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Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Donald Trump Lunching With a Saudi War Criminal While Yemenis Are Starving
Posted by:
VoteStrike
()
Date: May 21, 2017 03:10PM
Donald Trump Lunching With a Saudi War Criminal While Yemenis Are Starving
By Medea Benjamin Anti-War
While President Trump sat down for a sumptuous meal with Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, millions of Yemenis are going hungry.
Prince Salman is only 31 years old, but as the king’s favorite son, he was put in charge of the nation’s two most critical sectors: the economy and the military. A brash defense minister, the young prince made the disastrous decision to interfere in an internal conflict in neighboring Yemen. Starting in March 2015, Prince Salman started a bombing campaign against the Yemeni Houthis, a group the Saudi rulers consider aligned with Iran. The bombing has gone on, relentlessly, for the past two years. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein said that possible war crimes had been documented with “alarming frequency” since the Saudis became engaged.
In addition to thousands of Yemeni civilians being killed directly by Saudi bombs, the bombing has also been responsible for the massive destruction of civilian infrastructure, from water facilities to sewage treatment plants to hospitals.
Particularly devastating has been the bombing of the port of Hodeidah, where most of the humanitarian aid has been entering the country. Two-thirds of the population now requires food assistance and a Yemeni child dies every 10 minutes from hunger and the lack of medical facilities. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called Yemen the “largest food insecurity emergency in the world.”
The Saudis are threatening to make matters significantly worse by launching a major military campaign in the area of Hudaidah that will make the port totally inaccessible.
It’s not just the Saudis and Houthis who are responsible for Yemen’s destruction. As Senator Chris Murphy said, the United States also has blood on its hands. President Obama sold massive amounts of weapons to the Saudis and helped the Yemen intervention with logistical support, including refueling Saudi planes in the air.
The Trump administration has signaled a desire to step up the fight against the Houthis in Yemen as part of its plan to get tough on Iran. It cited Iran’s support for the Houthi rebels when putting Iran “on notice” in February. The Saudi leaders are enthusiastic about Trump’s hawkish position on Iran. They also appreciate his support of the oil industry (proven by naming the CEO of Exxon as Secretary of State) and his lack of interest in human rights. And they are delighted that unlike Yemen, Saudi Arabia was not included in Trump’s Muslim travel ban, despite the fact that more Saudis have killed Americans on US soil than any other foreign nationals (remember: 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia).
Trump’s Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has reportedly approved the sale of $390 million in precision-guided munitions from Raytheon to the Saudi government, but it needs White House approval before it moves forward. “If approved, this deal would essentially have President Trump throwing gasoline on a house fire and locking the door on his way out,” said Amnesty’s US Executive Director Margaret Huang. “President Trump must not approve this arms deal.”
In a letter to Trump released the same day as the luncheon, Amnesty International urged Trump not to sign off on the sale. “There is substantial risk that Saudi Arabia…could use new U.S. arms to further devastate civilian lives in Yemen,” Amnesty wrote. “This could implicate your administration in war crimes or violations of international humanitarian law. Amnesty International researchers have already found both unexploded US bombs and identifiable fragments of exploded US bombs among the ruins of Yemeni homes and other civilian objects.”
As Trump and Prince Salman sat for a photo op after lunch, Trump smiled, pointed to the Saudi delegation, and said, “They are nice people.” No, Mr. Trump, they aren’t. They behead people for peaceful dissent at home. They export the extreme Wahhabist ideology that fuels terrorist groups. And they are committing war crimes in Yemen. The United States should not be selling them any weapons or helping in their reckless military adventure that has left so many Yemenis dead, displaced and starving.
By Medea Benjamin Anti-War
While President Trump sat down for a sumptuous meal with Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, millions of Yemenis are going hungry.
Prince Salman is only 31 years old, but as the king’s favorite son, he was put in charge of the nation’s two most critical sectors: the economy and the military. A brash defense minister, the young prince made the disastrous decision to interfere in an internal conflict in neighboring Yemen. Starting in March 2015, Prince Salman started a bombing campaign against the Yemeni Houthis, a group the Saudi rulers consider aligned with Iran. The bombing has gone on, relentlessly, for the past two years. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein said that possible war crimes had been documented with “alarming frequency” since the Saudis became engaged.
In addition to thousands of Yemeni civilians being killed directly by Saudi bombs, the bombing has also been responsible for the massive destruction of civilian infrastructure, from water facilities to sewage treatment plants to hospitals.
Particularly devastating has been the bombing of the port of Hodeidah, where most of the humanitarian aid has been entering the country. Two-thirds of the population now requires food assistance and a Yemeni child dies every 10 minutes from hunger and the lack of medical facilities. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called Yemen the “largest food insecurity emergency in the world.”
The Saudis are threatening to make matters significantly worse by launching a major military campaign in the area of Hudaidah that will make the port totally inaccessible.
It’s not just the Saudis and Houthis who are responsible for Yemen’s destruction. As Senator Chris Murphy said, the United States also has blood on its hands. President Obama sold massive amounts of weapons to the Saudis and helped the Yemen intervention with logistical support, including refueling Saudi planes in the air.
The Trump administration has signaled a desire to step up the fight against the Houthis in Yemen as part of its plan to get tough on Iran. It cited Iran’s support for the Houthi rebels when putting Iran “on notice” in February. The Saudi leaders are enthusiastic about Trump’s hawkish position on Iran. They also appreciate his support of the oil industry (proven by naming the CEO of Exxon as Secretary of State) and his lack of interest in human rights. And they are delighted that unlike Yemen, Saudi Arabia was not included in Trump’s Muslim travel ban, despite the fact that more Saudis have killed Americans on US soil than any other foreign nationals (remember: 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia).
Trump’s Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has reportedly approved the sale of $390 million in precision-guided munitions from Raytheon to the Saudi government, but it needs White House approval before it moves forward. “If approved, this deal would essentially have President Trump throwing gasoline on a house fire and locking the door on his way out,” said Amnesty’s US Executive Director Margaret Huang. “President Trump must not approve this arms deal.”
In a letter to Trump released the same day as the luncheon, Amnesty International urged Trump not to sign off on the sale. “There is substantial risk that Saudi Arabia…could use new U.S. arms to further devastate civilian lives in Yemen,” Amnesty wrote. “This could implicate your administration in war crimes or violations of international humanitarian law. Amnesty International researchers have already found both unexploded US bombs and identifiable fragments of exploded US bombs among the ruins of Yemeni homes and other civilian objects.”
As Trump and Prince Salman sat for a photo op after lunch, Trump smiled, pointed to the Saudi delegation, and said, “They are nice people.” No, Mr. Trump, they aren’t. They behead people for peaceful dissent at home. They export the extreme Wahhabist ideology that fuels terrorist groups. And they are committing war crimes in Yemen. The United States should not be selling them any weapons or helping in their reckless military adventure that has left so many Yemenis dead, displaced and starving.
Re: Donald Trump Lunching With a Saudi War Criminal While Yemenis Are Starving
Posted by:
Larry from the corner
()
Date: May 21, 2017 03:22PM
You didn’t have to be a political genius—or a genius of any kind, really—to see that Donald Trump was going to be a disaster at being president. He clearly has no interest in politics or policy and doesn’t understand, or care to understand, the basics of the job. The Trump platform consists of unbelievable and unconstitutional lies all bound up with racist pipe dreams about how to Make America 1952 Again. To call Trump a con man is to insult hardworking, skilled con men and women the world over. Trump just recognized easy marks when he saw them, and told them what they wanted to hear. And what they wanted to hear was that someone else’s suffering would help them get ahead.
Re: Donald Trump Lunching With a Saudi War Criminal While Yemenis Are Starving
Posted by:
VoteStrike
()
Date: May 21, 2017 03:34PM
Hi Larry