of the military campaign to sell the products of America’s largest arms makers. And that the performance will never end under Joe Biden’s presidency is beyond dispute.

Now that Biden is slated to take office as the 46th president of the United States, he should address the most daunting problems first. Nowhere is there more at stake than when it comes to how he should handle America’s highly militarized foreign policy in the Middle East, particularly in Yemen. At a time when the pandemic and the famine pose the greatest threats to the safety and security of the Yemeni people, ending America’s support for the Saudi-led war should be considered as his top priority. Unfortunately, the Pentagon regime and the arms industry have yet to get the message, too.

Instead, the big-ticket war profiteers continue to assure their partners-in-crime in Riyadh and elsewhere that a Biden administration may not significantly reduce the Pentagon regime’s military interventions in the Middle East. Just like their predecessors, the Biden administration will never end America’s endless wars, much less provide an effective and humane solution to the problem of millions of desperate civilians in Yemen.