Until last month, the main reason for the U.S. ending its support for the Saudi-UAE-led war against the Houthis in Yemen was the humanitarian catastrophe it was causing. Since the Saudis began bombing Yemen in March 2015, more than 50,000 people have died, mostly from U.S.-supplied combat weapons; 14 million people—or about half the entire Yemeni population—are on the brink of famine; 85,000 children under the age of five have already died from hunger and disease; each week there are 10,000 new cases of cholera; and 22.2 million people—about three-quarters of the population—are in need of humanitarian aid. In the summer of 2018, the Saudi coalition even bombed a school in the northern town of Dahyan, killing 54 people, including 44 children, and wounding dozens more.
Seeing these horrible statistics, the Republican-controlled Senate, over strong opposition from the Trump administration, has twice taken the unprecedented steps of voting to end U.S. support for the Saudi-UAE coalition, first in December and then again this month. The House, controlled by the Republicans in December, refused to take up the measure. But now that the Democrats control the lower chamber, it is expected that it will vote overwhelmingly to support the Senate bill. It is doubtful that President Trump, who unabashedly supports the current regime in Saudi Arabia, will approve such a measure when it arrives on his desk.
The above excerpt was originally published in RealClearDefense.
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