Yes, there have been a few pinpricks of light recently in the corporate media’s blackout on coverage of the war in Yemen. The monolithic wall of silence was breached by Chris Hayes on MSNBC after a year of silence. Several days ago Ali Soufan visited MSNBC to participate in another report. Although the moderator provides a rather skewed overview of the conflict’s history, the segment does present a survey of Yemen’s ongoing humanitarian catastrophe, America’s war crimes there and US responsibility for perpetuating the conflict.
Our corporate media’s grotesque negligence in failing to report on the American fueled war in Yemen is more evidence of how deeply rooted and all pervasive the “military-industrial complex” (to quote president
Eisenhower again) remains in this country. Media corporations are always hesitant to tell stories that may directly or indirectly hurt them on Wall Street.
How many average Americans have heard about the recent bombing of a school bus that killed 40 Yemen children? Not many. Bomb fragments, which you can see in a video here, show the bomb to have been “a 500-pound (227 kilogram) laser-guided MK 82 bomb made by Lockheed-
Martin.” But this is only one tragedy among many others that have never been reported in the US. In fact, Human Rights Watch reports that this was only 1 0f 50 strikes on civilian vehicles this year alone.
According to USAToday, Lockheed Martin is one of the top ten companies profiting most richly from American war-making and arms sales, enjoying “$36.3 billion in sales in 2011, slightly higher than the $35.7 billion the company sold in 2010.”
Thankfully, Senator Chris Murphy continues the fight in Congress to end this senseless slaughter of innocent people in Yemen. Below I have copied
the latest notice from Just Foreign Policy explaining Murphy’s recent amendment to the Pentagon’s appropriations that would enforce a ceasefire and terminate US funding and military support for Saudi Arabia.
Please take a moment to help. Call your senators and sign the petition.
“On August 9, an airstrike by the Saudi-UAE-U.S. coalition bombing Yemen struck a bus packed with children in the northern village of Dahyan, killing at least 51 people, including 40 children, according to the Red Cross. Saudi regime spokesmen have defended this horrific massacre, calling the bus a “legitimate military target.”
“When journalists asked a senior U.S. official if the U.S. supplied the bomb the Saudis used to blow up the bus full of kids and refueled the Saudi warplane that dropped the bomb on the bus full of kids, he responded: “Well, what difference does that make? We are providing the refueling and support to Saudi aircraft. We are also selling them munitions that are being used … We are not denying that.”
“CNN has established that the bomb that the Saudi regime used to blow up the bus full of kids was made by Pentagon contractor Lockheed Martin; transfer of the bomb to the Saudi regime was approved by the U.S. State Department.
“The Washington Post editorial board says: “It is long past time to end U.S. support for this misbegotten and unwinnable war. There is a clear path out: A U.N. mediator has called the various parties to Geneva early next month to discuss a peace process. Among the first steps would be a cease-fire… U.N. sources say the Houthis…are ready to strike these accords, but the Saudi and UAE regimes have been resistant…[the Saudi and UAE regimes] will accept a peace process only if it is clear that they will not have Washington’s support for more war.”
“Senator Chris Murphy has introduced an amendment to the Pentagon appropriation that would cut off U.S. tax dollars for this unconstitutional war – the war was never authorized by Congress, every day the war continues it violates Article I of the Constitution – unless Secretary of Defense Mattis certifies that the U.S.-enabled Saudi airstrike on the bus full of kids complied with international law and U.S. policy, something Mattis could never do unless he wants to be known as a shameless liar.
“52 Senators have voted against the war in a floor vote, either in June 2017 or in March 2018 on the Sanders-Lee-Murphy bill invoking the War Powers Resolution. Among Senate Democrats, only Joe Donnelly, Joe Manchin, and Bill Nelson have never voted against the war in a floor vote.
Urge Senators to speak out for and vote for the Murphy amendment to cut off U.S. tax dollars for the kid-killing Saudi war in Yemen by signing our petition.
