End Yemen war now
Honored to sign this letter on behalf of West Suburban Peace Coalition to incoming President Joe Biden to end U.S. participation in Yemen war. A hundred thousand dead and 20 million living with degraded health and food insufficiency dishonors everything America should represent.
Walt
Dear President-Elect Joe Biden:
Congratulations on winning the presidency. We know that you have an enormous task ahead of you and that there are a number of critical domestic and foreign policy issues that need to be addressed on day one of your term. As organizations representing millions of Americans concerned about the grave crisis in Yemen, we urgently ask that you include bringing an end to U.S. participation in the war in Yemen.
The U.S.-supported, Saudi/UAE-led war in Yemen, which began in March 2015, includes the blockade of Yemen’s ports, the bombing of funerals, weddings, hospitals, civilians in marketplaces, residential areas, and more. Under President Trump, war-related deaths have spiked. Despite this, the Trump administration issued an emergency declaration to push through billions of dollars in arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE without congressional approval, vetoed a bi-partisan War Powers Resolution passed by bipartisan majorities in both chambers of Congress to end unauthorized U.S. participation in the war, and cut USAID funding to Yemen right as COVID-19 hit the country.
Before coronavirus, Yemen was already experiencing the largest humanitarian crisis on the planet. A 2018 report from Save the Children estimated that 85,000 Yemeni children had starved to death and in October 2020, the UN reported that 100,000 children in southern Yemen alone could die of acute malnutrition if urgent humanitarian aid is not taken. Now COVID-19 is spreading virtually unchecked. The war has decimated Yemen's already vulnerable health care infrastructure and disrupted access to clean water, sanitary systems, sufficient nutrition and adequate shelter.
The Saudi-led war in Yemen began during the Obama-Biden administration, but since then more than a dozen senior Obama administration officials -- including Susan Rice, Samantha Power, Ben Rhodes and Jake Sullivan -- have called for an end to U.S. participation in the war. With President Trump departing the White House, the Biden-Harris administration has an historic opportunity to end U.S. complicity in this war the moment you come into office.
We appreciate your consistent pledge to end unauthorized U.S. participation in the war, and we urge you to immediately inform the other members of the Saudi-led coalition that you will do so on day one of your presidency. To truly end U.S. participation and complicity in the war in Yemen, you should take the following measures:
Heed the bipartisan votes of Congress indicating that the Executive Branch does not have authorization -- as required by our Constitution and the War Powers Act of 1973 -- to participate in the Saudi war in Yemen, and commit to signing a new Yemen War Powers Resolution if it arrives at your desk;
End all war-related U.S. logistical support, targeting assistance, spare parts transfers, and intel to the Saudi-led coalition;
Stop all sales of weapons to members of the Saudi-led coalition that could be used in the war and encourage US allies and other countries to do the same;
Pressure the Saudi-led coalition to end their military actions in Yemen, lift the blockade of Yemen’s ports, allow entry of humanitarian aid and commercial imports, open Sana’a airport for civilian travel, and negotiate a nationwide ceasefire;
Restore and expand USAID funding to all parts of Yemen and recommit U.S. financial support to UN, WHO, and WFP relief programs in Yemen. Work with the international community to pressure Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to meet and expand their funding pledges for humanitarian assistance and post-conflict reconstruction of the country.
Ending U.S. participation in the war in Yemen and restoring vital humanitarian aid to address the war’s impact on the Yemeni people is a moral and legal obligation. It would be the first step in ending this catastrophe, caused in large part by actions of the Saudi-led coalition. Ending U.S participation would signal to millions of Yemenis living in Yemen and thousands of Yemeni-Americans who worry about their families in Yemen that weapon sales and geopolitical chess moves are not more important than their lives and the lives of their loved ones. It would be a monumental first achievement for your administration that would be praised by Americans across the ideological spectrum. It would also be an important sign that you will be an advocate for restraint, as you were during the Obama Administration when you opposed U.S. participation in the military intervention in Libya, the troop surge in Afghanistan, and other military-first approaches.
As organizations that are deeply distressed about the U.S. role in perpetuating the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, we are counting on you to immediately fulfill your pledge to end U.S. military participation and weapon sales for the Saudi-led war. With countless new deaths from war and starvation every single day, the people of Yemen can’t afford to wait.
Sincerely,
Signers as of November 25, 2020:
West Suburban Peace Coalition
Action Corps
American Friends Service Committee
Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain
Avaaz
Beyond the Bomb
Brooklyn For Peace
Campaign for Peace Disarmament and Common Security
CAPA DePaul
CCDS
Center for Economic and Policy Research
Center for International Policy
Chicago Area Peace Action
CODEPINK
Daily Kos
Demand Progress
Democracy for America
Democracy for the Middle East Now (DAWN)
Episcopal Peace Fellowship
Fellowship of Reconciliation
First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor, MI
Franciscan Action Network
Freedom Forward
Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)
Grassroots Global Justice
Health Alliance International
Historians for Peace and Democracy
Indiana Center for Middle East Peace
Institute for Policy Studies, National Priorities Project
Institute for Policy Studies, New Internationalism Project
Islamophobia Studies Center
Israel Palestine Mission Network PCUSA
Interfaith Community Sanctuary
Jetpac Resource Center
Jewish Voice for Peace Action
Just Foreign Policy
Justice Is Global
Kairos Center
MADRE
Massachusetts Peace Action
MPower Change
Organization for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain
Our Revolution
Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace
PAX Christi USA
Peace Action
PEACEWORKERS
Presbyterian Church USA
Progressive Democrats of America
Project Blueprint
Raytheon anti-war Campaign
Rethinking Foreign Policy
Revolving Door Project
Saudi American Justice Project
September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas - Justice Team
The International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN)
The United Methodist Church - General Board of Church and Society
Tunisian United Network
United African Congress
United for Peace and Justice
U.S. Labor Against Racism and War
Veterans For Peace
WESPAC Foundation, Inc.
Western New York Peace
Win Without War
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom-US
World BEYOND War
Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation
Yemeni Alliance Committee
posted by Walt Zlotow at 8:28 AM
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