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Ahead of Historic War Powers Vote to End US Complicity in Yemen, ‘Tell Your Senators You’ll Be Watching’ – Jake Johnson (12/13/2018)

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wsw staff
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With the humanitarian crisis in Yemen getting worse by the day as Saudi Arabia continues to bombard the impoverished nation with the enthusiastic backing of the Trump administration, the U.S. Senate on Wednesday will have a historic opportunity to end America’s “participation in this horror” by voting on a War Powers resolution that would cut off military assistance the Saudi kingdom.

“Tell your senators you’ll be watching their vote today on our bill to end U.S. involvement in the war in Yemen,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who is sponsoring the resolution alongside Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah.), declared in a series of tweets. “The bombs dropped on children. The shrapnel left behind. The planes in the sky. All of this is made in America, sold to the Saudis, and used to perpetrate war crimes against the people of Yemen.”

On its website, Our Revolution provided a form, phone number, and sample call script for people to contact their senators and demand that they vote yes on the resolution:

The Senate’s vote on the Yemen War Powers resolution will come days after a new report by the U.K.-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project estimated that over 60,000 people have been killed in Yemen’s civil war, which began in 2015 has been stoked by years of U.S.-backed Saudi bombing.

“Today the U.S. Senate will vote on whether to end US support for the devastating Saudi-led war in Yemen. This would be the first time ever that the Senate has voted to end an unauthorized war.”
—Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)

This casualty estimate—which is six times higher than the previously reported number—does not include the 85,000 Yemeni children who are believed to have died of starvation, which the aid group Save the Children described as an “entirely preventable” consequence Saudi Arabia’s brutal attacks and blockades that have prevented food and life-saving medicine from reaching desperate Yemenis.

According to the United Nations, 12 million Yemenis are on the brink of famine.

“We must finally end U.S. involvement in this humanitarian and strategic disaster,” Sanders wrote in a tweet ahead of Wednesday’s vote.

If the measure passes, Sanders noted, it “would be the first time ever that the Senate has voted to end an unauthorized war.”

As Common Dreams reported, every Democrat and 14 Republicans voted to advance the resolution last month.

While the Senate moves toward a final vote on the Yemen War Powers resolution, House Republicans are using their final days in power to stop the companion resolution in the House—sponsored by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)—from coming up for a vote.

In a tweet, Khanna accused outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) of “not allowing a vote on my resolution to stop the war in Yemen because many Republicans will vote with us and he will lose the vote.”

“He is disgracing Article 1 of the Constitution, and as a result, more Yemeni children will die,” Khanna added.

Watch Khanna denounce the GOP’s “parliamentary tricks” in a speech on the House floor on Wednesday:

This article originally posted here.

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