Senate takes baby step to end US war crimes in Yemen

The US is committing war crimes in Yemen; has been since it encouraged and supplied Saudi Arabia's war crimes there in March, 2015. It's the worst man made humanitarian catastrophe on earth with millions dead, injured, or suffering disease and starvation thanks to US planes dropping US bombs that we've given the Saudis. For three and a half years our war crimes there were largely hidden from us due to our willful ignorance and intentional secrecy by our government. But October 2, the grotesque Saudis made a big boo-boo, luring Jamal Khashoggi, an unfriendly US based Saudi journalist to their consulate in Turkey and chopped him into little pieces for his criticism. Big mistake. The senators and representatives who help the president cover up our war crimes with the Saudis are using the Khashoggi killing to expiate some of their guilt for enabling our 42 months of slaughter in Yemen. Yesterday they voted 63-37 to allow full floor debate on invoking the War Powers Act which requires the president to submit his war crimes to the Senate for approval. Should he fail to do that the law would end US involvement there. The vote to discuss signals likely passage of the full resolution. Then it's off to the House which has a more benign view of US war crimes, recently using a bill on allowing the hunting of gray wolves to shut off debate on a similar resolution there. But even if the House grows a conscience, the War Criminal in Chief has threatened a veto to keep American's bomb and plane factories humming while Yemenis are sacrificed to the War Goddess of US capitalism.

Yesterday's Senate vote is just a baby step on the long road to peace. We must all demand our elected officials take back the constitutional duty to declare war; something they gave up in 1950 over Korea. The infant antiwar movement to end US war crimes in Yemen must turn this first small step for peace into a gallop.

A great economy?

When someone tells me the US is the world's greatest economy I offer a wry smile and dissenting opinion. Maybe the biggest but certainly not the greatest. A great economy does not squander nearly $1 trillion yearly to wage senseless war in the Middle East and Africa. A great economy doesn't refuse to invest in rebuilding its crumbling bridges, roads in other infrastructure which keeps us safe while facilitating commerce. A great economy doesn't choose to promote climate threatening fossil fuel over green energy. A great economy doesn't allow the for-profit health insurance industry maintain the worst health care delivery system in the industrialized world. A great economy does not allow gun manufacturers to sell of millions of firearms resulting in over a hundred thousand shooting victims yearly. A great economy doesn't worsen the largest income disparity since the Gilded Age by lavishing tax cuts on the American oligarchs. A great economy does not degrade workers' unions to allow slave wages and rescinding of employee workplace protections. A great economy does not refuse to pay for basic post secondary school training, college or trade school, so every young person gets an opportunity for economic success. The US economy: the largest, yes...and also possibly the worst.