Sunday, November 19, 2017

The Faces Of Yemen – Where Is American “Outrage?”

Brandon Turbeville
Activist Post
November 17, 2017

As the world focuses on isolated incidents of terrorism taking place in Western countries, the wholesale slaughter being committed by Western countries against others generally goes unnoticed unless being pinned on the victim nation. However, even with Americans and other Westerners paying scant attention to Iraq and Syria, the conflict in Yemen scarcely gets a mention except in communities of human rights activists and geopolitical commentators.

Even after Yemen has overtaken Syria as the world’s greatest humanitarian crisis, most of the world has remained deathly silent about the situation unfolding there.

While not overwhelmingly involved with troops, bombing campaigns, and the like in the way that it is in Syria or Iraq, the United States is nonetheless complicit in the destruction of an entire country by providing intelligence, weapons, and political support to Saudi Arabia and the GCC in their war against the Yemeni people. In addition to that support, however, the United States has, at times, also contributed limited direct military support to the Saudi effort.

As Raf Sanchez of the Telegraph summarizes,

More than 50,000 Yemeni children are likely to die by the end of the year as a result of disease and starvation caused by the stalemated war in the country, Save the Children has warned.

Humanitarian groups estimate that around 130 children are dying each day in the Arab world’s poorest country as it grapples with famine and the largest cholera outbreak in modern history.


Around 40,000 children are estimated to have died already this year as a result of severe acute malnutrition and Save the Children projects that figure will be above 50,000 by the end of the Christmas period.

. . . . . 
The calculations were made before Saudi Arabia tightened an already severe blockade on rebel-held parts of the country in response to a missile fired from rebel territory towards Riyadh airport.

The blockade has closed the port of Hodeidah, a key entry point for food, and the airport in the capital Sanaa, where humanitarian flights have been landing to deliver aid and medicine. Mr Kirolos warned that “unless the blockade is lifted immediately more children will die”. 
Food shortages in Yemen have filled overcrowded hospitals with malnourished children, their skin often loose from hunger and with ribs jutting out. Malnourished children are especially vulnerable to death as a result of cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases. 

But while the mainstream Western press only mentions the Yemeni crisis in isolated articles, absent are the images of the Yemeni people who are being bombed, shot, tortured, starved and otherwise suffering from malnutrition and other war-related illnesses.

There is no American “outrage” over the dying children in Yemen because Americans are not being told by their televisions, politicians, and entertainers to be outraged about the children in Yemen. There are no calls to enact revenge on the perpetrators of the violence in Yemen (mainly because the perpetrators are Americans and American “allies). Yemenis are not even worthy of America’s “thoughts and prayers” or “I Stand With Yemen” hashtags and profiles. Instead, it’s business as usual, at least until Sarah Silverman can make a comedy TV show out of the crisis, Bono can start a charity for Yemen, or Bruce Springsteen can write a song about it. When musicians become political experts as they are wont to do when America needs another foreign adventure (wasn’t there a time when musicians opposed war?), Americans will care. When actors, clearly sincere (it’s not like they are trained to be someone else), begin making 2 minute videos pleading for intervention or support for Yemen, Americans might think about starving children if starving children is what the war machine wants them to think about. Likewise, if the corporate media were to take a break from Donald Trump and show the panicked starving faces of Yemeni children and specified that their viewers were not supposed to hate them, we would finally see some good old fashioned American outrage. As it is, Yemen is boring and unimportant and it will remain that way until the powers that be say it’s not.

With that in mind, it is important to bring the faces of Yemen to light, even as the mainstream political discourse prefers not to do so.

While looking at these photographs, note that, if you are an American, the answer is not military intervention but the opposite; i.e. an immediate cessation of direct and indirect military assistance to Saudi forces and an end to selling weapons to the Neanderthal “kingdom” that is prosecuting its war against the Yemeni people.
















Brandon Turbeville writes for Activist Post – article archive here – He is the author of seven books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1 and volume 2, The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria, The Difference it Makes: 36 Reasons Why Hillary Clinton Should Never Be President, and Resisting The Empire: The Plan To Destroy Syria And How The Future Of The World Depends On The Outcome. Turbeville has published over 1000 articles on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s radio show Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. His website is BrandonTurbeville.com He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.

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Image Credit: Anthony Freda

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