Last week, the Pentagon announced the approval of the sale of an additional
$1.15 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia. The callousness of this announcement
– just days after Saudi Arabia rebooted its devastating bombing campaign in
Yemen – is breathtaking. The Saudi-led coalition has used American-made fighter
jets, bombs and other munitions in a relentless onslaught against Yemen that
has left thousands of innocent civilians dead and created a humanitarian crisis
that the United Nations characterizes as a “catastrophe.” In just
the last few days, the Saudi-led coalition has killed at least 35 people – most
of them women and children – in three airstrikes against a school, a residential
neighborhood and a hospital in northern Yemen.
Congress has thirty days to block the sale of these weapons. It is a moral
imperative that they do so.
The internal crisis in Yemen spiraled out of control when the Saudis intervened
in March 2015. The BBC has reported that nearly all of the more than 3,000 civilian
deaths reported in the conflict have been caused by airstrikes from the Saudi-led
coalition. Saudi air strikes have also decimated Yemen’s infrastructure, leaving
more than 21 million people desperately in need of humanitarian assistance.
The Saudi aggression is only possible with U.S. weapons and logistical support.
The US government has authorized the sale of $20 billion of American-made weapons
to the Saudis since their offensive began 18 months ago. Sen. Chris
Murphy says this makes the US complicit in a humanitarian crisis.
“If you talk to Yemeni Americans, they will tell you in Yemen this isn’t
a Saudi bombing campaign, it’s a US bombing campaign,” said Sen.
Murphy. “Every single civilian death inside Yemen is attributable to the
United States.”
Given the devastation of the attack on Yemen, a diverse group of organizations
and individuals have called on the US government to stop the sale of additional
weapons to Saudi Arabia. The United Nations has said that Saudi air strikes
on civilian targets likely constitute war crimes. Amnesty International and
Human Rights Watch have called for an end of all weapon sales to Saudi Arabia
until the crisis is resolved. Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy and Republican Sen.
Rand Paul have
both voiced concern over the new weapon sales, with Paul stating “Saudi
Arabia is an unreliable ally with a poor human rights record. We should not
rush to sell them advanced arms and promote an arms race in the Middle East.”
Some would argue that the Saudis are a longtime stable ally in the turbulent
Middle East. But to paraphrase the cliché, with allies like these, who
needs enemies? Saudi Arabia is the number one exporter of radical Islamic extremism
on the planet. Fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers were radicalized Saudi
citizens and the…