[Peace] Katrina vanden Heuvel: Congress’s war powers must be made a reality

Tue Oct 3 14:04:12 UTC 2017

Please spread this all around.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/congresss-war-powers
-must-be-made-a-reality/2017/10/03/096d8b74-a7c1-11e7-b3aa-
c0e2e1d41e38_story.html

*Congress’s war powers must be made a reality*

By Katrina vanden Heuvel
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/katrina-vanden-heuvel/>  October 3
at 8:21 AM

What does it take to get Congress to act on vital questions of war and
peace? The catastrophe in Yemen may test whether Congress is finally
prepared to exercise its constitutional responsibility. Four legislators —
two House Democrats and two Republicans — have introduced a resolution
<https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-concurrent-resolution/81/text?r=3>
under
the War Powers Act demanding a vote in 15 days to end U.S. involvement in
Saudi Arabia’s devastation of Yemen.

The resolution, co-sponsored by Democrats Ro Khanna and Mark Pocan (the
co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus) and by Republicans Thomas
Massie and Walter Jones, requires the “removal” of U.S. forces from the war
in Yemen unless Congress votes to authorize American involvement. Beginning
under President Barack Obama, the U.S. military has assisted the Saudi
campaign in Yemen, providing tankers for aerial refueling and targeting
intelligence against the Houthi rebels said to be backed by Iran. U.S.
support was reportedly part of a deal to get Saudi Arabia to be more
supportive of the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

The Saudi-led campaign in Yemen has been central to creating what U.N.
officials call the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. The carpet-bombing
of civilian areas has helped produce borderline famine for 7 million
<http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1013329/icode/>, 20 million in need
of humanitarian aid
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/more-than-20-million-people-are-at-risk-of-starving-to-death-will-the-world-step-up/2017/07/17/c7d7703c-6b14-11e7-b9e2-2056e768a7e5_story.html?utm_term=.712ad5bda528>
and
a spreading cholera epidemic that has already reached 700,000 cases
<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-41446342> and killed more than
2,000 <http://www.emro.who.int/yem/yemeninfocus/situation-reports.html>.

Saudi Arabia has faced growing global protests over the bombing of civilian
areas and other alleged violations of international law. Most recently, the
Saudis have barred relief flights from access to Yemen’s airport and
blocked delivery of four cranes financed by the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID) that are vital to unloading medicine and
food at Port Hodeida. Saudi influence managed to quash efforts by the
Netherlands to force an international inspection of war crimes two years
ago. Finally last month, the U.N. Human Rights Council passed a compromise
resolution
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/29/world/middleeast/yemen-saudi-rights-abuse.html?_r=1>calling
for the appointment of independent international experts to investigate
humanitarian abuses and identify those responsible.

During his campaign, Donald Trump expressed skepticism of failed U.S.
interventions across the Middle East. Since coming to office, however, he
has ratcheted up U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen. The pace
of U.S. bombing and interventions by special forces aimed at al-Qaeda in
the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has increased dramatically. Trump made no
mention of Saudi Arabia’s brutal attacks on Yemen in celebrating its
cooperation in the war on terrorism at the Arab Islamic American Summit
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-and-gulf-nations-agree-to-crack-down-on-terror-financing/2017/05/21/e1222b34-3dfd-11e7-9e48-c4f199710b69_story.html?utm_term=.b5b1317f0b5a>in
Riyadh. In spite of generally opposing all things Obama, Trump appears to
be doubling down on his predecessor’s policy toward Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

Although a reactionary monarchy, Saudi Arabia has long enjoyed a special
relationship with the United States. A blind eye has been turned toward its
support for spreading extreme fundamentalist Wahhabi doctrine and its
extensive financial ties to extremist organizations. The fact that the 15
of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudi citizens has been virtually
ignored. A document
on Saudi connections to the attackers
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/congress-releases-long-classified-28-pages-on-alleged-saudi-ties-to-911/2016/07/15/e8671fde-4ab1-11e6-bdb9-701687974517_story.html?utm_term=.1f90c1d0ecff>
(from
a larger congressional inquiry into the attacks) was released only last
year.

Now that impunity is starting to wear thin. In his foreign policy speech at
Westminster College, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) courageously called out
<https://www.vox.com/world/2017/9/21/16345600/bernie-sanders-full-text-transcript-foreign-policy-speech-westminster>
our
support for Saudi Arabia’s “destructive intervention in Yemen,” arguing
that “such policies dramatically undermine America’s ability to advance a
human rights agenda across the world.”

Later, in an interview with the Intercept’s Mehdi Hasan, Sanders elaborated
<https://theintercept.com/2017/09/22/bernie-sanders-interview-foreign-policy/>,
arguing that Saudi Arabia shouldn’t be considered “an ally,” because “it is
an undemocratic country that has supported terrorism across the world.”

The congressional resolution cites the State Department 2016 Country
Reports on Terrorism’s conclusion that the Yemen conflict is
“counterproductive to ongoing efforts . . . to pursue Al Qaeda and its
associated forces.” The Saudi intervention is creating yet another failed
state in which terrorists can take root.

As lead co-sponsor Khanna (D-Calif.) argues
<http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/09/28/lawmakers-demand-u-s-withdrawal-from-saudi-led-war-in-yemen/>,
the war powers resolution is long overdue: “Congress and the American
people know too little about the role we are playing in a war that is
causing suffering for millions of people and is a genuine threat to our
national security.”

The resolution will force Congress to debate this truly deplorable policy
that has implicated the United States in Saudi war crimes while fueling the
spread of terrorism. The establishment default about the endless wars
without victory or sense in the Middle East must end. Indeed, the
bipartisan nature of the co-sponsor list for the resolution indicates
interest on both sides of the aisle in revitalizing Congress as an
effective constitutional check on a long-out-of-control executive branch.
Khanna is hopeful that the debate on our support of the Saudi coalition in
Yemen will serve as a belated but necessary first step, demonstrating
growing bipartisan concern about continued foreign intervention.

===

Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
(202) 448-2898 x1 <(202)%20448-2898>

Co-Sponsor Khanna-Massie to #StopSaudiFamineInYemen
https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/force-vote-on-saudi-war?r_by=1135580
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