To: The United States House of Representatives and The United States Senate
Tell @BarackObama: Make restitution in Urbana for the catastrophic Saudi war in Yemen
Just Foreign Policy
Use your Sept. 7 speech at the University of Illinois in Urbana to call for ending the biblically-catastrophic U.S.-Saudi war in Yemen.
Why is this important?
Former U.S. President Barack Obama is coming to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on September 7, to receive an award for “ethics in government.” [1]
Barack Obama’s career in government has a gruesome moral stain, for which he still has the opportunity to make restitution. In March 2015, as President of the United States, Barack Obama approved U.S. military intervention in Yemen on behalf of Saudi Arabia. The subsequent unnecessary and unjustified Saudi war and blockade in Yemen has created the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, with millions of human beings pushed deliberately to the brink of starvation, a “famine” imposed by Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and Britain akin to the British-imposed “Great Famine” in Ireland between 1845 and 1849. Obama’s unnecessary and unjustified military intervention on behalf of the Saudis in Yemen was and remains unconstitutional and illegal. It occurred and is ongoing without having been authorized by Congress, in flagrant violation of Article I of the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution of 1973.
“It’s not a radical idea” to speak out against this ongoing, illegal U.S.-enabled Saudi atrocity. Senator Bernie Sanders said on September 1: “We must end U.S. support for this disastrous war in Yemen. It is also long past time that we begin to take a very hard look at our relationship with Saudi Arabia.” [2]
Barack Obama isn’t President of the United States anymore. But that doesn’t end his personal moral responsibility for the ongoing atrocities of the U.S.-backed Saudi famine-war in Yemen. The atrocities of the U.S.-Saudi war in Yemen continue today. Just last month the U.S. helped Saudi Arabia blow up a bus full of schoolchildren, which Saudi Arabia still claims was a “legitimate military target.” UN investigators say Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have killed thousands of civilians in Yemen in airstrikes, tortured detainees, raped civilians and used child soldiers as young as 8, actions which are likely war crimes. [3] Barack Obama is speaking out now about “American values.” He could speak out now about ending this war. Helping Saudi Arabia blow up buses full of schoolkids isn’t an “American value” that the majority of Americans would ever vote for, if they were ever allowed to vote on it. If Obama spoke out now for ending the biblically-catastrophic Saudi war in Yemen, it would pressure Democratic leaders in Congress push for a vote to end the war.
Obama’s silence on the atrocities of the war helps to perpetuate those atrocities. After the Saudis bombed the bus full of kids, liberal foreign policy expert Micah Zenko wrote: “The only reason that I can guess why the United States continues to arm, train, and provide essential logistical support for the air campaign in Yemen, is that this support has occurred during both Democratic and Republican administrations; as we learned in Vietnam previously and Afghanistan every day, where poor strategic decisions are made and sustained by administrations of both major political parties, there is no political advantage for the party out of power to critique current policy.” [4] Obama could personally change this dynamic by speaking out now.
Some Obama Administration officials have already admitted that it was a moral mistake for the Obama Administration to enable Saudi Arabia’s famine-war in Yemen. Samantha Power, who as Obama’s Ambassador to the UN defended the war, said last December, "The US is … wrong (as were we in last admin) to keep supporting Saudi-led coalition as it kills civilians w/ impunity & blocks medicine/food/fuel supplies in face of looming famine." [5]
Urge Barack Obama to speak out in Urbana on September 7 for ending the biblically-catastrophic U.S.-Saudi war in Yemen by signing our petition.
References:
1. “Obama to speak Sept. 7 at UI,” Julie Wurth and Ben Zigterman, Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, 8/30/2018, http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2018-08-30/obama-speak-sept-7-ui.html
2. “We must end U.S. support for this disastrous war in Yemen,” Senator Bernie Sanders, 1 Sep 2018, https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1036064182259593216
3. “War Crimes Report on Yemen Accuses Saudi Arabia and U.A.E.,” Nick Cumming-Bruce, New York Times, Aug. 28, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/28/world/middleeast/un-yemen-war-crimes.html
4. “America Is Committing War Crimes and Doesn’t Even Know Why,” Micah Zenko, Foreign Policy, August 15, 2018, https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/08/15/america-is-committing-awful-war-crimes-and-it-doesnt-even-know-why/
5. “Power: Trump wrong to continue supporting Saudi-led coalition in Yemen,”
Julia Manchester, The Hill, 12/17/17, http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/365316-power-trump-wrong-to-continue-supporting-saudi-led-coalition-in
Barack Obama’s career in government has a gruesome moral stain, for which he still has the opportunity to make restitution. In March 2015, as President of the United States, Barack Obama approved U.S. military intervention in Yemen on behalf of Saudi Arabia. The subsequent unnecessary and unjustified Saudi war and blockade in Yemen has created the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, with millions of human beings pushed deliberately to the brink of starvation, a “famine” imposed by Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and Britain akin to the British-imposed “Great Famine” in Ireland between 1845 and 1849. Obama’s unnecessary and unjustified military intervention on behalf of the Saudis in Yemen was and remains unconstitutional and illegal. It occurred and is ongoing without having been authorized by Congress, in flagrant violation of Article I of the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution of 1973.
“It’s not a radical idea” to speak out against this ongoing, illegal U.S.-enabled Saudi atrocity. Senator Bernie Sanders said on September 1: “We must end U.S. support for this disastrous war in Yemen. It is also long past time that we begin to take a very hard look at our relationship with Saudi Arabia.” [2]
Barack Obama isn’t President of the United States anymore. But that doesn’t end his personal moral responsibility for the ongoing atrocities of the U.S.-backed Saudi famine-war in Yemen. The atrocities of the U.S.-Saudi war in Yemen continue today. Just last month the U.S. helped Saudi Arabia blow up a bus full of schoolchildren, which Saudi Arabia still claims was a “legitimate military target.” UN investigators say Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have killed thousands of civilians in Yemen in airstrikes, tortured detainees, raped civilians and used child soldiers as young as 8, actions which are likely war crimes. [3] Barack Obama is speaking out now about “American values.” He could speak out now about ending this war. Helping Saudi Arabia blow up buses full of schoolkids isn’t an “American value” that the majority of Americans would ever vote for, if they were ever allowed to vote on it. If Obama spoke out now for ending the biblically-catastrophic Saudi war in Yemen, it would pressure Democratic leaders in Congress push for a vote to end the war.
Obama’s silence on the atrocities of the war helps to perpetuate those atrocities. After the Saudis bombed the bus full of kids, liberal foreign policy expert Micah Zenko wrote: “The only reason that I can guess why the United States continues to arm, train, and provide essential logistical support for the air campaign in Yemen, is that this support has occurred during both Democratic and Republican administrations; as we learned in Vietnam previously and Afghanistan every day, where poor strategic decisions are made and sustained by administrations of both major political parties, there is no political advantage for the party out of power to critique current policy.” [4] Obama could personally change this dynamic by speaking out now.
Some Obama Administration officials have already admitted that it was a moral mistake for the Obama Administration to enable Saudi Arabia’s famine-war in Yemen. Samantha Power, who as Obama’s Ambassador to the UN defended the war, said last December, "The US is … wrong (as were we in last admin) to keep supporting Saudi-led coalition as it kills civilians w/ impunity & blocks medicine/food/fuel supplies in face of looming famine." [5]
Urge Barack Obama to speak out in Urbana on September 7 for ending the biblically-catastrophic U.S.-Saudi war in Yemen by signing our petition.
References:
1. “Obama to speak Sept. 7 at UI,” Julie Wurth and Ben Zigterman, Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, 8/30/2018, http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2018-08-30/obama-speak-sept-7-ui.html
2. “We must end U.S. support for this disastrous war in Yemen,” Senator Bernie Sanders, 1 Sep 2018, https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1036064182259593216
3. “War Crimes Report on Yemen Accuses Saudi Arabia and U.A.E.,” Nick Cumming-Bruce, New York Times, Aug. 28, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/28/world/middleeast/un-yemen-war-crimes.html
4. “America Is Committing War Crimes and Doesn’t Even Know Why,” Micah Zenko, Foreign Policy, August 15, 2018, https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/08/15/america-is-committing-awful-war-crimes-and-it-doesnt-even-know-why/
5. “Power: Trump wrong to continue supporting Saudi-led coalition in Yemen,”
Julia Manchester, The Hill, 12/17/17, http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/365316-power-trump-wrong-to-continue-supporting-saudi-led-coalition-in