American democracy and capitalist prosperity are dying on the vine of Empire. And this weekend’s drone attack on the largest oil processing facility on the planet is a graphic case of why. So is the related picture below.
The scene is of Yemenis burying a busload of children who were obliterated by American-made bombs delivered by American-made Saudi aircraft, which were being navigated to target by US command and control assets.
This particular cruel foray was just one of thousands of sorties launched by the Saudi’s since 2015, which have resulted in upwards of 100,000 civilian deaths in northern Yemen and the virtual destruction of its economy—-meaning horrific outbreaks of starvation, cholera and other diseases have become commonplace.
The cost to the Yemenis in misery and human life is incalculable. Nor can the stain of these genocidal attacks on America’s moral stature be gainsaid. Yet Washington’s collaboration in this mayhem is not based on even a smidgen of national interest or homeland security.
To the contrary, the Houthi who took control of Yemen’s capital (Sana’a) and who dominate the population of northern Yemen, are a second cousin practitioner of the Shiite confession of Islam. Accordingly, they are aligned with the Shiite regime of Iran and have received modest aid and weapons from Tehran in support of their struggle for independence from the Saudi-supported government in exile and its alignment with a motely array of Sunni-jihadist, Muslim Brotherhood and other anti-Shiite factions in southern Yemen.
Of course, given the fact that Yemen was divided into two countries—North and South Yemen—-for nearly three decades between the early 1960s and early 1990s, it’s obvious that no war, bloodshed or devastation is needed at all to solve the religious and ethnic enmities of that god-forsaken armpit of the world. All that’s needed is re-partition.
It’s simple. Two countries. No war. No misery. No genocide.
And, in fact, back in 2015 Washington could have told the new Saudi King (Salman) in no uncertain terms to accept partition or “no tickie, no washie”. That is, don’t you dare use a single American supplied aircraft or bomb to carry out war against the Houthi of North Yemen—or we will cut off re-supply of spare-parts and technical support to the Saudi military’s advanced American-made weaponry.
And without the latter, of course, Switzerland would soon become the new abode of the monarchy.
But Washington’s neocons were having none of letting the world go its own way and staying out of other people’s quarrels.
To the contrary, the neocons on Capitol Hill and in the national security bureaucracy were dead-set on war with Iran’s current regime, and saw an attack on the Houthi as a way to administer a bloody-nose to Tehran; and one which could be performed with no muss or fuss by nominal Saudi proxies.