The USA Airstrikes on Yemen: Barbarity Disguised as “Righteous Indignation”

 

By David Starr

 

In an all-too-familiar decision made by the United States, given its superiority complex, the U.S. military conducted airstrikes on Yemen, thus excising its imperial and delusional fetish for war. 

 

U.S. “President” Donald Trump once again lied and contradicted himself about using military force, previously given the impression that he is seeking peaceful solutions to conflicts. Of course, he lied and contradicted himself on many occasions. Total erratic behavior. 

 

In a post on Twitter (X), Jeffrey St. Clair of Counterpunch magazine stressed that “ Trump bombed Yemen even though it was abiding by the ceasefire that both Israel and now the US have breached!” Analyst Ben Norton replied to St. Clair’s post, saying that “The US empire is punishing Yemen because it’s one of the very few countries that is actually trying to stop Isreal’s US-sponsored genocide and ethnic cleansing.”

 

In trying to justify its action, members of the Trump regime made bold threats with the “idea” that Yemen’s Houthis were committing dastardly acts by attacking shipments traveling the Red Sea. The Houthis have actually conduced what could be called protest actions because of the U.S.-supported Israeli genocide in Gaza, which they strongly oppose.

 

Regarding those bold threats, The Guardian quoted Trump regime war mongers’ threats like the one on “Truth Social,” Trump’s propaganda outlet with a far right bent. Trump posted, “To all Houthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON’T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU EVER SEEN BEFORE.” The tone is familiar, like what other U.S. leaders have implied or said in threatening other countries with war over the decades.

 

Peter Hegseth, Trump’s defense secretary and another war monger, also posted on Twitter (X), “Houthi attacks on American ships and aircraft (and our troops!) will not be tolerated; and Iran, their benefactor, is on notice.” Yet the right would never acknowledge the root causes of the Israel-Palestine conflict which has gone on for about 70 years and are so obvious: the occupation and settlements imposed by a nation practicing apartheid.

 

Not surprisingly, the U.S. airstrikes on Yemen killed women and children. It’s par for the course. Starvation has also been used by Israel, which United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights  Volker Turk declaring that “starvation as a method of war, is a war crime.” This quoted from the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS), which condemned the USA’s attack. 

 

The WSWS called the attack a “massacre, a war crime and a criminal act of military aggression, justified as a ‘preemptive’ strike in response by Yemen’s Houthis that they will block Israeli ships from transiting the Red Sea until Israel ceases its blockade of food and water into Gaza.” Further, “Israel, with the support of the United States, is seeking to starve the population of Gaza, in an effort to ethnically cleanse the territory.” 

 

Trump, probably in a fit of insanity, “declared that the United States will seek to ‘own’ Gaza,” as he has said about other countries’ territories. This reflects 1890s barbarism, where U.S. leaders and officials claimed they had the right to “civilize” other peoples. But this time around, the Trump regime is practicing fascism, in an effort to try to make the world after the USA’s own image. That is, a unipolar world where the USA continues to dominate.

 

The WSWS quotes Michael Waltz, Trump’s national security advisor, from a Fox “News” interview, saying the attacks were “ an overwhelming response that actually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out, and the difference here is, one, going after the Houthi leadership, and two, holding Iran responsible.” Waltz’s cynical arrogance is a virtual tradition within the USA’s imperial foreign policy. Like ignoring the civilian deaths of Yemenis, including women and children.

 

Waltz continued with his rhetoric by claiming that Iran is backing the Houthis in their “attack on the global economy.” The Houthis attacking the global economy is a deceptive claim because the Houthis are only attacking Israeli and U.S. ships traveling through the Red Sea. And, of course, Waltz grossly ignores the reasons for the attacks: they have happened because the Houthis condemn Israel’s shutting off humanitarian aid to Gaza. The latter is indeed a war crime, among others.

 

The warped mentality among the right was further proven unintentionally by Hegseth, who said that the U.S. attack on Yemen is not “a one-night thing,” but unrelenting. This in itself is a form of terrorism, and a violation of international law. But the right’s immoral behavior is cloaked in “righteous indignation” and trying to take the “moral high ground” when it comes to the law.

 

Netanyahu, Israel’s fascist leader, is thrilled that the USA would join him and his ilk in the carnage. Netanyahu wants a “Greater Israel” based on ultranationalism, racism, and the myth of religious supremacy. 

 

An example of the carnage is revealed by Edouard Beigbeder, a spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Agency: 

 

“Tragically, approximately 4,000 newborns are currently unable to access essential lifesaving care due to the major impact on medical facilities in the Gaza Strip. Every day without these ventilators, lives are lost, especially among vulnerable, premature newborns in the northern Gaza Strip.”

 

Because of the USA’s and Isreal’s aggression,  Kyle Kulinski, host of Secular Talk, expressed justified outrage at the brutality of both.

 

The inevitability of blowback is real. For example, the Houthis stated that because of Isreal’s refusal to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, they will continue with their attacks in the Red Sea. And the U.S. empire’s and Isreal’s refusal to acknowledge the root causes if this conflict in the Middle East is sadistic; and a conflict that’s been going on for about 70 years.