Last week, the Pentagon joined in the naval blockade of Yemen slightly, with a US ship boarding a Panamanian cargo ship they accused of having Iranian weapons on board. They didn’t find any.
Now, the US is doubling down, adding the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier, along with several support ships, nominally to stop the weapons shipments that neither they, nor any of their allies, have been able to prove are happening.
The naval blockade of Yemen has so far had the impact of keeping humanitarian aid ships from docking several places, and has forced several food ships to park off coast, for weeks on end, awaiting assorted permissions to dock.
The desert-heavy nation of Yemen imports over 90% of its food, and that is almost entirely by ship. The naval blockade has slowed those shipments, and in many cases cargo companies are refusing to even attempt to deliver, since the navies involved in the blockade seem to leave them waiting off coast forever for deliveries that weren’t necessarily the highest paying to start with.
Keeping food aid from getting to victims of a war. Makes ya' proud to be an
Amurikun…don't it?
Chant it with me now U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A!!!
America`s true face and the Zionist.
and also the "royal" Saudis.
Now you know what they mean by "pro life."
Tom Cotton won his Senate seat in part because he was Pro-Life. He now wants to drop a few bombs here and there on Iran. I've never seen hypocrisy rolled up so tightly in one person.
"…hypocrisy rolled up so tightly…"
Now come on…there are so many examples available just in the US Congress – the choices are mind-boggling.
True curmudgeonvt but, where as most Congressional hypocrisy seems akin to sipping on a glass of white wine, Cotton is like chugging straight Everclear
"How's that hopey-chagey stuff workin' out for ya?"
Perhaps the only intelligent thing Sarah Palin ever said.
Who ever made a Jersey Issue out of this? Both Team D and Team R are equally reprehensible. If Palin had been elected though that would mean Mad Man McCain would be at the helm of the ship of state…much like the Capt. of the Titanic.
she probably overheard it in the loo…way too original thinking for her.
Deliberately starving a civilian population has to be a war crime.
we are just controlling their energy intake and supplementing it with sky delivered packages
Yeah, the establishment wouldn't want innocents to live now, would it?
The Saudi and Egyptian navies have been enforcing this blockade to keep out food. They say it is for weapons, but they haven't found any weapons, yet they keep the ships out anyway. Recently the Egyptians held a 50,000 ton ship of food for a week, and when they released it finding nothing but food, the Saudis stopped it again.
Now the US Navy joins this blockade. Question: Will the USN also stop food ships for indefinite inspections, or will it check them, clear them, and allow the food to be landed?
The USN is efficient enough to check the food ships and let them in. US policy is also quite capable of just making things worse. So which will it be? Is this to control the Saudis, or to confront Iran?
Since the US just this week invited Iran to talk in Syria, and just had Australia set up intelligence sharing on common enemies, it is possible this is to control the Saudis even while seeming supportive.
We could say we keep out arms, there are no arms, but we let the food in which the Saudis won't do.
I would not go so far as to predict good faith by our government in this region.
However, I'm waiting to see how this is handled. It is an open question right now. It could blow up our whole arrangement with Iran, or it could smooth over an abuse by the Saudis.
Iran is sensitive to this war crime next door by the Saudis. Iran is in the right about that, no matter if they are supporting the Houthis or not. And there is no actual evidence they are arming or directing the Houthis, just accusations.
Watch closely. This will be interesting, and it hasn't actually happened yet one way or the other.
Empire USA — Law enforcement agency for the filthy rich
As it was our Empire that ordered the carpet bombing of Yemen, ordered that it be brutal imperialism most terrorizing, most fitting is it that our aircraft carrier should be up front and leading the charge.
At this stage of criminal acts by usg and European neo liberals it wouldent surprise me if even the English, Danish or Swedish or German warship joined the blockade.
Question: Can Der Speagel, the German not so independent news agency, produce and show the world the documents, as they claime, according to these hand written paper found in Aleppo, that ISIS barbarians are the product by an Saddam Hussein intelligent officer who wants for Syria to become a caliphate regime as Saudi Arabia and GCC are? Why guardian, the English news paper not showing these documents, and why such news is published now when people around the world informed that Israel, Saudis and GCC are behind atrocities in Iraq, Syria, Libya and now Yemen.
They're going there to stop the Saudis from killing people in Yemen. Right? And to make sure that Iran doesn't get any weapons in to the Houthis to even up the sides a bit. Right?
I just realized how apropos it is for the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt to be leading the charge. It was, after all, TR's most famous line, "BULLY!". It certainly fits.