On my way home from Yemen with one, clear message: to save lives, stop fueling the war. Congress needs to do that now.
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In case you missed it, Yemen is on the brink of a famine the likes of which none of us have ever witnessed. There’s no drought, typhoon, or earthquake causing this crisis – just naked lust for power.
Yemenis are determined to help each other through it. Every poor or displaced person in Yemen is only alive today thanks to the generosity and decency of her neighbors.
Example: community members and businesspeople opened a tiny one-room health clinic in Lahj run by volunteers and a @SavetheChildren health worker. It’s seeing 30-60 cases a day, mostly malnourished kids. Now they’re building 2 more rooms and shuttling extreme cases to hospital.
Humanitarian aid is helping. Local agencies as always are first to respond. They are often tiny but they make a huge difference. Oxfam’s work is critical too, & spans everything from cash to job training to the rehabilitation of Aden’s entire water and sanitation system.
But it’s not enough. Aid will never be enough as long as the economy remains under siege by warring parties that frankly don’t give a damn whether Yemenis live or die.
I received a sad compliment one day from a man from al Dhal’e. He said it was shameful that I came all the way from America to learn what is causing the suffering while leaders of the warring parties and his own government are all around but never show the slightest interest.
All parties are complicit, but assigning blame to specific actors isn't easy or helpful. Many observers cite Hodeidah as evidence of coalition & government indifference to suffering, but displaced Hodeidis are as likely to blame Houthis & their terrifying network of landmines.
Likewise, a group of women from Taiz told me that the infamous Houthi siege there was suffocating, but all parties made their lives hell, and it was actually coalition airstrikes, which killed their neighbors and finally convinced them to leave.
Those who argue that one side needs to progress militarily in order to ease the crisis or fend off aggression are distressingly out of touch with what the most vulnerable Yemenis want and how they view the conflict.
The majority of Yemenis, whose lives are in danger, are not interested in pointing fingers and aren’t focused on who wins the war or who controls which territory or ministries. They want safety, jobs, health care, and food they can afford. That's it.
A man displaced from Hodeidah and living in Southern Taiz governorate told me something I will never forget. “We are already living under the ground,” he said.
Members of Congress: hear them. Don’t look away. When it’s time to vote on legislation to end US involvement in this senseless war later this year, don’t rationalize away their suffering.
When you vote, it will not be about #justiceforjamal. That horrific assassination deserves an appropriate response in its own time. But don’t make yet another Yemen decision about US-Saudi relations. It devalues Yemeni lives.
(though it's reasonable to take a fresh look at Saudi and Emirati leaders' absurd arguments and justifications for their indefensible Yemen policies now that the Saudis' absurd explanations of Mr. Khashoggi's death are in plain sight)
Also, don’t vote for the war powers measure to damage the Saudi-led coalition's military prospects in Yemen. None of the parties, including the Houthis, deserve to prevail.
Vote to end US support to the Saudi-led coalition because that support, with no conditions or limitations, is giving political cover to an endless war that is threatening millions of lives.
As long as indefinite, unconditional US support for the Saudi-led coalition is on the table, none of the parties have an incentive to negotiate.
Given the multitude of parties fighting in Yemen, peace is not close. But an agreement can be reached that ends the airstrikes and the economic warfare that condemns Yemenis to death. Signaling an end to US support will hasten that agreement.
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