End U.S. Support for the War in Yemen
The war in Yemen is said to be the world’s worst man-made humanitarian disaster, with 6,800 Yemeni civilians killed, 10,700 wounded, and 14 million on the brink of suffering from the world’s worst famine in 100 years. As the Arab world’s poorest nation, Yemen has suffered three long years of war fought between supporters of the Yemeni government and the Houthis, with the government backed by powerful countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United States, France, and England, and the Houthis supported by Iran.
The United States, England, and France remain complicit in the war crimes led by Saudi Arabia by supplying weapons and intel to a coalition of Arab nations formed by Saudi Arabia. This Arab coalition includes Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, Senegal, Egypt, and Bahrain, and has deployed military troops and executed air attacks in Yemen against the Houthis. Half of the Yemeni civilian casualties were due to coalition air strikes led by the Saudis. Combatting these efforts, Iran is believed to be deploying military aid and weapons to support the Houthis.
As war continues and the death toll increases, innocent Yemeni civilians continue to be victims of human rights violations and suffer from lack of life-saving medicine and food. Innocent Yemeni children have paid the price of this unnecessary war, as 400,000 children under the age of five now suffer from severe acute malnutrition. More than 8 million civilians are at risk of starvation, and 17 million Yemenis do not know where they will get their next meal from. In fact, many regions controlled by Houthis prevent Yemenis from receiving much needed supplies sent by international aid organizations. More than three million Yemenis have fled for their lives to other safer regions within Yemen, and 280,000 are seeking asylum in nearby countries. Those who remain in Yemen continue to suffer from inadequate healthcare, scarcity of food, and shelter as a result of the blockade that began in 2015.
The toll is now at 40,000 casualties, and it is estimated that one child dies every 10 minutes as a result of the extreme hunger and disease in Yemen. The number of casualties is expected to increase, due to the continuing blockade on Yemen’s northern ports of entry which prevents humanitarian organizations from providing life-saving, urgent access to food and medical treatment for malnutrition suffered by thousands of children.
While deployed to Afghanistan, I witnessed firsthand the tragic effects that war has on the most vulnerable and innocent in society: women and children. During my yearlong deployment, I led humanitarian convoy missions to refugee camps, women’s shelters, and children’s orphanages, only to leave heartbroken and helpless by the pain and suffering these innocent civilians had to live through. As I was sometimes the only woman on these missions, many of the Afghan women at the refugee camps ran to me, pouring their hearts out, sharing their stories, and begging for aid for their children. At one refugee camp, a woman gently threw medical paperwork in my face, begging for us to find medical care for her child, who was born with a form of leprosy after being born on the dirt floor of their make-shift refugee tent. All we had brought were bags of food and some toys, yet these children were in need of so much more. Instead of feeling like we had actually made a difference, I always left the refugee camps feeling like we had only put a band-aid on a bullet wound, realizing that our food and supplies would only last the families for another couple of days and wouldn’t even address the much needed medical attention to the women and children.
This year, for the first time in our nation’s history, the U.S. Senate has resurrected the War Powers Resolution Act of 1973 by voting to advance a resolution to finally end military support for the horrific, unnecessary war in Yemen led by Saudi Arabia and backed by the United States.
The war in Yemen is yet another shameful reminder of how history continues to repeat itself, and it seems as if little has been learned from past atrocities. While the pocketbooks of war mongers who benefit from unending conflict continue to grow, so do the number of deaths of innocent women and children. As I witnessed in Afghanistan, the pain and suffering, starvation, and lack of medical attention in Yemen disproportionately affect women and children, the voiceless and most vulnerable of society — and, all of it is preventable. It is crucial that we urge our elected officials to pass the resolution to terminate U.S. funding of weapons and intel to the Saudi government, used to inflict suffering on innocent Yemeni people. This is a tragedy and will be looked back on as a shameful time in our nation’s history.
Christina Prejean is a U.S. Air Force veteran and served in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. She and her husband are California Attorneys and have represented military sexual assault victims and Central American asylum seekers. Prejean is a member of Truman National Security Project’s Defense Council. She is the proud dog-mom of Bella, who she rescued while stationed in Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. Prejean is a feminist, and equal rights, animal rights, and civil rights activist. She is bilingual in Spanish and has a passion for backpacking the world; recently returning back to the Middle East for the first time since her deployment, backpacking through Jordan, Lebanon, and Morocco. Join her on social media, @MotionToRoam.
