Stopping the Saudi War

Amnesty International reported in early October 2015 that Saudi Arabia was guilty of committing war crimes in Yemen. The Saudis were using arms purchased from the United States and the U.S. was poised to resupply the Saudis. Saudi Arabia's military spokesman Ahmad al-Asiri made a public declaration on May 8, 2015 that the northern  cities of Sa'da and Marram in Yemen had been designated as "military targets loyal to the Huthi militias." He warned that "operations will cover the whole area of these two cities and thus we reiterate our call to stay away from these groups, and leave the areas under Huthi control or where the Huthi are sheltering."

International laws of war forbid the targeting of civilian structures, as well as the "collective punishment" of civilians populations. Amnesty researchers found extensive damage in Sa'da and airstrikes on civilian homes in villagers around Sa'da city had killed and injured hundreds. These same researchers found that Saudi Arabia had used internationally banned cluster bombs, which scatter hundreds of smaller bombs over a wide area. A joint report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs counted 2,682 deaths and injuries had resulted from air bombardment from late March to the end of July 2015.

Saudi Arabia has imposed a tight blockage on Yemen. Article 6 of the Arms trade Treaty forbids the transfer of arms and ammunition to a party in an armed conflict if it [the sending nation] has knowledge that the weaponry will be used for "attacks directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such, or other war crimes as defined by international agreements to which it is a party." The U.S action in supplying weaponry to Saudi Arabia runs counter to the Leahy Law -- named after Senator Patrick Leahy -- which forbids military sales to forces that are engaged in gross violation of human rights.

ADDENDUMS:
*"The comparison between Obama's wary analysis and the often slapdash, half-baked proposals of GOP candidates at the debate [December 15] was striking. Obama appears to recognize that there's a missing link in the strategy -- the lack of a Sunni ground force that can reliably clear and hold the Islamic States's heartland in Syria and Iraq." "Underlying Obama's policy analysis is a view that America must get out of the business of trying to govern the Middle East." (Source: David Ignatius, "Obama prefers  small footprint," The Albuquerque Journal, December 19, 2015).

*One of the reasons that the Middle East is so bedeviling to policy-makers is that there are perhaps as many risks resulting from action or from inaction. President Obama's relative caution during the Arab Spring resulted ultimately in a military dictatorship in Egypt and a general  collapse of the democratic uprisings in almost every Middle East nation in which they took place. On the other hand, Obama involving the U.S. in a no-fly zone and helping run down Libya's leader has resulted in chaos in Libya, because there there was no stable alternative political force. Obama's failure to arm Assad's opposition forces relatively early in Syria's civil war, when it appeared the opposition had Assad on the run, may have been a major mistake; however, yet again, it may have led to even greater chaos or put in power an even worse alternative from the U.S. perspective. Also, as Steve Coll pointed out in his commentary in the November 30, 2015 The New Yorker, U.S. military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan eliminated the immediate threat or removed the current leader, but they did not resolve "the targeted country's underlying instability or assured durable international security."

*Jennifer Moore has done a very valuable service in why demonizing Muslims is wrong in moral terms, the Bill of Rights,  international law and in creating a more dangerous world. "It is wrong to marginalize Muslims, in part because such attitudes intensify the very dangers they purport to alleviate. Simply put, Islamophobia feeds ISIS-inspired terrorism." "Freedom of religion, along with the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, form a secular trinity of core values, equally offended by the arbitrary exclusion of persons on the basis of persons or on the basis of religious affiliation."

"The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by the United States and countries around the world, protects freedom of conscience, freedom of religion and the principle of non-discrimination." "Americans are Muslims, as we are agnostics, atheists, and members of a rainbow spectrum of faiths and spiritual communities." "When we demonize Muslims, we destroy ourselves." "Embracing Muslims as part of our political community is to acknowledge and nurture the health of our democracy and the vibrancy of our global society." (Source: Jenifer Moore, "Demonizing Muslims only benefits IS," The Albuquerque Journal, December 19, 2015).