Yemen — A Story of Tragedy And Lack of American Leadership
Usjid Hameed, NLC Columbus

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and not of any institution or organization.
The civil war in Yemen is now squarely in its third year. It continues to remain a humanitarian disaster with little gain on either side of the conflict since its start. The United Nations estimates that more than 3 million Yemenis have been displaced because of the war (Al Jazeera 2018). Many are without essentials and the country is experiencing the worst cholera outbreak in human history. As of March 2018, the war has seen 40,000 casualties with at least 10,000 Yemeni deaths.
The war’s primary combatants are the Houthi insurgents, whom the U.S. and Saudi Arabia believe are an Iranian proxy, and the U.S. supported Saudi-led coalition, which has caused the majority of the 10,000 civilian deaths through its bombing campaign and blockades (Al-batati and Gladstone 2018). Given the brutal and stalemated nature of the war, the international community must work to end the conflict. Otherwise, it could continue for years to come and accelerate if other international actors, such as the Russians, play a more direct role as they have done in Syria.
President Trump has increased America’s role in the war since coming into office without providing the American public or Congress a clear goal or conditions for peace and has made America complicit in the deaths of thousands of innocents through his support for the Saudi-led coalition. The U.S. must make its political objective clear and recognize opportunities to sue for peace so that this conflict may end.
What is going on?
In 2014, the Houthis, a Zaydi rebel group loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, took control of Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, and other western parts of the country. The Saudi-led coalition, fearing that the Houthis are an Iranian proxy, began a bombing campaign in March 2015 to restore the internationally recognized government of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and roll back rebel advances. The U.S. was quick to come to the aid of its Saudi ally and has steadily increased its involvement in the war. Under the Obama administration, the U.S. offered intelligence support, mid-air refueling for Saudi aircraft, and authorized over billions of dollars in weapons sales to the Saudi government for its efforts in Yemen. However, after Saudi warplanes bombed a funeral in late 2016 killing 140 civilians, the Obama administration halted some of the sales (Bazzi 2018).
In early 2017, the Trump administration “reversed a decision by former president Barack Obama to suspend the sale of over $500 [million] in laser-guided bombs and other munitions to the Saudi military, over concerns about civilian deaths in Yemen,” a move which was approved by a 53 to 47 vote in the U.S. Senate (Bazzi 2018). President Trump later authorized the deployment of special forces to the Saudi-Yemeni border in December 2017 to locate and destroy Houthi training sites and missiles, upsetting some members of Congress as they felt that the President should have consulted the legislative body (Sampathkumar 2018).
Unsurprisingly, the bombing of civilians has continued. In early August, an airstrike launched by the Saudi-led coalition hit a school bus filled with dozens of people. The attack killed 51 people, 40 of them children (Elbagir, Nima, Salma, Ryan, and Smith-Spark 2018). The top U.S. air commander in the region, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, expressed his frustration following the airstrike by saying that he “would not speculate on how or why the school bus was struck” as “that was the focus of the ongoing investigation…Clearly, we’re concerned about civilian casualties …The key here is to take appropriate action.” Despite the General’s remarks, the chances the U.S. instituting punitive measures against the Saudis is quite slim.
The current administration’s staunch support for the Saudi-led coalition stems from its intention to aggressively contain the Houthi insurgency, which it believes is a proxy of Iran. While there is significant debate regarding the degree of Iranian influence over Houthi leadership, repeated investigations have shown that the Houthis are using drones, anti-tank weapons, and missiles manufactured in Iran (Saul, Georgy, and Hafezi 2017). Iranian leaders deny supplying such weaponry.
Nevertheless, a well-trained and well-supplied Houthi force furthers Iranian interests by at the very least, maintaining a non-state actor which will vex Saudi Arabia, and at the very most, providing a small political foothold in Yemen for Iran from which a possible “Hezbollah” like force could be built (2017). Both scenarios are non-starters for the Saudis given their ongoing geopolitical struggle with the Iranians.
The conflict in Yemen is made more complicated with the relatively recent revelations of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a member state of the Saudi-led coalition, playing an increasingly significant role efforts to combat the Houthi insurgency. The UAE has trained roughly 25,000 local fighters and has taken over several southern ports (The Economist 2018). Analysts remark that by influencing local leaders and securing Yemeni ports, the UAE is working “to enhance the position of its own port at Jebel Ali, the region’s largest, either by stifling competition or directing traffic in its direction” (2018). Given that Yemen is already one of the region’s most impoverished countries, UAE efforts to stifle Yemeni ports only pose an additional challenge to creating a secure and stable Yemen.
The Role of the U.S.
In June 2018, UAE backed ground forces launched a major offensive to take the port city of Hudaydah and its airport from the Houthis (BBC News 2018). This maneuver potentially marks a critical point in the war as 70 percent of Yemen’s humanitarian aid and 90 percent of its commercial supplies flow through the city’s deep-water port (Dempsey 2018). Should the fighting destroy the port or block humanitarian aid, the conditions for the weary Yemeni population will only become exasperated. The fighting over Hudaydah will likely continue for several weeks however, given the superior firepower of Saudi-led coalition, the Houthis will likely lose control (2018).
This assault presents an opportunity for the US-backed Saudi-led coalition to push for a settlement following the battle for Hudaydah. The U.S. should aggressively prod Saudi Arabia and its coalition members to the negotiating table so that this horrific conflict may come to an end and the civilian deaths may cease. Should no political settlement be reached, this war may drag on for years leading to a worsening of the humanitarian crisis.
The U.S. already is involved in numerous conflicts abroad. Following 9/11, Congress passed a 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) which allowed the President to engage in military action against the organizations and individuals responsible for the terror attacks. American Presidents have utilized this authorization quite liberally leading to the U.S. now having troops in at least 14 different countries battling non-state actors that are avowed enemies of America or have tenuous connections to those groups (New York Times 2018). The two most well-known countries, Iraq and Afghanistan, have housed American troops for over a decade and a half. The American public has grown weary of repeated foreign interventions which have no clear political objective or exit strategy.
Thankfully, some members in Congress recognize that the U.S. should be restrained in Yemen. In 2017, the House passed a resolution saying that the U.S. should not assist Saudi Arabia in its fight against the Houthis because the 2001 AUMF only authorizes the U.S. military to fight groups such as Al-Qaeda or ISIS. Earlier this year, the Senate voted down 55–44 a measure to end U.S. participation in the war (Harris 2018). Although the House resolution was non-binding and the Senate effort failed, both instances illustrate that Congress is growing increasingly frustrated with a war that has no end.
Americans must not allow this war to passively continue as Iraq and Afghanistan have. We must contact our members of congress and demand that they take binding action to halt support to the Saudi-led and demand that the Whitehouse explicitly outline its political objectives in Yemen. One would assume that a President who campaigned on an “America First” platform, which condemned foreign wars, would cease from expanding America’s commitments abroad. However, President Trump is doing just that in Yemen. He proudly stated on the campaign trail “I will never send our finest into battle unless necessary, and I mean absolutely necessary, and will only do so if we have a plan for victory with a capital V…. The world must know that we do not go abroad in search of enemies” (Dreazen 2017). Given that U.S. troops have been active in Yemen since at least 2017, this begs the questions “What does victory look like?” and “Will the White House recognize a chance for victory when it sees it?”

Usjid Hameed is an advocate and activist in Columbus, Ohio. He was a 2018 Inaugural Fellow with NLC-Columbus and currently serves on the organization’s board. He can be reached via email at usjidhameed@gmail.com or via Instagram @usjid_umar.
Al-batati, Saeed, and Rick Gladstone. “Saudi Bombing Is Said to Kill Yemeni Civilians Seeking Relief From the Heat.” The New York Times. April 02, 2018. Accessed July 18, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/02/world/middleeast/saudi-yemen-bombings.html.
Al Jazeera. “Key Facts about the War in Yemen.” March 25, 2018. Accessed July 19, 2018. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/06/key-facts-war-yemen-160607112342462.html.
BBC News. “Yemen War: Pro-government Forces ‘storm Hudaydah Airport’.” June 19, 2018. Accessed July 18, 2018. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-44534118?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/cp7r8vgl24lt/yemen-crisis&link_location=live-reporting-story.
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