[Peace] The Stranger [Seattle]: Rep. Adam Smith Could Help Stop the War in Yemen by Cosponsoring a New Bill, but Right Now He's Still Thinkin' on It

Sun May 8 15:28:16 UTC 2022

Please spread this all around. Especially to anyone you know who lives in
Seattle.

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2022/05/06/72620997/rep-adam-smith-could-help-stop-the-war-in-yemen-by-cosponsoring-a-new-bill-but-right-now-hes-still-thinkin-on-it

Rep. Adam Smith Could Help Stop the War in Yemen by Cosponsoring a New
Bill, but Right Now He's Still Thinkin' on It

by Rich Smith • May 6, 2022 at 6:25 pm

This past March, the United States marked its eighth year of support for a
Saudi-led war in Yemen that has *killed*
<http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/10/yemen-civilian-deaths-double-since-un-monitors-removed-ngo-says>
nearly 400,000 people and pushed millions to the brink of starvation.
There's a bunch of bad stuff going on in the world right now, but the
United Nations *calls* <http://www.wfp.org/yemen-crisis> the situation in
Yemen "the world's worst humanitarian crisis."

In his capacity as chair of the House Armed Services Committee,
Seattle-area Congressman Adam Smith holds *immense power*
<http://www.thestranger.com/slog/2021/08/20/60552153/its-past-time-to-end-us-support-for-the-war-in-yemen>
in ending this ongoing crisis. Earlier this week a coalition of local and
Washington state organizations sent him a *letter*
<http://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1-zVA3l1tCOFSfw03j8aBQGaS6EBVoW5YjWKeUcpj0Qo/mobilebasic>
asking him to support a bill that could do just that. So far, he remains
"open" but noncommittal to the legislation, which seems odd given his
previous support for nearly identical proposals, and odd given general
support for the bill from a number of slightly less hawkish members of the
foreign policy establishment.

In their letter, the organizations — including the Yemen Relief and
Reconstruction Foundation, Country Doctor Community Health Centers, and
various anti-war and progressive groups — asked Smith to cosponsor a
*forthcoming*
<http://www.thenation.com/article/world/yemen-wars-power-resoultion/?utm_source=P%26S%3A+Drone+News+Roundup+%E2%80%94+All&utm_campaign=7040d9c2e1-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_08_01_04_01_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_066db1cbcd-7040d9c2e1-391882509>
War Powers Resolution to end U.S. military participation in the Saudi
attacks on Yemen.

The legislation, which fellow Western Washingtonian Rep. Pramila Jayapal
and Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio will introduce soon, basically mirrors the
language of proposed amendments to the 2020-22 versions of the National
Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would have "terminated" all US
logistical support, intelligence sharing, spare parts transfers, and
maintenance of Saudi warplanes.

The country uses the planes to conduct air raids in Yemen. As the
organizers note, this January Saudi planes hit a migrant detention facility
and a telecoms facility, *killing*
<http://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/death-toll-rises-91-yemen-detention-centre-strike-houthi-minister-2022-01-25/>
at least 60 people, injuring more than 200, and triggering *a four-day
internet outage*
<http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/25/yemens-internet-returns-after-airstrike-causes-4-day-blackout>
across the country.

Foreign policy *experts*
<http://responsiblestatecraft.org/2022/03/21/numbers-dont-lie-more-saudi-attacks-on-yemen-came-after-new-us-support/>
agree that Saudi Arabia cannot keep its planes in the air if the US stops
fixing them up when they land, so President Joe Biden's signature on this
bill would ground the Saudi air force, prevent them from continuing to wage
this war, and end the naval and arial blockades that sank nearly 20 million
Yemenis into food insecurity. In short, it could end the world's worst
humanitarian crisis.

But Rep. Smith is still thinkin' on it. Over the phone, he said he hasn't
signed onto the legislation because the sponsors haven’t introduced it yet.
When asked why not sign on as an original cosponsor given his previous
support for similar legislation, he said he's seen some drafts and has a
couple concerns. One of those concerns involves procedure, and the other
involves strategy. Both concerns perplex me for different reasons; his
procedural concern seems ironic, and his strategic concern contradicts
previous votes he's taken on the issue.

His procedural concerns involves the vehicle of the legislation and its
language. Rather than stick the policy in a bill that runs through the
regular process of committee meetings and markups, the current prime
sponsors used a joint resolution under the War Powers Act of 1973, a law
Congress passed after Vietnam to reduce the President's power to make war
without Congressional oversight. Essentially, this vehicle fast-tracks the
legislation to the House and Senate floors, and then, if successful, up to
the President's desk. Most importantly, the proposal's language defines
spare parts transfers and maintenance of Saudi warplanes as "hostilities"
under the War Powers Act's definition of the term. Smith said he's
concerned "but not overwhelmingly concerned" about passage of this bill
"potentially setting a precedent" that would lead to Congress weighing in
more often in this speedy way when it comes to other conflicts around the
world where US personnel keep warplanes up and running.

Smith's concern here seems somewhat minor and strange given his position.
Successful passage of the bill could motivate other members of Congress to
try to shut down US "hostilities" in other wars around the globe, but those
Reps would still need to rally support to end our involvement in whichever
conflict was at issue. Given how long it's taken to get the US even this
close to ending its complicity with literally the worst thing happening on
the planet, rallying that support seems like a heavy lift. Furthermore,
it's unclear why the chair of the House Armed Services Committee would
worry about setting a precedent that would give Congress (and,
theoretically, the people) *more power *in deciding when the US does war
stuff. But, ya know, to each his own.

Smith said a letter written in July of 2021 by Oxfam, Mercy Corps, the
Norwegian Refugee Council, and other groups informs his strategic concerns.
In the letter, those groups argued that the pressure on the Saudi's worked
to reduce air strikes but embolden the Houthis, who they blame for keeping
the war going and for poaching the humanitarian aid sent to the country.
"We are concerned that any Congressional engagement that ignores these
changes and assigns US defense assistance substantial responsibility for
driving the conflict and the humanitarian crisis would be
counterproductive. Such engagement relieves pressure and diverts scrutiny
from the armed actors who continue to put their own military and political
interests ahead of the survival of the Yemeni people," they wrote.

Despite the views expressed in that letter, Smith, as *The Stranger*
<http://www.thestranger.com/slog/2021/09/21/61348967/congressman-smith-takes-important-step-to-effectively-end-us-support-for-war-in-yemen>
reported at the time, boldly went on to support an amendment in the NDAA
that would end US logistical support for the war, which, if successful,
would certainly have counted as "Congressional engagement" on the matter.
The amendment, however, ended up failing, likely due to opposition from the
Biden Administration.

Smith acknowledged the discrepancy between signing onto the NDAA amendment
in 2021 despite concerns from those groups and weighing those concerns more
heavily now, but said "I was troubled by it then, and I'm troubled by it
now," adding that Oxfam and Mercy Corps have not changed their position on
this issue. He also emphasized that he's still just working through his
thought process, and added that he'd received another draft of the
legislation's language today. "I’m going to look at it. This is a process,"
he said.

"I want peace in Yemen. I don’t want the Houthis to win. I don’t want the
Saudis to win. I want peace," he said.

While Rep. Smith continues to deliberate, others prominent members of the
national security establishment are signing on. California Rep. Adam
Schiff, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, signed onto the
resolution as a cosponsor. And if that guy doesn't have problems with
precedent or with emboldening the Houthis in a war they've *pretty much
already won*
<http://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2022/02/01/the-houthis-have-won-in-yemen-what-next/>,
then it's not clear who else should. And, of course, closer to home, more
than a dozen anti-war organizations think Smith shouldn’t have a problem
with any of that either. If there’s some other constituency at play here,
Smith didn’t mention them.

That said, even if the bill gets through the House, President Biden's
recalcitrance on this issue and a 50-50 Senate will be sizable hurdles to
jump.

Rich Smith

Rich Smith is The Stranger's associate editor. He writes about politics,
books, and performance. You can read his poems at www.richsmithpoetry.com
<https://richsmithpoetry.com/>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace/attachments/20220508/fa24edbc/attachment.htm>