We will stop, but we won't? — US hypocrisy in Yemen continues

© 2018 Peter Free

 

12 November 2018

 

 

How we love double-speak

 

The Associated Press subtly highlighted US hypocrisy in Yemen:

 

 

The United States will stop refueling Saudi Arabian aircraft fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen, the Pentagon and the Saudi kingdom said late Friday.

 

The refueling change does not affect the U.S. military assistance and training to improve the Saudi airstrikes, which have reportedly caused thousands of civilian deaths.

 

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said[:] "The U.S. and the coalition are planning to collaborate on

 

building up legitimate Yemeni forces

 

to defend the Yemeni people,

 

secure their country's borders,

 

and

 

contribute to counter al-Qaida and ISIS efforts in Yemen and the region[.]"

 

 

[T]he decision to halt the U.S. refueling will likely have little impact on the fight, but will allow the Trump administration to say it has taken action against the Saudis for the devastation in Yemen.

 

© 2018 Lolita Baldor and Matthew Lee, US to stop refueling of Saudi aircraft in Yemen war, Military Times (12 November 2018) (reformatted for emphasis)

 

 

Translated

 

We will stop refueling the Saudi planes that have been slaughtering innocents. Not because it is the right thing to do. But because the optics regarding the Saudis are momentarily bad.

 

After all, the Saudis recently got a little rambunctious. They evidently ordered the murder of a dissident journalist (Jamal Khashoggi) in Saudi Arabia's Istanbul consulate. And, according to the Turks, they afterward dissolved his body in acid.

 

Now, how undiplomatically crass can one get?

 

Taken in total context, we can infer that American leaders view the Khasshoggi "incident" as noticeably worse than:

 

 

(a) killing thousands of innocent Yemenis,

 

(b) starting a nationwide famine —

 

all regarding matters that are

 

(c) completely unrelated to vital American interests.

 

 

Furthermore, according to Secretary (Mad Dog) Mattis, we — (presumably being God's ordained arbiters of global rectitude) — are going to determine which Yemenis are "legitimate" and which are not.

 

Thus, in spite of our refueling withdrawal, we will continue to help Saudis exterminate those Yemenis, whom we determine not to be properly Yemeni in their own country.

 

What could be more American than that?

 

 

The moral? —  Let the chips (and children) fall where they may — ?

 

It is so great to be a pillaging US imperialist, isn't it?

 

Profitable, too.

 

And what's a few dead brown people in a "shithole" country, anyway?