Volume 29, Number 12 — Friday, January 12, 2024
Empire Bombs Yemen to Protect Israel’s Genocide
After years of backing Saudi Arabia’s atrocities in Yemen, the U.S and U.K. bombed the poorest country in the Middle East for trying to stop a genocide. This is the U.S. empire.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken with reporters in Cairo on Thursday during his trip through the Middle East. (State Department, Chuck Kennedy)
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com.au
The U.S and U.K. have reportedly struck over a dozen sites in Yemen using Tomahawk missiles and fighter jets, backed by logistical support from Australia, Canada, Bahrain and the Netherlands.
U.S. President Joe Biden, in a statement, asserts that the strikes against “targets in Yemen used by Houthi rebels” are a “direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea.”
What Biden does not mention in his statement about his administration’s “response” to Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea is that those Red Sea attacks are themselves a response to Israeli crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Also unmentioned is the that the strikes took place after the first day of proceedings in the International Court of Justice in which Israel stands accused by South Africa of committing a genocide in Gaza.
So the U.S and the U.K. just bombed the poorest country in the Middle East for trying to stop a genocide. Not only that, they bombed the very same country in which they just spent years backing Saudi Arabia’s genocidal atrocities which killed hundreds of thousands of people between 2015 and 2022 in an unsuccessful bid to stop the Houthis from taking power.
The Houthis, formally known as Ansarallah, threatened ahead of the attack to fiercely retaliate against any strikes from the U.S and its allies. Abdulmalik al-Houthi, who leads the Houthi movement, said that the response to any American attack “will be greater than” a recent Houthi offensive which used dozens of drones and several missiles.
“We, the Yemeni people, are not among those who are afraid of America,” al-Houthi said in a televised speech. “We are comfortable with a direct confrontation with the Americans.”
An unnamed U.S official who informed Huffington Post’s Akbar Shahid Ahmed about the imminent strikes on Yemen shortly before they occurred complained that the airstrikes “will not solve the problem” and that the approach “doesn’t add up to a cohesive strategy.”
Ahmed has previously reported that behind the scenes, officials in this administration have been getting increasingly nervous about the risk of Biden igniting a wider war in the middle east. This latest escalation, along with the Houthi pledge to retaliate, adds a lot of weight to this concern. [Some U.S. lawmakers and rights groups have condemned the strikes as unconstitutional.]
And all for what? To protect Israel’s ability to conduct a months-long massacre of Palestinians in Gaza.
This is what the U.S empire is. This is what it has always been about.
These people are showing us exactly who they are.
We should probably believe them.
Caitlin Johnstone’s work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following her on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, YouTube, or throwing some money into her tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy her books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff she publishes is to subscribe to the mailing list at her website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything she publishes. For more info on who she is, where she stands and what she’s trying to do with her platform, click here. All works are co-authored with her American husband Tim Foley.
Usual Caitlin Johnston hogwash.
ReplyDeleteThe action against the Houthis It's the same as taking stern action against rock throwers targeting passing vehicles on highways.
The Bab El Mandeb is one of the world's most important sea-borne choke points.
It's about protecting the safety of sea-borne commerce.
Mfer, have u checked why the rock throwers targeting passing vehicles on highways?
DeleteFor fun?
Or for preventing those passing vehicles resupplying the genocidal bully continuing killing the surrounding innocent residents!
I remember , years ago, there were stretches of Malaysia's North South Highway with multiple incidents of individuals throwing rocks at passing cars, usually from overhead bridges, causing severe damage and injury .
DeletePolice and Highway authorities carried on educational cum deterrence visits to kampungs in the surrounding areas.
The educational part involved showing the kampung folks and youths the severe impact of these rock throwing incidents.
The deterrence part was Police explaining the consequences - anyone caught and found guilty would be facing years in prison.
Worst, if anyone got killed as a consequence of the rock-throwing incidents, the perpetrator could be a facing a murder charge..even the Death Penalty.
The incidents of throwing rocks at passing vehicles eventually stopped.
Mfer, read through the core of the issue would u?
DeleteGrandmother story is reserved for yr sleepless night!
For your information, billions of dollars of Malaysian exports to Europe, everything from Palm Oil to Petroleum to furniture to food products to rubber gloves to all kinds of non-electronic manufactured products pass through the Bab- el-Mandeb through the Suez Canal on the way to Europe.
ReplyDeleteWhen Houtis target Maersk or MSC container ships and other bulk carriers , they are targeting Malaysia, too.
So it is signature Caitlin Johnstone ideological garbage to characterise the deterrent reprisal against the Houthis as "Empire Bombs Yemen to Protect Israel’s Genocide"
Mfer, recheck the declaration of the Houthi militial movement in targeting container ships and other bulk carriers.
DeleteThose that docked & worked with the Zionist state!
What's not been told by those western media is there r many container ships safely passing to&fro of Bab- el-Mandeb via the Suez Canal w/o any Houthi interferences!
BTW, why r m'sian products been shipped via Zionist connected carriers?
So it is a signature ideological garbage of a Zionist arselicker to characterise the deterrent reprisal against the Houthis as protecting the safety of sea-borne commerce!
China Wumao idiot regurgitating Houthi bullshit that they are just attacking those that docked and worked with the Zionist state.
DeleteMalaysian products are shipped throughr Maersk and MSC because they are among the biggest and most efficient and reliable shipping companies.
Maersk is owned by a Denmark corporation and MSC is owned by Greeks.
Maersk has a long term contract with Malaysia for their transhipment hub at the port of Tanjung Pelepas, Johore.
Mfer, then use for f*cked neurons to work out a shipping route where m'sia products have no port destination at any Zionist port!
DeleteMaersk and MSC wouldn't be so stupid to pack containers not destined for Zionist state with those that r.
Call u a silver spoon-fed dickhead is kind!
A large Maersk EEE-class container ship has up to 18,000 Twenty-Foot container or equivalent. The cargo can contain anything from any origin and any destination along it's route.
DeleteChina Wumao Idiot has zilch knowledge of global marine traffic.
Wakakakaka…
DeleteCalled itself an entrepreneur!
Mfer, international containership can easily classified goods origins & destinations & then group them into relevant carrier ship to do the routes. That's efficiency & cost effectiveness.
Ooop… in yr f*cking operations, NO such terms & methodology r been known & apply!