America Targets Yemen’s Children for Death by Starvation

June 18, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

On its border with Mexico, America is ripping children from their parents’ arms.

In Yemen, for the last three years the U.S. and its allies have bombed, starved, and sickened millions of children, forcing tens of thousands of parents to watch them die before their eyes. Now these criminals are deliberately cutting off the meager food aid in Yemen that has been keeping millions of hungry, sick, and malnourished children—and millions of adults—alive.

The U.S. has been neck-deep in the barbaric war being waged by its clients Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to crush the Houthi movement in order to dominate Yemen, control its strategic coastline, and prevent Iran from having any influence there.

Saudi Arabia’s U.S.-made bombers—loaded with U.S. bombs by U.S. contractors, re-fueled by U.S. planes, and guided by U.S. intelligence—have obliterated mosques, markets, apartment buildings, and schools. They’ve targeted Yemen’s farms, factories, hospitals, and water supply, and blockaded shipments of food and medicine—this against a country which has to import 90 percent of its food! The U.S. under Obama OK’ed the war, and now under the Trump/Pence regime, the U.S. is helping escalate it.

Doubling Down on War Crimes, Shutting Off Yemen’s Lifeline

The U.S.-Saudi-UAE strategy has deliberately targeted Yemen’s population—a war of war crimes which has shattered one of the poorest countries on Earth:

*More than 10,000 people, including many children, have been slaughtered.

*Over 22 million of Yemen’s 28 million people need humanitarian aid to survive.

*Some 18 million don’t know where their next meal is coming from, and 8.4 million are on the brink of famine.

*One million people in Yemen are infected with cholera. Last year alone, 50,000 children died from cholera and other easily preventable diseases.

Uncounted thousands of parents are forced to watch their children become so weak they can’t turn over, and when they try to cry no tears come out.

But all that barbarity hasn’t been enough for the U.S.-Saudi-UAE coalition to win. So on June 13, these mass murderers began an assault on Al Hudaydah, the port on Yemen's west coast through which three-quarters of the humanitarian aid—the lifeline for 80 percent of Yemen’s people—flows.

Right now, nearly three million women and children are acutely malnourished, and 400,000 more children are struggling to stay alive, including 100,000 severely malnourished children in Al Hudaydah. All their lives will be put at risk by the fighting. Another 250,000 in Al Hudaydah could be displaced or killed.

The deadly ripple effects will spread across all of Yemen. When Al Hudaydah was temporarily sealed off in November 2017, 3.2 million more Yemenis were reportedly pushed into hunger. Hundreds of thousands, even millions could starve to death in the coming weeks and months. “The fighting in Al Hudaydah and in Yemen is what will devastate children's lives for months and years to come,” a representative of Save the Children says.

America Claims It’s Innocent... as Blood Drips from Its Hands

The U.S. claims it wants to make sure no civilians are harmed, and says it isn’t involved in the assault on Al Hudaydah. What, you give mass murderers planes, bombs, and a target list, and then say you aren’t involved?

But never mind, on Monday, June 11, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo dispensed with this bullshit pretense and green-lighted the assault, declaring he understood Saudi-UAE “security concerns.” He expressed confidence that they would preserve “the free flow of humanitarian aid and lifesaving commercial imports”—the same week they bombed a wedding party, a cholera treatment facility, and a refugee center.

Then on Wednesday, the U.S. and other leading representatives of “Western Civilization”—France and Britain—blocked a UN Security Council resolution demanding the Saudi-UAE attack be halted. As all this is taking place, the U.S. corporation Raytheon is maneuvering to sell the Saudis 60,000 more “precision munitions”—bombs and missiles of mass slaughter.

The U.S. reportedly refused a UAE request for intelligence, reconnaissance aircraft, and minesweepers—so its bloody fingerprints on this horrendous atrocity now being undertaken wouldn’t be so obvious. However, the Pentagon had already promised to provide the Saudis targeting intelligence for its bombers, and France agreed to provide minesweepers. (The French, which have special forces on the ground in Yemen, quickly 'clarified' that their minesweepers wouldn't be deployed until after the fighting was over.) So when it comes to starving Yemen, the Western imperialists are indeed able to unite.

Mass Murder by Starvation... a “Justifiable Risk” to Advance Imperialist Interests

“These imperialists make the Godfather look like Mary Poppins.” --Bob Avakian, BAsics 1:7

After the U.S., Britain, and France refused to halt the Saudi-UAE assault on Al Hudaydah, the Guardian reported that they had “accepted the Saudi and UAE claim that jeopardizing aid flows is a justifiable risk if Houthi forces can be ousted from the city.”

For America’s rulers, mass murder by starvation is a “justifiable risk” in order to maintain their stranglehold on the Middle East and the world.

A system that would deliberately starve millions of already hungry children... One that carries out similar towering crimes decade after decade, in country after country... How many more reasons do you need to join the great cause of working toward an actual revolution to overthrow such a monstrous system and replace it with something radically different and far better?