The Yemen war is arguably the worst thing happening in the world right now. And the situation should not improve as the United States wants to put the Houthi rebels on its list of terrorist organizations. However, the war has already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Can we do something about it or are we doomed to complicity, looking elsewhere while children die of hunger and cholera? (IGA)
The Trump administration is reportedly poised to place Yemen’s Houthi rebels on its official list of terrorist organizations in an effort to deprive them of money and resources. The head of the United Nations World Food Program, along with many other experts, warns that the designation will prolong the horrific war that claimed the lives of more than a quarter of a million people and create an impenetrable barrier of paperwork preventing the humanitarian aid to reach the Yemeni people.
The United Nations conservatively estimates that some 233,000 Yemenis were killed, mostly by “indirect causes”, in the war between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition, backed by the United States. These indirect causes are said to be disease and famine resulting from what UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres calls “the worst famine the world has known in decades”.
When people hear the word “famine” they usually think of mass hunger caused by droughts or other natural phenomena. But in reality, the famine deaths we see in Yemen (a huge percentage of which are children under the age of five) are caused by something that is no more natural than the starvation deaths you would see in one. medieval siege. They are the result of the Saudi coalition’s blockade and its targeted bombing of farms, fishing boats, markets, food storage sites and cholera treatment centers. The goal is to make the Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen so weak and miserable that they are shattering.
In other words, the United States and its allies have helped Saudi Arabia deliberately kill children and other civilians on a large scale in order to achieve a political goal. Which would of course be a perfect example of any standard definition of terrorism.
We are the terrorists. Saudi Arabia, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France and all the other countries which facilitated the horrific mass atrocities in Yemen – this close alliance of world powers constitutes a terrorist organization like the world has never seen before. And the terribly savage and bloodthirsty US empire now designates the Houthis as a terrorist organization. It is the funniest joke that has ever been told.
We are the terrorists. I say “we” instead of our governments, because if we are honest with ourselves, we as the civilian population are complicit in this massacre. The horrors in Yemen are undoubtedly the worst thing happening in the world right now, but they hardly constitute a smear on our social conscience. The overwhelming majority of us saw the pictures and videos of starving Yemeni children, thought something like “Oh famine is so sad” and then returned to our thoughts on sports or any other thing. another tasteless nonsense that occupies most of our attention.
We are the terrorists. Yes, it is true that we have been conditioned in our complicity with this terrorism. And if the media did their so-called job, Yemen would be the center of our attention. But we are always accomplices, we always participate in it, living in a society where massacre and brutality do not lead to rising up, to using force in numbers to demand change. Just because you ignore it doesn’t mean that you don’t sleep on a bed of slaughtered children.
We are the terrorists. But we don’t have to be.
We can start to wake up together. Awaken our friends and neighbors, spread awareness of what is happening, raise awareness of the horrors our governments are committing in Yemen and other countries in the name of imperialist domination, help each other to see to it.
through the veils of propaganda how lives and resources are being sacrificed to inflict unspeakable terror instead of benefiting humanity.
The US government could end Yemen’s horrors almost immediately if it really wanted to. If the maintenance of unipolar hegemony suddenly hinged on victory for the Houthis rather than continued fighting aimed at preserving a regime aligned with Washington, the Saudis would withdraw and the war would be over within days. We could do this if we managed to raise enough awareness about the reality of what is happening in Yemen.
Break the silence on Yemen. Pressure Biden to keep his election promise to end the war initiated under the Obama-Biden administration. Oppose US imperialism. Denounce the mass media which refuse to give us a clear picture of what is happening in the world. Help people realize that their perception of reality is continually being distorted by the powerful.
We will end our complicity in Empire terrorism by awakening the citizens of this Empire and opening their eyes to the acts of terror it commits.
Caitlin JOHNSTONE
December 19, 2020
Translated from English by JL Scarsi
Investig’Action
