Sen. Rand Paul speaks at the 2015 Reagan Dinner for the Dallas County Republican Party in Dallas, Texas, January 30, 2015. (Photo: Gage Skidmore)
Last week, on the Senate floor, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) called out US participation in the Saudi war in Yemen.
Senator Paul affirmed that US participation in Saudi Arabia’s Yemen war has never been authorized by Congress — in violation of the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution — and demanded that Congress vote on it:
We’re at war in Yemen. We are aiding and abetting the Saudi war in Yemen. And yet they’re been no vote on it. 17 million people live on the edge of starvation, because of the Saudi blockade and bombing campaign. We are aiding and abetting that, and yet there’s been no vote here in Congress.
Senator Paul charged that US participation in the Saudi war in Yemen is not in the interests of Americans, but is in fact harmful to the interests of Americans:
Does anybody in America think that the war in Yemen is in our vital interest? Most people don’t know where Yemen is, much [less] think it’s in our vital interests. Guess what? The war in Yemen may actually be opposed to our vital national interest. It may be making it worse.
Senator Paul also charged that US support for Saudi Arabia’s war has fueled the world’s worst outbreak of cholera and help push 17 million people to the edge of starvation:
Seventeen million people, as we speak, live on the edge of starvation. Seventeen million people! They’re having the largest outbreak of cholera. Where’s most of this happening? Where’s most of starvation, most of the killing, most of the cholera? It’s in areas that are being bombed by the Saudis. They have bombed the infrastructure into ruins, and there is no clean water. So you have cholera being spread. War is probably the most common and most important precipitating factor in humanitarian disasters. If you look at humanitarian disasters around the world, you’ll find the number one cause is war. And Yemen was…