U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Wednesday denounced as « mind blowing » the decision to « continue to willingly participate in the slaughter of Yemeni kids » after Republicans objected to his amendment to the Defense Appropriation bill that would have put key restrictions on U.S. financial and othe support for the Saudi-led bombing campaign.
https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1032298356104683521
The amendment « would cut off United States’ support for the Saudi Arabia-led coalition’s war in Yemen until the Secretary of Defense certified that the coalition’s air campaign is not violating international law and U.S. policy related to the protection of civilians, » a press statement from Murphy’s office states.
Win Without War had called the amendment « our big chance to slam on the brakes and stop our role in enabling the suffering in Yemen. » Yet Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, objected to Murphy’s amendment, despite saying that « what’s going on in Yemen is atrocious. »
Speaking on the Senate floor next to a photo of a Yemeni community center bombed when a funeral was underway, Murphy gave a damning assessment of the catastrophe the U.S. has helped fuel. « The United States is a key player in this bombing campaign, » he noted.
"It shouldn’t be on our conscience as a nation to be part of this humanitarian catastrophe." Sen. @ChrisMurphyCT is 100% right: U.S. involvement in Saudi-led war in #Yemen is profoundly immoral and unacceptable. pic.twitter.com/GXqboofQJ3
— Win Without War (@WinWithoutWar) August 22, 2018
In his floor speech, Murphy said that « the targeting of civilians inside Yemen is getting worse, not better, » and referenced an event he said should underscore the urgency of his amendment—the coalition‘s bombing earlier this month of a school bus in Yemen that killed 40 children.
« The Saudis’ initial reaction was that it was a legitimate military target, » Murphy said. « There’s no way a school bus is a legitimate military target. That school bus was carrying dozens of children—dozens of children that are now dead because of a 500-pound bomb made in the United States and sold to the coalition. »
The amendment doesn’t even put a full stop on U.S. support but merely requires « the administration to certify that civilians aren’t intentionally getting targeted in contravention of U.S. law before we continue to support this funding, » Murphy said.
« At some point we need to believe our eyes rather than the reports we get from the administration that the targeting is getting better, » he said, yet the « problem is [that the coalition’s] targets are [a] school bus, funerals, water treatment facilities. » He said U.S. support, which includes military support and intelligence, makes it so that the coalition « can more effectively hit their civilian targets with the bombs that we are selling. »
« The fact of the matter is the majority of the civilian casualties are caused by the side that we are supporting, » Murphy said.
« The campaign is not expediting a political end, » he argued. « It is prolonging the misery and giving more opportunity for our mortal enemies there, the terrorist groups to get stronger and stronger. »
« We are radicalizing a generation of Yemeni children against us and that will have implications for U.S. National security for years to come, » he warned.
Watch Murphy’s full speech below:
Top Photo | Markings on a remnant of a CBU-58 cluster bomb found near al-Zira`a Street in Sanaa on January 6, 2016 indicating that it was manufactured in 1978 at the Milan Army Ammunition Plant in Tennessee.
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