Sheldon Richman Asks: What the Hell Are We Doing in Yemen?
The Obama administration is assisting Saudi Arabia in creating a humanitarian catastrophe in the Middle East's poorest country.
The U.S. government has charged into another civil war in the Middle East. The Obama administration is assisting Saudi Arabia in its bombing of Yemen, creating—in concert with the Saudi embargo—a humanitarian catastrophe in the Middle East's poorest country. Civilians are dying, and what infrastructure the country has is being destroyed.
Why? Secretary of State John Kerry says the United States won't "stand by while the region is destabilized." But Kerry must know that bombing is a terrible way to prevent destabilization, Sheldon Richman writes. Kerry isn't stupid—but that means he's a liar and a demagogue. Note that he says "the region," not "Yemen." Why would a civil war in Yemen affect the whole region? Because according to the official narrative, Yemen is under siege by agents of Iran, the Houthis.
Iran today serves the same purpose the Soviet Union, or the International Communist Conspiracy, served from the end of World War II until the collapse of the Soviet empire, argues RIchman. Iran is the all-purpose arch enemy on which virtually any evil can be blamed.