Countries
like Yemen, Chad and South Sudan have been devastated by famine and
starvation in recent years, with millions of people suffering despite
a global surplus of food. But the problem is not a lack of resources
- they are starving due to the effects of unending Western
imperialism.
by
Eric Draitser
Part
2 - Yemen: the U.S. and Saudi Arabia’s slow genocide
Yemen,
which is by all measures the poorest country in the Arab world, is
facing near total economic and social collapse as it continues to be
crushed under the weight of a Saudi-led war backed by the United
States.
Earlier
this year, the United Nations released staggering new figures
indicating that that at least 17 million Yemenis are facing food
insecurity, with nearly 7 million considered to be in a state of
emergency and more than 10 million in crisis. The UN report notes
that Yemen saw a 21-percent increase in hunger levels from June 2016
to March 2017, indicating a severe crisis of historic proportions.
As
Mark Kaye, the spokesperson for Save the Children in Yemen explained:
“The
numbers affected are absolutely extraordinary…these numbers
highlight that we’re at the point of no return. This crisis is
happening because food and supplies can’t get into the country.
Yemen was completely dependent on imports of food, medicine and fuel
prior to this crisis. You have one party delaying and significantly
preventing food from getting into the country, and another on the
ground who are detaining aid workers or preventing aid and food from
getting to areas they don’t want it to go to.”
While
only making oblique reference to the parties involved, it’s clear
that Kaye is referring to Saudi Arabia as the party preventing food
from entering the country. Saudi Arabia, the instigator and primary
belligerent in this war, has imposed a blockade on Yemen, effectively
cutting it off from the outside world, and from critical supplies of
food, medicine and other essential goods and services.
Indeed,
as investigative journalist Gareth Porter wrote in Truthout:
“The
Saudi coalition has pursued a war strategy of maximizing pressure on
the Houthi resistance by destroying agricultural, health and
transportation infrastructure and by choking off access to food and
fuel for most of Yemen’s population. The United States has enabled
the Saudis to pursue that strategy by refueling the Saudi-led
coalition planes bombing Yemen and selling the bombs. Equally
important, however, the US has provided the political-diplomatic
cover that the Saudis need to carry out this ruthless endeavor
without massive international blowback.”
Consider
for a moment the cruelty of the strategy employed by the Saudis and
their U.S. allies in Yemen. Not only did Riyadh launch an aggressive
war against a neighbor – a crime against peace, according to the
Nuremberg Principles and international law – but they’ve done so
while posturing as the humanitarian saviors of the country. As Saudi
Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir cynically explained, “We have
been the largest donor of humanitarian assistance in the world, by
far, to Yemen.”
It
is Saudi-coalition vessels and aircraft that patrol the seas around
Yemen, thereby directly creating the famine there. As UNICEF reported
in late 2016, “Nearly 2.2 million children in Yemen are acutely
malnourished and require urgent care. At least 462,000 children
suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), a drastic increase of
almost 200 per cent since 2014. An additional 1.7 million children
suffer from Moderate Acute Malnutrition.”
Additionally,
outbreaks of cholera and other preventable diseases are directly
attributable to the actions of the Saudis and their U.S. backers.
Indeed, it must be remembered that none of Saudi Arabia’s crimes
against Yemen could take place without the direct backing of
Washington. In fact, while Obama at least paid lip service to
humanitarian concerns vis-à-vis Riyadh’s atrocities in Yemen, the
Trump administration has not batted an eye and has seemingly given
the green light to the Saudis to do their worst by arming them to the
teeth and looking the other way in regards to their genocidal policy.
And
why? Because Washington wants to use Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen as
a proxy conflict with Iran. Trump, like Obama before him, cares not a
whit for the lives of Yemeni children. He cares about access to the
Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which separates Africa from the Arabian
Peninsula, and which is one of the most critical waterways in the
world for commercial shipping. The strait is also crucial to the
geopolitical and strategic interests of both the U.S. and China. As
if it needed to be stated, Trump is interested in “making deals,”
not saving lives.
Yemen
is starving because the House of Saud wants to thump its chest at
Tehran. Children stare into the camera lens, their emaciated bodies a
testament to the callous disregard the empire has for its victims –
collateral damage, as it is often called.
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