The U.S. is providing arms to help Ukrainians defend themselves against Russian aggression. The U.S. is also selling arms to enable Saudi Arabia to wage a war of aggression in Yemen. The former has received plenty of attention, the latter not so much. According to the Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation, Saudi attacks have left 24 million people out of the population of 30.5 million in need of humanitarian assistance. The conflict has left 4 million people internally displaced. At least 500,000 public sector workers have been without salaries for almost six years. And while the Biden administration has said it would no longer support Saudi Arabia’s offensive operations, it has continued to provide spare parts, maintenance, and logistical support for Saudi warplanes.
The administration has recently approved over a billion dollars in additional sales to the Saudi regime, including new attack helicopters (made by Lockheed Martin) and air-to-air missiles (made by Raytheon). Arms sales expert William Hartung says General Dynamics and Boeing are also arming the aggressors. “A cutoff of arms, spare parts, and maintenance,” he writes, “would ground the Royal Saudi Air Force in short order and send a powerful message to the Saudi leadership that they must end their attacks on Yemen and negotiate in good faith to end the war.” That might not go over well with the arms dealers, but would help end a humanitarian catastrophe. I hope Rep. Kuster and Sens. Hassan and Shaheen agree.
Arnie Alpert
Canterbury