In a 63-37 vote on Wednesday, the Senate agreed to a full floor debate of a bill challenging the legality of the US involvement in the Yemen War. The legal challenge is built around Congress never having authorized the US to join such a war.
Wednesday’s pre-vote efforts saw Secretaries of State and Defense Mike Pompeo and James Mattis taking senators into a closed-door, classified briefing that was aimed to cover both the Yemen War, and mounting concerns about the US relationship with Saudi Arabia.
All indications are that the briefing failed, with Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) coming out of the briefing saying he was now opposed to the war. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), a former supporter of the war, has also changed sides, as have several others. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) has also said he supports the bill to end the war.
This mounting Senate support suggests the bill itself is very likely to pass, although it may ultimately stall in the House of Representatives, where a recent effort at a War Powers Act challenge to the war was derailed in favor of a wolf-hunting measure.
The insanity has to stop. Even the spineless shills in Washington have had enough of the blood and guts, but Trump persists on defending that f**king baby butcher in Riyadh to his last breath. What does Mohamed Bone Saw have on that stupid bastard? Maybe Mueller should investigate that.
Long before Trump, the US was refueling the baby-killer bombers into Yemen. It was sending drones to kill American citizens in Yemen, and going back to get their little kids and nephews too.
This is a huge problem that is not about Trump. He hasn’t helped, but it isn’t him who started it, who got this thing going as it is. The current count of 85,000 starved kids goes back to a year before the election.
There is something nasty in DC, besides Trump. Don’t forget that Hillary openly and proudly embraced exactly that nasty thing too. When Trump lied about this one, it was by saying he wouldn’t do what She would, then he did it anyway.
Hillary said she’d attack Syria, Trump sounded like he probably wouldn’t, maybe that was the election decided right there. I tend to think she would have been less brazenly backing the Saudis at this point than Trump is, but who knows.
The fact that Eisenhower and Kennedy had started our engagement in Vietnam did not help Johnson one bit.
You might have a point. However, Hillary does brazen quite a lot. See Libya. So I wouldn’t count it out.
Not a chance. It is the ruling elite, stupid, and makes zero difference who is the President, inly how mych is the president loyal to their agenda. And now they have to change the tack in Yemen, and it shall be done. How, remains to be seen.
Saudis clearly have something up their sleeves, as ever since June last year they were practically taunting us with Yemen debacle. Making it more shamefull by the day. And our UAE allies to whom we litteraly turned over the South — what are they saying after MbS visit?
Considering the speed with which Kashoggi got off the political agenda, someting is afoot. If Saudis promised Iran — beware the gifts. We are not dealing with dummies.
And Obama and Hillary should stand trial for war crimes too. That doesn’t erase the fact that Trump made things ten times worse and he can make them stop. No more excuses for war crimes. This isn’t a partisan issue. It’s a human rights issue.
That baby butcher buys U.S junk treasury bills, keeps the dollar tied to the oil and has agreed to buy 400 billion in arms. He can eat a baby on live TV as far as the men behind the curtain are considered. All Presidents look away.
This is an extremely positive step, that the Senate has take an interest in foreign policy especially war. For too long they haven’t. We also hear, too often, that the president is uniquely charged by the Constitution with authority for foreign affairs Nothing could be further from the truth. There is no such provision in the Constitution. The Congress is charged with making the laws which govern us, and the president is charged with executing them. It’s good to see this relationship evolving back to where it should be, at least on this issue. A touch of democracy! Who knew.
One factor that really irks the Senate is the utter incompetence of administration appointees, especially Mattis the butcher of Fallujah, and Pompeo and Haley are no better. Torturer Gina Cheri Haspel was not allowed to testify and so is now the “good guy!” You can’t make this stuff up.
” You can’t make this stuff up.”
If Shakespeare were still alive he could.
Rosencrantz and Guidenstern?
What makes one think that ending American military support for the massacre will result in the Saudis ceasing military actions?
Because most of their military runs on U.S tech support and the a rabs don’t know how to turn on a laptop let alone fuel a bomber.
They’ve gotten plenty of training from us.
Judging by our training elsewhere, I’m not sure that is a good argument.
Very true
Maybe not immediately mostly so MBS can say no one tells him what to do, but the US has been so involved it would take time and effort to regroup around the change. Saudi mercenaries are already making little headway. Hopefully when it becomes obvious that force won’t work it will get called off.
This was a very interesting vote. AIPAC’s 2 strongest democratic supporters, Bob Menendez and Chuck Schumer voted in favor. Schumer was the 100th senator to vote! And he did not look happy as he dragged his sorry ass up to the clerk’s desk on C-Span! LOL!
It looks like Netanyahu decided MBS has become a liability to the Zionists. The Mad Prince can no longer be an effective front man for a phony regional coalition to overthrow the Iranian government or to strong arm the Palestinians into complete submission. Methinks the Zionists now want a change of leadership in KSA. Their long range plan is to have KSA and UAE lead the regional coalition in a war bankrolled by the USA with the American military providing backup and muscle if KSA and UAE get bogged down or, more likely, routed by the Iranians. MBS is of no further use to them.
Ironically, the Khashoggi affair and MBS’s abandonment by the Zionists could even lead to a break between Netanyahu and Trump. Carrot-Top is torn between his loyalty to the Zionists and his love of KSA’s weapons purchases. The Zionists are probably also upset that MBS’s blunders and the incompetence of the KSA military led to a quagmire in Yemen that undermines the ability of KSA and UAE to prepare to fight the Zionists’ planned war against Iran. For the Zionists, Iran is the main prize. Everything else, including Syria and Yemen, are distractions for the Zionists.
That reasoning isn’t based on much, but does make sense, and it’s nice to see reason for hope! Between this, Russia handling Ukraine’s over-played stunt well, and signs that Afghans may soon reclaim their country, the warmongers with their Trump cards somehow are still having a lot of losses.
Now ask yourself, if it was Israel invading and not the KSA, would the Senate have even mentioned Yemen?
How are we going to give free weapons to Israel if there isn’t someone (KSA) actually paying for them?
So the “representatives of the people” do not care about killing thousands of civilians in the poorest country in the Arab world.
Makes me wonder — what does Saudi Arabia have to suddenly persuade the Establishment to butt out of Yemen and quiet down on Kashoggi?
Hopefully some orogress.
So it looks on all accounts very much an American war. If they can finish it they more sure than likely have started it. Anyway the US supplied the planes, missiles and bombs, weapons, provided the logistics, intelligence, refuelling. Without that you cannot wage war. The Saudis only the manpower, although were hardly any men on the ground. The slaughter was conducted from the air.