Why conservatives should be against US support for the war in Yemen


The war in Yemen has pushed 7 million people to the edge of famine. For three years the United States has supported the side which is most guilty for creating this tragedy: Saudi Arabia and its military allies.

At Maine for Yemen we will publish a series of posts on why Mainers of ALL political persuasions should protest this war. Today we start with why we believe this war violates CONSERVATIVE values:

1) No threat to US security

We have waded into a brutal civil war that we have no direct stakes in. The Houthi rebels who control most of Yemen’s populated areas pose no serious threat to US military personnel in the region, or any terrorist threat to the US. If they tried to restrict free movement of US shipping in the Red Sea our Navy could easily defeat them.

2) We are not fighting terrorists, and we could be helping them

The Houthis are Shia Muslims. This makes them the bitter enemies of Al Qaeda and ISIS, who are Sunni Muslim extremists who want to drive Shias off the Arab Peninsula.

The US has sided with Saudi Arabia, a country that promotes a fundamentalist form of Sunni Islam and which has deep funding ties to Al Qaeda and other extremists. There are even some reports of Al Qaeda fighting alongside the forces of the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthis.

This doesn’t mean the Houthi rebels are nice people and we should support them. But if defeating Al Qaeda and ISIS is our #1 goal on the Arab Peninsula, we shouldn’t be helping to bomb their enemies. Or create the chaos and destruction that terrorists thrive in.

3) We’re getting played by our allies

Saudi Arabia knows exactly what to tell American presidents to get their backing. They have played up the support the Houthi rebels receive from Iran. This is true, but Iran is only mildly invested in the Houthis’ victory. The rebels buy most of their arms from the official Yemeni army they are fighting (and who the US helped arm)!

Saudi Arabia wants to dominate the Arab world and is willing to wreck Yemen to show their resolve. They have pulled us into this destructive war.


4) No end game

The Saudis have been bombing and blockading Yemen for three years but aren’t even close to defeating the Houthis. They have caused incredible destruction but don’t seem capable of military strategy. Yemen is becoming a quagmire for Saudi Arabia, and they are pulling us down with them.

5) No government accountability

The US military re-fuels Saudi jets for all of their bombing runs. Journalists tried to learn how much assistance has been provided to the Saudis but the Pentagon could only estimate “in the tens of millions of pounds of jet fuel.” Military officials said that there is no oversight – if the Saudis ask, we give them fuel and we don’t know what they do with it.

If you agree that this doesn’t sound like something conservatives should support, consider calling Maine’s senators and your representative and telling them “I’m your constituent and I ask you to end US participation in the Yemeni civil war. We should cease military support to the Saudis and re-focus our energy on fighting terrorists.”

Also, please consider signing our petition to Maine’s congressional delegation:

https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/stop-famine-in-yemen


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