On Tuesday night, the Senate overwhelmingly voted down a resolution that would have blocked a $650 million sale of air-to-air missiles, missile launchers, and other related equipment to Saudi Arabia.
In a vote of 30 to 67, the Senate killed the resolution that was led by Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT). The three senators are opposed to the sale because it will support the brutal Saudi-led war in Yemen.
Ahead of the vote, the White House released a statement that said it “strongly opposes” the effort to block the deal. Earlier this year, President Biden vowed to end support for Riyadh’s “offensive” operations in Yemen. But the US is still servicing Saudi warplanes that are bombing Yemen, and the arms sale is another sign of continued support for the war.
The White House claimed the missiles are “defensive” in nature because they are air-to-air and used to shoot down Houthis drones. But as Senator Paul pointed out in an op-ed for The American Conservative, the Saudis are enforcing an air, land, and sea blockade on Yemen, and the missiles can be used to prevent food from coming into the country.
Paul wrote: “According to William Hartung, the director of the Arms and Security Program at the Center for International Policy, ‘the air blockade is enforced by a threat to shoot down any aircraft, military or civilian, that enters Yemeni air space with the goal of landing at Sanaa airport. The provision of air-to-air missiles gives further credibility to this threat, dissuading any government or aid group from bringing in crucial medicines or flying patients in and out of Yemen.’ In other words, no weapon is exclusively defensive and continued American arm sales means continued death and starvation in Yemen.”
The principal contractor for the missile deal is Raytheon, the former employer of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Besides the missile sale, the Biden administration also recently approved a $500 million deal to service Saudi helicopters, including Apache and Black Hawk attack helicopters.
In recent months, the war in Yemen has been raging, and Saudi airstrikes have been pounding the country, which is reflected by massive casualties. In November, the Houthis said 15,000 of their fighters had been killed around the city of Maarib since June. The UN estimates that by the end of this year, 377,000 people will have been killed by the war. More than half of those deaths will be caused by preventable disease and starvation caused by the US-backed Saudi-led siege on the country.
The corrupt US Congress does not represent the American people. I think the majority of Americans are waking up to that reality: https://news.gallup.com/poll/1600/congress-public.aspx
But they will still vote R or D. Iowa will vote to re-elect an 89 year old senator for a 6 year term in the 2022 midterms. Corrupt, incontinent or senile it just doesn’t matter.
Would any of those hypocrites approve if Iran or Russia gave the Houthis ‘defensive’ weapons that protected their air space and shipping?
So, from this neutral observer’s perspective:
– The percentage of Democratic senators who voted for this resolution to block dwarfs that on the Republican side. This has been pointed out many times before (I believe a user whose handle included the name Dave) that the votes for these types of foreign policy bills/resolutions routinely if not always showed the Democrats siding with the position presumably held by the AW staff and readership
– The lack of any restrictions on campaign finance spending will ensure that politicians (and as pointed out above, overwhelmingly within the GOP) will have their ears bent by the MIC
Until the LP can achieve a higher profile in mainstream politics, it appears that anti-empire citizens can find a more receptive audience in the Democratic Party than the Republican one
(As an admittedly shallow aside, I find it ironic that this libertarian-oriented site even has a stance on this story, as the issues of arms and commerce appear to parallel those of the gun rights debate, where it doesn’t matter to whom weapons are sold and who gets hurt in the process. Yes, I know ‘war is health of the state’ and all that, but libertarians — at least the vulgar ones — never struck me as all that concerned about the human toll of trade under capitalism)
In all sincerity, feel free to elaborate, Mr./Ms. Downvoter… I made more than one point above and genuinely welcome critical feedback on whichever one rubbed you the wrong way
“In September, the House passed a version of the NDAA that included an amendment introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) that would end US support for the war in Yemen.”
“As they explain, this is the 3rd time this has passed the House — yet we just learned Democratic leadership stripped it from the final NDAA.”
https://news.antiwar.com/2021/12/07/house-senate-unveil-compromise-version-of-2022-ndaa/
This is why people might be skeptical.
Fair enough, but the votes were what they were and the GOP seem to be considerably less amenable to putting brakes on empire. Don’t know if the upcoming midterm primaries will have candidates that highlight these differences but the Republican senators that voted against the resolution clearly don’t think it’ll cost them politically
“The Senate Armed Services Committee’s surprise decision to endorse a $25 billion increase to the Pentagon’s budget this week was an utter blowout — and the clearest sign yet that Democrats are more than willing to back sizable increases to President Joe Biden’s military spending plan.”
“The committee adopted a proposal to boost the budget in a whopping 25 to 1 vote”
“Only progressive Democrat Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) opposed the effort”
“The dozen Democrats backing the defense spending spike included Armed Services Chair Jack Reed of Rhode Island, centrists such as Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Mark Kelly of Arizona and progressive Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/23/senate-democrats-boost-pentagon-spending-500705
Another sampling of why people have such little faith. I also heard Warren got in the Generals faces over their incompetence in Afghanistan. So few and far between.
Shocker.
Either is a winner in its own right; but when the two K. St. giants, Israel & MIC, team up, why even bother with the roll call.
My senators both voted for the resolution. Both are Democrats. I’ll give them props for that.
Same here.