Note: We are very pleased to see the US Senate vote against continuation of US involvement with Saudi Arabia in the war in Yemen. To be clear, this was a vote for discharge, then comes cloture, then amendments (which could be awful), then passage. Then the House and the White House. Each step gives the movement an opportunity to grow and build pressure to end the war.
This brutal conflict is more a slaughter than a war and needs to be stopped. While this vote will not immediately change anything it is an important rebuke to both Trump and Saudi Arabia. The fact that the GOP controlled Senate voted against their Republican president in this first vote should increase pressure on the administration to stop supporting this war.
The bill, which the White House has threatened to veto, was co-sponsored by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Chris Murphy (D-CT), would force the US to cease its support for the Saudi-led coalition in its bloody fight against the Houthi rebels in Yemen within 30 days.
The bill will invoke the War Powers Resolution of 1973 which states that if US troops are involved in “hostilities” abroad “without a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization, such forces shall be removed by the President if the Congress so directs by concurrent resolution.”
People need to continue to pressure their elected representatives and the White House to end the war in Yemen. KZ
House of Representatives Likely to Join Senate in Opposing Yemen War
The US Senate’s floor vote of 63 to 37 to invoke the War Powers Resolution to end the US role in the Saudi and United Arab Emirates war in Yemen is “historic” and will likely be followed by House passage of a companion resolution, Center for Economic and Policy Research Co-Director
Mark Weisbrot said today.
“This is a historic vote reasserting Congress’s constitutional authority to decide when and where the US engages in wars. The Senate has never before exercised its powers under the 1973 War Powers Resolution.
“While the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, likely ordered and then covered-up by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, has angered many in Congress, this vote came close to passing earlier this year, before the assassination, and would have passed even if that had not happened.
“The Saudis’ war on Yemen, which has caused what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian disaster, and which has brought 14 million people to the brink of famine, is deeply unpopular.
“Now that the Senate has passed this resolution, the House is likely to follow suit. The companion resolution introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), H.Con.Res. 138, has 93 cosponsors, including all the Democratic leadership, Nancy Pelosi and the representatives who will chair the most important committees in the new Congress.”
Weisbrot has previously condemned the US military’s mid-air refueling, logistics, special operations, and targeting assistance to Saudi Arabia and the UAE to assist their operations in Yemen.