If Houthis didn't try to shamelessly capitalize on every tragedy the coalition inflicts, it would be a lot easier to get the world/the west to take these crimes seriously. Here are some of the ways the Houthis' exploitation of civilian casualties harms the Yemeni people:
When you turn dead children into propaganda, you put the reality of their deaths up for debate. Houthis have no credibility, therefore these victims lose credibility. You rob their deaths of the recognition they are due by associating them with you.
This kind of propaganda makes it possible for the coalition to say that civcas reports are false, and possible for policymakers in the US and UK to believe the coalition (or at least pretend to).
This makes it much harder for humanitarian and pro-peace orgs in the west to talk to our governments about imposing accountability and consequences on the coalition without being painted as partisan by everyone who hates the Houthis.
credibility problem does damage on all sides: if people disbelieve the Houthis when they talk abt civilian deaths in their territory, those who don't trust the coalition become more likely to disbelieve reports from coalition territory. We end up minimizing tragedies everywhere.
Let's be clear: the Houthi leadership doesn't care about dead children. Not even a little. If they did, they wouldn't recruit children to fight, shell civilian neighborhoods, starve a city full of people. If they're talking about a tragedy, they're exploiting it.
These kids didn't die for your cause, @abdusalamsalah. They died because of it. So long as you keep dragging this war on, you bear just as much blame for their deaths as the ones who dropped the bombs.
It's not just civilian casualty reports that US officials feel free to disbelieve; the same credibility problem applies to every aspect of the humanitarian crisis as well. We tell them the blockade is killing people, they say we're spreading Houthi propaganda.
As long as US officials have an excuse to disbelieve in the suffering of the Yemeni people, it will remain very difficult to get the US out of this war. If you stop propagandizing that suffering, maybe we can make them believe it.
These are the facts: the Houthis murder children every day. The coalition murders children every day. The Yemeni government is complicit in every death. The US is complicit in every death. This war needs to stop. Children are #NotATarget. Children are also #NotYourPropaganda.
