By Sen. Rand Paul
American-built planes with American bombs were used by the Saudis to bomb a funeral procession in Yemen. Over 100 people were killed, and 500 mourners were wounded. Active duty American pilots have been refueling the planes dropping bombs across Yemen.
Sounds like war to me.
But when did we declare war on Yemen? When did Congress vote to authorize military force in Yemen? Who is the enemy, and why are we fighting them?
Lets be clear: war was NOT declared by Congress, as the Constitution requires. Congress never authorized American participation in a war in Yemen. And yet, here we are, involved in yet another Middle East war.
We havean unfortunatehabit of arming foreign nations, only to discover that these supposed allies may be creating more enemies for America than they are killing.
Not only are we selling the bombs to Saudi Arabia that they are dropping on Yemen, the presidents first military act was to send a manned raid of Navy Seals into Yemen.
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Tragically, one of our Navy SEALs was killed, along with several women and children. I dont blame our soldiers they take orders. They do the best that they can under the circumstances. I do, however, blame the politicians who send our soldiers into impossible situations.
Confronted by civilians, sometimes women and children, firing weapons at them, our soldiers must return fire. But before putting our soldiers in that unenviable position, shouldnt Congress debate whether involving our nation in a war in Yemen is in our national security interest?
The raid killed al-Qaeda operatives who, while likely enemies of ours, were actually fighting the same people the Saudis are fighting: the Houthi rebels.
To emphasize, the Saudis and al-Qaeda are fighting a common enemy in the Houthi rebels. In essence, we sent Navy Seals into Yemen to kill people who actually were fighting a common enemy.
In a country where so many factions are fighting,it is nearly impossible to distinguish friend from foe.
Thousands of civilians have been killedby Saudi bombings in Yemen. The blowback from these civilian deaths will be generations of hatred and likely more terrorism.
It isalso possible our involvement in the Yemeni Civil war could allow a situation where the Saudis and the Houthis decimate each other, leaving a vacuum that al-Qaeda fills. Think it cant happen? Well its exactly what happened when America and Saudi-supported rebels pushed back Assad in Syria, leaving a power gap thatISISfilled.
In recent years, there hasnt been a military action taken in Yemen by Saudi Arabia that doesnt have Americas fingerprints all over it.
As my colleague Senator Chris Murphy said last year, If you talk to Yemenis, they will tell you that this is perceived inside Yemen as not a Saudi-led bombing campaign [] but as a U.S. bombing campaign or at best a U.S.-Saudi bombing campaign.
Obviously, none of this enhances U.S. national security. But how many Americans are even awarethat we are actively involved in a war in Yemen?
Last year I introduced abipartisanbillwith Sen. Murphyto stop a U.S. transfer of arms and dollars costing $1.15 billion in all to the Saudis. The Senate voted to allow the sale. The debate, however, prompted President Obama to reconsider and ultimately to cancel the sale of more bombs to Saudi Arabia.
Now, the Trump administration is considering going ahead with more missile sales to Saudi Arabia. This would be a serious mistake. If the sale is debated in Congress, I will reintroduce legislation to stop it.
Other reasons not to sell offensive arms to Saudi Arabia include their abysmal human rights record and lingering questions about that nations possible role in 9/11.
The families of 9/11 victims have an active legal case alleging Saudi culpability for 9/11. These are complaints that bear review, considering that 16 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.
One of thememosdiscovered during the Hillary Clinton email leak stated, We need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligenceassetsto bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIS and other radical groups in the region.
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A State Departmentcablereleased byWikileaksin 2009 revealed,Saudi Arabia remains a criticalfinancialsupport base for al-Qaeda [and] the Taliban []
Why dont we hear more about this?
President Trump promised to put America first again, precisely because so much of what we have done in our foreign policy in recent years has been to other countries benefitbut to the detriment of the U.S.
In the upcoming debate, I hope the president will seriously consider the unintended consequences of getting us mired in yet another Middle East war.
That would be a mistake. I think its high time we start learning from our mistakes.
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Rand Paul: The US should not fund Saudi Arabia's war on Yemen - Rare.us