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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 4/9/15

Yemen: We did it again.

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Message Joseph Clifford
DECO2200 - Week 6 Revisited
DECO2200 - Week 6 Revisited
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The US has unleashed a great deal of blood upon the world, with its willingness to use "bombs" as our first reaction to any situation. We killed over one million in Iraq, and we have lost the ability to solve problems diplomatically; rather, we resort to the only tool in our tool bag, bombs. Such a policy has caused incredible death and destruction in Iraq, but also in Libya, Syria, and now Yemen, and much of current Yemeni blood is on our hands.

The US has backed two dictators in Yemen, solely because they allowed us to wage a war on terror in their country, despite the unpopularity of such a move by the people of Yemen. The two dictators were nothing but US quislings who exercised our will at the expense of the population of Yemen. Increasingly the US used its drones to assassinate in Yemen, many times killing innocents and children, which became increasingly unpopular among the people of Yemen. The Houthis emerged as a dominant force and were able to overthrow the US backed dictator. Americans have not been informed that the Houthi movement had a bitter historical hatred for Al-Qaida, and also developed bitter anti-American resentment as the drones continued to kill Yemenis.

One must question the concept of the US hunting down Al-Qaida all over the world, when Muammar Gaddafi in Libya was a bitter enemy of Al-Qaida, and had kept it under control until he was killed, while Saddam Hussein hated Al-Qaida and kept it completely out of Iraq until he was killed, and now in Yemen we are killing Houthis, who also had a historical and bitter hatred for Al-Qaida, and finally in Syria which has made for strange bedfellows, the US is helping groups who might have formerly been considered "terrorists".

The Houthis managed to overthrow the dictator, who quickly fled the country, and began to consolidate their power, when along came Saudi Arabia who decided to bomb Yemen because of the alleged backing of the Houthis by Iran. Saudi Arabia is one of the most repressive governments in the Middle East and is only motivated by its rivalry with Iran, but is backed and supported by the US; so when Saudi Arabia decided to bomb Yemen simply because of its hatred for Iran, the US was willing to help. Using satellite imagery and intelligence information, the US provided the Saudis with the bombing information, and it is the US who supplies Saudi Arabia with their weapons of war. Never wanting to be left out of a war, the role of the US in bombing Yemen has escalated, so we just increased our arms shipments to Saudi Arabia, much as we did to Israel when they were running low on bombs to drop on defenseless Palestinians. Saudi Arabia cannot send ground troops into Yemen because the Saudi leaders fear their own troops would turn their guns on the Saudi leadership.

A proxy war of aggression is now going on, but the problem in Yemen was internal, and a civil war. We have helped turn it into a war of aggression by assisting the Saudi's, who have, over the years, attacked Yemen many times.

Before the American Empire launched its wars, there was protocol, procedure, and laws that governed when the use of military force could be justifiably used. We, by bombing countries at will, have shattered the rules of law that govern the use of force, and now we have countries like Saudi Arabia bombing neighbors, simple because of the hatred for the allies of Yemen. Our disdain for law has opened a "Pandora's Box". Like us, the Saudi's followed no rules or law, they just began to bomb without going before the UN or any such group. It may be impossible now, in light of our defiance of the rule of international law, to restore the rules of law that govern the legal right to use force. We have helped make the world a very ugly place.

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Joe Clifford lives in Rhode Island and has written a regular column for an online newspaper and has contributed many articles to various RI newspapers. His articles deal almost exclusively with American Foreign policy but ventures into other (more...)
 

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