Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has asked the White House to lift Obama-era restrictions on U.S. military support for Persian Gulf states engaged in a protracted civil war against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, according to senior Trump administration officials.
Mattis is wrong about this, and his request should be rejected. The restrictions that the Obama administration put in place shortly before leaving office were a belated, half-hearted gesture ostensibly aimed at protesting indiscriminate coalition attacks on civilian targets. It was far too little, much too late, but it was better than nothing. Lifting those restrictions would tell the coalition that the new administration has no problem with the way they have been conducting their campaign, and it will encourage them to be even more reckless and irresponsible than they have been.
Giving the coalition even more support at this point would further implicate the U.S. in their war crimes, and backing an offensive on Hodeidah would make a horrifying humanitarian disaster in the country even worse. Millions are on the brink of famine in large part because of the Saudi-led intervention and blockade. More attacks on the port will push many of them over the brink. Increasing U.S. support would just deepen our complicity in wrecking and starving Yemen, and there can be no justification for doing that.
On top of that, the justification that Mattis gives is a bad one. It is important to emphasize that the coalition’s enemies in Yemen don’t pose a threat to the U.S., and the little support they receive from Iran has never warranted our involvement in this war. Mattis’ “common threat” rhetoric is based in a dangerous misunderstanding of the conflict. If Trump agrees to Mattis’ request, it will lead the administration to escalate U.S. involvement in a war in which we should have no part. The people of Yemen are already paying a terrible, steep price as a result of a war that our government has enabled for two years, and doing more to back the Saudis and their allies will achieve nothing except to inflict even more harm on the civilian population.
Posted in foreign policy, politics. Tagged Iran, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Donald Trump, James Mattis.
There is a sad irony in the Washington times article. We are using ‘freedom of navigation’ as an excuse to justify the Saudi starvation blockade. The Houthis have not violated freedom of navigation every attack they have made has been against warships, not merchant ships. God must be preparing places in hell for self-righteous Americans.
And this is worse than nothing.
Mattis is out of his mind. Yemen isn’t a threat to America in the first place, so there can be no “common threat”. Indeed, Yemen barely registers as a threat to the Gulf States.
One of the few ways that Yemen might become a threat to America is if Mattis keeps helping the Saudis starve and kill Yemenis, yielding a generation of stunted, damaged, and dead children and raising the likelihood that Yemenis of all ages will be become refugees and terrorists.
Mattis has turned out to be one of Trump’s worst picks. In a scant two months he’s blown every opportunity to disengage from the ME and steadily dragged us back into a Bush II neocon-style foreign policy Stone Age. It’s as though he doesn’t know how to do anything else. An Establishment pick. And boy does it show.
There is only one word to describe the military establishment – “Insane” or perhaps I should include the politicians and the media in it as well. There is no other way to describe but to say that everyone in the US has gone mad. So what if we kill few Muslim women and children, big deal. No wonder they nicknamed Mattis “MAD DOG.” He is acting like one. What happened to the R2P movement?
The Saudis and the UAE have been pounding on the Houthis – and Yemen’s civilian population – for now over two years, using US-manufactured bombs and aircraft plus US refueling. For what, to restore Hadi as president who was illegally “elected” and whose term had run out a month before the bombing commenced? Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) controls about a third of Yemen and the Saudis-UAE have left AQAP untouched. SOCOM has had a presence in Yemen for years, conducting drone strikes against AQAP. Now, for two years, we have been supporting the Saudis-UAE who, like in Syria, are supporting Sunni Salafist jihadists. This is totally insane. How can Iran be supporting the Houthis if all of Yemen’s ports are blocked by both Saudi and American war ships?
I have been waiting, somewhat patiently, since 2001 for someone, anyone, to explain to me in very precise terms that even I can understand exactly which national interests of the USA are existentially threatened by anything that has happened, is happening and might happen anywhere in the Middle East. Citing a treaty as a reason for American involvement will not answer my question.
Jared, Mattis, and all the neocon waries that infest our governance system should be given M16s, rations, and a reliable parachute and dropped into Yemen to sort their real or imaginary enemies. Take Nuttyahu with them.
These are not national interests, they are imperial interests. Imperial interests take precedence over everything else, including the American people, who stand to gain nothing from these wars.