Condemn US attacks on Yemen

 

Above: Millions of Yemenis march for Palestine

Written by: Nick G. on 12 January 2024

The US imperialists, backed by the UK, have attacked Yemen in a move that may spread the Zionist-Palestinian conflict throughout the region.
The Australian puppet government has supported the attacks. 

In deference to Australian public opinion, Albanese and Marles made a show of rejecting a US “request” to send a warship to the Red Sea. However, they did send six more ADF personnel to join five already working for US imperialism in its base in Bahrain. These ADF members have been part of the US attack on Yemen allowing Marles to blabber on about Australia “defending the international rules-based order”. It is quite likely that Australia also supported the US attacks through Pine Gap.

Yemen has survived previous attacks

US and Saudis waged war on Yemen for 7 years from 2015-22, killing hundreds of thousands of Yemenis. It ended in humiliating defeat with Houthis far stronger than before the war. Today, the "Houthis" (officially called Ansarallah) aren't a "militia"; they lead the government where 80% of Yemenis live. 
In response to the Zionist genocide in Gaza, the Houthis have boarded ships carrying supplies to Israel. Their objective has been to make it more difficult for the genocide to succeed.

In contrast, the US and its subordinates have blocked UN resolutions for a ceasefire in Gaza, and continued to arm Israel to support its murder of Palestinians.

There was no such condemnation by the US when Israeli soldiers landed on the Gaza Flotilla, six civilian ships carrying humanitarian aid and construction materials to Israeli-blockaded Gaza on 31 May 2010. Nine peace activists were killed by the Israelis, dozens wounded and 629 taken hostage,

Danger of war throughout region

The Gaza conflict has been embroiled in the contradictions existing thought the Middle East.

For example, the Saudis who had only recently acceded to US demands to improve relations with Israel, are one of the countries supporting South Africa’s case for declaring Israel’s actions genocidal at the International Court of Justice. (No Western “defender of human rights” has yet backed South Africa’s ICJ approach.) Despite still recognising the Yemeni regime that it had supported during its war with the Houthis, they and the Saudis are continuing negotiations for an end to their fighting.

Although the US attack was launched from Bahrain, with the support of that government, a more convenient launching pad would have been its base in Djibouti, just across the narrow strait between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. However, the Djiboutian government rejected a US request to allow missile launchers to be installed in Djibouti to target Yemen.

The Prime Minister of Djibouti said “Djibouti confirms that the solution lies in stopping the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.”

Meanwhile, US “advisers” in Iraq have come under fire and rocket attack. In return, they have killed a number of Iraqis and militia leaders alleged to have been backed by Iran.

On Jan. 5, a day after the US struck a purported militant leader in Baghdad, the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said the Iraqi government was taking the first steps towards removing US and coalition troops “permanently,” beginning with setting a date for a committee discussion about how to do so. 

Al-Sudani repeated his demand on January 10, although he is reported to have told American officials privately he wants US troops to stay to help fight the regrouped ISIS, and had only called for the removal of US soldiers to calm domestic pressure.

Throughout their aggression against Gaza, the Israelis have continued to launch strikes against Syria and Lebanon, provoking forces such as Hezbollah to increase their missile attacks in retaliation. 

On January 2, Israeli airstrikes resulted in the assassination of Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy chairman of the Hamas political bureau, in Beirut, Lebanon, while on January 8, Israel assassinated Wissam al-Tawil, the deputy commander of Hezbollah's Redwan Force. Each assassination was accompanied by other deaths. Media outlet Al-Jazeera said the killings “raised the fears of total war”.

Turkey, seeking to expand its influence in the region and in Africa, has been loud in its condemnation of Israeli genocide, and is one of the nations backing South Africa’s case at the ICJ. Its public opposition to Israel is welcome. Yet its exports to Israel have increased since October 7, and it is conducting its own war against Kurds and their allies in Rojava north-eastern Syria, engaging in murderous attacks against the progressive enclave.

As for Iran, demonised relentlessly by the Western media, it has so far remained out of the conflict. How long that lasts is entirely dependent upon the provocations that US imperialism and its allies throw in its direction.

The only certainty at present is that imperialism is driving towards war and the people of the world are growing increasingly united against it.

 

Raytheon: US imperialist “masters of war” exposed in Yemen conflict

Nick G.

The masters of war (“those who make the big bombs”) have been exposed in leaked US State department documents showing a cruel indifference to human suffering in Yemen.

The Houthis, a Shiite Muslim community within Yemen, launched a movement in 2004 to overthrow a pro-US and pro-Zionist government.  Backed by Iran, they have made considerable gains in the course of their struggle, and in 2014 took control of the capital, Sana’a, and most of the north of the country.

The previous government was supported by US imperialism through an alliance of nine pro-US states in the Middle East and Africa led by Saudi Arabia.  They had supported it militarily but intervened directly after the government fell in an operation called Operation Desert Storm.  They were joined by the US imperialist private mercenary army Blackwater (now Academi) and supported by the placement of US and British military personnel in the command and control centre responsible for Saudi-led air strikes on Yemen.

Civilian Yemenis have suffered through blockades on Yemeni ports by the Saudis and others. Starvation and disease have compounded the devastation of Saudi-led bombings and missile strikes. Last November, the Australian navy showed its indifference to the suffering by joining the Saudi navy in a training exercise not far from the location where the Saudi-led coalition was enforcing its naval blockade of Yemen.

With seven million Yemenis now starving, and 17,000 civilian deaths from Saudi military aggressions, the conflict has become a political embarrassment for the US imperialists who always try to cover their imperialist aims under the cloak of “humanitarianism”.

This leads to contradictions within US ruling circles. In the US Congress, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has been trying to cut off American military aid for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.  Their efforts were intensified last month when a Saudi air strike, using US-made missiles, struck a bus carrying school children, killing more than 40.

Their efforts were directed at Raytheon Corporation which plans to sell more than $2 billion in precision-guided missiles to Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E.

The sale looked to be blocked “due to a lack of progress on mitigating civilian casualties.”

Two days ago, the Wall Street Journal cited a classified memo showing that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had intervened to overrule concerns from most of the State Department specialists involved in the debate who were worried about the rising civilian death toll in Yemen. Pompeo overrode fears that more civilians would die in order to allay fears Raytheon would miss out on sales of more than 120,000 precision-guided missiles.

Raytheon has previously been the target of anti-war groups in Australia where it has a number of offices of production facilities.  Radical Christians entered its premises in Brisbane and tried to “exorcise” it, and several groups in South Australia opposed its “mentoring” of school students.

It should be kicked out of Australia altogether.

It will be when we win anti-imperialist independent state power.