HJ Res 37, the War Powers Act challenge to US involvement in the war in Yemen, passed today in the House by a final vote of 248-177. Though the bill was bipartisan in nature, it was split almost entirely on party lines, with the Democratic majority voting unanimously for it, and only a small number of Republicans supporting it.
Debate underscored this split on the matter, with opponents arguing that the bill was “pro-Iran” because it opposed a war against a Shi’ite political faction with some nominal ties to Iran. They also argued that reviewing the war because of huge civilian death tolls could force the US to review military ties with over 100 other nations.
Two amendments passed into the resolution. The first, from Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), included language saying that the US could keep helping Saudis target victims in their air war, because intelligence sharing is important. This passed 252-177.
The broader amendment was from Rep. David Kostoff (R-TN), who demanded the whole resolution about the Yemen War be reintroduced to include a lot of language opposing anti-Semitism, and expressing opposition to the BDS movement boycotting Israel. This passed unanimously, 424-0.
This accomplished, the resolution quickly passed in a five minute vote. Even with all of the pro-Israel language included, Republicans overwhemingly resisted the resolution.
This will force the Senate to reconcile their version of the bill wit the House one, with its amendments and extra language. There is no timeline publicly available on this happening.
Even then, President Trump has threatened to veto the bill, and the House final results leave it a very open question if overriding the veto is at all possible. If the Republicans remain almost uniformly against the resolution, it seems unlikely it will survive.
A weak bill. Too many goddamn holes. “…the US could keep helping Saudis target victims in their air war, because intelligence sharing is important.” What’s the f**king point of even having a bill then? The US can hand knives to people skinning babies alive “because intelligence sharing is important.” What is that? The “The more you know” for baby killers?
And I love the totally arbitrary BDS slam slipped in there, and these crooks have the nerve to call tepid complaints about Israeli influence “anti-Semitic”? What a bunch of pigf**king whores. And no one voted against it. Not even that Muslim woman they’re trying to smear. Cowards. Thieves and cowards. All of them.
The amendment on us continuing to help the Saudis target their victims passed 252-177, almost the same as the overall vote. Almost mind numbing that they would contradict themselves by almost identical margins.
Yeah, my stomach did a flip flop in sync with the absurdity of the bill.
It’s political cover.
This bill doesn’t change anything in regards to the actual war in Yemen and in some ways makes it worse. It enshrines the war against AQ in Yemen as if the current AQ in Yemen are the same people who attacked us on 9/11 and of course it basically states that Israel is allowed to do as it pleases forever.
We stopped refueling a long time ago, so the intel was the only thing we were currently doing. This bill changes nothing in regards to the actual war.
What they could have done was revamped the Arms control act or simply invoked it. Under our current law it’s already illegal to sell weapons to them, if you go by the letter of the law. They could at any time invoke this act. Furthermore, if they were serious they would invoke the act and they would revamp it at the same time, to give it some real teeth. But as you can see, they are not serious at all. Their new bill does nothing to change the war and instead gives permission to Israel to do as it pleases and gives Trump and the next presidents to come, the authority to continue to target “AQ” wherever and whenever they want. Far from tying the president’s hands it does just the opposite actually, it gives them permission to fight the war on terror forever.
I supported this until they added the new language. As it stands it’s worse than useless and Trump should veto it.
This is the Arms Export Control Act (AECA ), that congress refuses to enforce.
ate.gov/?id=ddtc_kb_article_page&sys_id=b9a933addb7c930044f9ff621f961932
Trump will probably veto it, but for all the wrong reasons. Both sides have managed to transform what could have been a monumental piece of legislation into another empty partisan pissing match. America sucks. I’m declaring independence as soon as I can get enough queer anarchists together to fill a medium sized Rustbelt town.
Yep, probably for the wrong reasons. And it is a shame. I don’t want to see any support for the Saudi’s or any other nation that is ruled by thugs and tyrants.
You could get some investors and move to Venezuela. I’m only half kidding. There are mines all over the country that are sitting empty, there are cattle ranches that are sitting empty as well that could be bought up soon for a song. A hundred thousand acres, with buildings and what’s left of the cattle and machinery could be yours for a million bucks. If you and your friends can keep it, you could have an amazing adventure and create your own small nation. But will it be a Zorba the Greek or a Lonesome dove move? Do you have friends willing to fight to make their own nation? It’s the only way it’s ever been done, successfully that is. I’m only half kidding, because I’m half serious about going on one last adventure myself. I’ve still got contacts there, so who knows.
Go in and buy some land and then defend it. Any other way of going about it leaves you open to the whims of the new leaders, whoever they might turn out to be.
Oh, we’ll learn how to shoot straight, believe me, but I don’t know if I could properly handle myself in the tropics. They might legalize recreational pot here in PA. I have a friend I’m trying to create a crypto-currency with. If it takes off, I’d like to use my half to buy an abandoned factory in Erie and turn it into one big hydroponic co-op/artist commune. The biggest hurtle outside of my own agoraphobic tendencies is getting my people to stop listening to half-wit state socialists like Bernie and Cortez. This is all a pipe dream of coarse but, like Debbie Harry says, dreaming is free.
Send me a steak from Venezuela and I’ll send you something way better. đ
Sounds like a fun plan.
We got recreational here in Michigan this year, but I’ve had my medical card for a long time already and I didn’t exactly pay the law any mind before that either. It’s just nice to know that now I can stop worrying about being tossed in prison. I was creating feminized seeds as early as 1992, crossing Durban Poison with Mendocino Purps and then mixing in Haze a couple years later. Now of course that stuff is rather old school, but I still run it once in a while and I’m surprised at how well they still stack up. I’ve got Ghost OG and WiFi crosses going now along with some Aloha white widow crosses, a couple of Mosca’s pink line going too as well as some of my own more recent crosses. I’m currently stabilizing an amazing Sour Diesel/GG4 x Predator pink/Chemdog That I crossed with one of my own strains. Breeding is to me, the most fun part of growing.
The biggest hurdle in most of these states that are now legalizing are the hurdles they put in place to become a commercial grower. The capital requirements are huge, half a million bunks in Michigan for anything other than the smallest commercial grow. That’s the “bond” you have to put up just to show you have enough money to be a reliable source. And of course any community can vote against it being allowed. My home town just voted against allowing any pot businesses in town. Although a friend of mine got them to agree to him opening a dispensary out of town. (about a mile from my house actually.)
As for how to deal with Socialists; just explain that you can all live by the same ideals without the government. No need to force people to do anything if you all agree on how things should be done anyway. Neither, employee owned and run businesses nor communities need any form of government to share the wealth or responsibility, for that matter. Governments almost always turn against their own people, it’s in their very nature.
Holy shit, you’re a grower! And in Michigan! Suddenly my whole attitude towards you just changed.
Itâs all about the Benjaminâs baby!
Calling an end to a war we are barely involved with. What a joke.
It actually enshrines the only parts of the war we are involved in. We haven’t been refueling anything for almost a year now and Trump basically told Saudi Arabia a months ago to end it or else. They listened too, the ceasefire is still working, the prisoner swap and all the rest is moving forward.
Why do it now and why do it in a way that doesn’t even change a single thing for the better? Seriously, WTF was the point of this nonsense?
I supported this because I thought it would also tie future president’s hands so why not support it, right? But it doesn’t tie any president’s hands and instead says the war against “AQ” and our support for Israel must continue!
What a joke; you sure got that right.
Could you please give some link as to when Trump told Saudi Arabia to “end it or else”. I seem to recall we weren’t too enthusiastic about any ceasefire and that we wanted Iran to be blamed for the entirety of the war before we would agree.
https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2018/11/287515.htm
https://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2018/10/287018.htm
I posted these and more but “we” here at anti-war ignored them. We also ignored the fact that Trump stopped re-fueling at the same time and that Saudi Arabia actually did as they were told and agreed to the negotiations and the ceasefire.
Either the US is this grand puppet Master who can order them around or they are not, make up your minds. Either Trump gets credit for forcing them to negotiate or Trump doesn’t have clout with them. Which is it?
Trump very clearly told the Saudi’s it was time for them to end the war and they did as they were told. Now maybe they did it for their own reasons too but either way, right after Trump told them to negotiate and they did in fact negotiate.
What you are confusing is Rhetoric vs actual policy and the real world ramifications of the policy itself. In the real world, putting rhetoric aside, we see that Trump formally stated it was time to end the war and that is what is now happening. The rhetoric coming out of various blowhards in his administration don’t change what happened, but they did provide a certain amount of cover. Trump still looked tough on Iran while helping to put an end to one of the worst wars around.
But does he get credit for the real world outcomes of his actual policy? Nope, not here, here at anti-war they think rhetoric means more than actual policy and in fact they don’t seem to want to admit that his policies are real even when they can see the real world results play out in a ceasefire in Yemen. So results be damned, let’s blame him for the rhetoric, right?
When I said “we” I was talking about the US.
https://news.antiwar.com/2018/12/20/us-saudis-block-un-resolution-on-yemen-ceasefire/
https://www.siasat.com/news/us-tepid-over-yemen-ceasefire-1438166/
I was looking more for an actual Trump quote like those he used with the “Rocket Man”. You know, “Stop the genocide in Yemen or we’ll blow your shit away”. Something Trumpian. I normally refuse to read anything from the state department, especially from Pompeo. And most of that lip service came as a result of pressure brought on after the murder of the journalist.
Why do you think they are obsessing over it? Because they sant to make SURE Trjump has no wiggle rolm on this one â our ânon-involveentâ involvement is much, much bigger ghen it looks.
OR, they are just trying to put a stick in Trump’s spokes over a war that 1) Trump can’t actually stop, and 2) just doesn’t matter much to them.
Meanwhile, these same legislators are going apeshit over Trump wanting to pull out of Syria.
Congress gets paid for this? Pass a bill with a net result that is zero.
“They also argued that reviewing the war because of huge civilian death
tolls could force the US to review military ties with over 100 other
nations.”
What a terrible thought!!!!!
The whole ‘Israel first, last and only Israel’ behavior in an alleged sovereign country that is not Israel, is becoming absurd. 424-0 !!!
Remember when the USA mocked to USSR voting patterns???
The UK parliament under Theresa May is a mockery, and the USA seem to want to be as bad.
Seriously, how on earth can anyone expect that Congress will end a war?
They have a fit when some withdrawals are suggested. And not ONE word about naval blockade that is THE cause of starvation and disease. What is our justification for not allowing any country to bring in food, clean water and medicine?
And AQ is a pure nonsense. Never existed, other then an outfit set up by Saudi intligence in order to fight against secessionists. Now, murky relationship between UAE and US for the control of the South is falling appart, and we reserve the right to hit their militants should they cross us. The whole mess is fluid, and those we helped initially in Aden (Hadi supporters) â we helped destroy by using UAE proxies and our mercenaries. This was payback to MBS who changed his deal with US on post war pie sharing. But then MBS came on top after Kashoggi thestre, sending UAE into panic and groveling in front of MBS. So now, innvestment in UAE is a loss.
Congress having been too confident in Sweden process â realized Houthis are not folding, and Saudis will not give up on control of Aden, Mukkala and cinsequenrly ab Al Mandeb. Sooooo… Having gone ahead talking good game about ending âinvolvementâ. and now having nothing â the involvement remains in full. They are just hoping Trump will veto, so they can lie to people how they TRIED but bad Trump stopped them.
It will be much better if they can actually explain WHAT do se want out of Yemen?
Just hellpng Saudis? Saudis are under new Prince ending Shia obsession. First opened Embassy in Iraq. Then getting top Shia haters, UAE and Bahrein to make nice with Assad and reopen Embassies. Then restored relations with Lebanon, accepting the Government with Hezbollah in It. If Saudis cut a separate deal with Houthis and no longer âneedâ our help? Will we THEN leave Yemen? Or we intend to hang around in search of weddings, funerals and birthday parties to drone?
And the obligatory BDS rider on any bill that passes? What has it got to do with Yemen? We will be lucky if we do not end up in a conflict with just about everyone in the Middle East â Israel excepted.