"In addition to selling a vast arsenal of weapons to Saudi Arabia, our government's military gave logistical guidance in the Saudi military headquarters in Riyadh and continues to provide intelligence to Saudi defense officials and aerial refueling during bombing runs."
She concludes, "The Saudi-led coalition could not have conducted the two and a half years of bombing without the support of our military."
How to Use IntelligenceSen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont joined with one of the Senate's most conservative members, Mike Lee of Utah, as well as Democrat Chris Murphy of Connecticut, to sponsor a resolution calling for an end to US involvement in Yemen.
44 senators voted for it, but 55 senators -- including 10 Democrats -- voted against it. Some antiwar groups called it a step forward -- but the war will not end.
Why haven't progressives doing more to help the people of Yemen? Maybe it's a problem of leadership. Nobody in a position of Democratic power is using their influence to end America's involvement there. When the Clinton Administration was trying to build support for intervention in Yemen, it declassified intelligence photographs of the victims there and showed them to reluctant diplomats.
"It was an amazing example of how you can use intelligence," Albright later reflected.
Why America SleptWho in Washington's national security establishment is handing out pictures of dying Yemenis? Nobody. It's government policy under President Trump, just as it was under President Obama. In the last year of Obama's presidency, in fact, the US government dropped more than 20,000 bombs on seven countries. (There's a map.)
There's a lot of money to be made in arms sales. President Trump has approved massive US arms sales to Saudi Arabia (Estimates of the deal's value vary widely.) We're told that there are no contracts in place, which places even more pressure on the American government to comply with the wishes of Mohammad bin Salman, or "MBS," Saudi Arabia's new dictator.
Not that this government needs any convincing. Trump's financial ties to Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries deserve much deeper scrutiny. So do those of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
But it is our country's defense-industry ties have been driving that "special relationship" for decades, through Republican and Democratic governments alike. Those ties also serve to promote military policies that involve the use of expensive weaponry all around the world.
As the New Yorker's Nicholas Niarchos reports, one such weapon -- a US-made bomb carrying 500 pounds of explosive -- killed more than 140 mourners and injured 500 more during a Yemeni funeral in 2015. Among them was the mayor of Sana'a, who had been negotiating with several factions in an attempt to end the war
The bomb was manufactured by Raytheon.
Prince Not-So-CharmingBut defense contractors aren't the only powerful interest keeping us in Yemen. American oil corporations have benefited from the US-Saudi relationship for many decades.
Politicians have flattered and cajoled the country's leadership all that time. So has the American media. With Mohammad bin Salman's recent rise to power as "crown prince," the self-interested servility of these elites is once again on display.
They call him "MBS," as flattering pieces from the likes of Thomas Friedman affirm. Machiavelli wrote of princes like this a long time ago, saying "he who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived."
MBS appears to be a nasty piece of work, even by Saudi standards, given his youthful threats -- reportedly including, according to one story, a bullet in an envelope -- toward anyone who stood in the way of his advancement. Then there's the matter of his recent detention and torture of anyone who poses a political or financial threat to his power.
To cover up his brutality and flatter the thuggish potentate, the mainstream media dwells on MBS' mild social liberalizations, like letting women drive and easing up on rules regarding live entertainment.
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