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Sanders Introduces Bill to End Catastrophic US War in Yemen

Three years of U.S.-Saudi war has turned Yemen into the worst humanitarian crisis on Earth. Senators Bernie Sanders and Mike Lee introduced a bipartisan bill to end the U.S. role in the war

EN NORTON: Senators have introduced bipartisan legislation that seeks to end the United States' role in the devastating Saudi war in Yemen, which has created the largest humanitarian catastrophe on the planet.

The campaign behind the bill is being led by Vermont's progressive independent Senator Bernie Sanders. He introduced the legislation at the press conference on Wednesday, February 28.

BERNIE SANDERS: For far too long, Congress, under Democratic and Republican administrations, has abdicated its constitutional role in authorizing war. The time is long overdue for Congress to reassert its constitutional authority.

BEN NORTON: The bill cites the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which gives Congress oversight over wars waged by the Executive Branch.
Senator Sanders' office stressed that the legislation is historic, as it “will force the first-ever vote in the Senate to withdraw U.S. armed forces from an unauthorized war.”

BERNIE SANDERS: We believe that, as Congress has not declared war or authorized military force in this conflict, the United States' involvement in Yemen is unconstitutional and unauthorized, and U.S. military support of the Saudi coalition must end.

BEN NORTON: Since March 2015, the United States has helped Saudi Arabia wage a relentless bombing campaign and enforce a crippling blockade of Yemen.
In an effort to beat back Yemen's Houthi rebels, Washington has sold the Saudi monarchy billions of dollars in weapons, which have been used to indiscriminately attack civilian areas in the country, the poorest in the Middle East.

The U.S. has played a direct role in the war, refueling Saudi warplanes, providing military intelligence, helping to enforce the blockade, and even placing American military officials inside the Saudi command and control center.

This war has unleashed the world's biggest humanitarian crisis, fueling the preventable deaths of tens of thousands of Yemenis, pushing millions more to the brink of famine, and producing the worst cholera outbreak in recorded history.

BERNIE SANDERS: Many Americans are unaware that the people of Yemen are suffering today in a devastating civil war with Saudi Arabia and their allies on one side and Houthi rebels on the other.

In November of this year, the United Nations emergency relief coordinator said that Yemen was on the brink of “the largest famine the world has seen for many decades.” So far at least 10,000 civilians have died and over 40,000 have been wounded in the war. And 3 million people have been displaced.

Many Americans are also not aware that U.S. forces have been actively involved in support of the sorties in this war, providing intelligence and aerial refueling of planes whose bombs have killed thousands of people and made this crisis far worse.

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