Any war can become a third world war and a nuclear holocaust, and Yemen is no exception. Last night, news reports from NBC News indicated that Saudi Arabia was committing 150,000 troops and 100 planes to the civil war in Yemen. 10 other Middle Eastern countries are participating.
President Obama is lending his tacit support for the operation. It is human nature for people to get enraged when shown up; Obama had touted Yemen as a model for his fight against terrorism. The subsequent civil war and regime change means one less theater in which the US can use its drones against the “terrorists.”
But the US has no business getting involved in any way, shape, or form in this conflict except in an effort to mediate a peaceful solution. We have much more important things to worry about such as roads, bridges, healthcare, employment, and finally realizing the ideal of the Declaration of Independence of equality for all.
The more the US gets involved with this conflict, the greater the threat to our basic civil liberties. Every enemy we kill will spawn many new enemies. Even though Saudi Arabia is taking the lead in this conflict, the US will be accused of pulling the strings from behind the scenes. This will make our country less safe against future 9/11 attacks, especially given the nativist strain of thought prevalent in Saudi Arabia which led to the tragic attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Even if this is not a fair assessment, this is what people will think.
And with every new attack on American soil, the more likely that our politicians, fearful of their own existence, will pass even more draconian laws curtailing our civil liberties that would dwarf the Patriot Act. Our allies will be more and more likely to go their own way, fearful of the NSA ramping up spying operations on their countries. And then they wonder in Washington why four of our closest allies, including the UK, joined a Chinese version of the World Bank. Or why we were shut out of the recent talks in Minsk over Ukraine.
Saudi Arabia justifies their attack in Yemen as being an operation against ISIS and other Evil Terrorist Entities. But the fact of the matter is that they have engaged in beheadings, whippings, and draconian laws prohibiting women from driving. Even the Iranians allow more women’s rights than that. Expect human rights in Saudi Arabia to get even worse, if that is at all possible, given the outbreak of war.
We have no business supporting dictators like Saudi Arabia any more than we did the Shah of Iran, El Salvador and the Contras under Ronald Reagan, Saddam Hussein against Iran, or any number of barbaric dictators around the world in the name of “fighting Communism” or “terrorism” or whatever evil entity we are supposed to hate next. If Saudi Arabia wants to commit national suicide in its own version of Vietnam, then all we are doing is throwing good money after bad in supporting them.
George Washington warned against these sorts of entangling alliances for good reason. The loss of respect for our country around the world is a direct result of our desire to become an imperial power instead of a peacemaker and a beacon of peace, freedom, and prosperity. People decide that we can’t be trusted – after all, some of the same people who fought against our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan also fought with us when we bombed Libya back into the Stone Age and created another failed state. Eastasia is no longer the enemy; Eurasia is.
This is not an argument for isolationism, but for a return to common sense. We have lost sight of the ultimate goal of world peace that was championed after World Wars I and II. The UN was created so that all countries have a platform to resolve their differences. The five permanent members of the Security Council – the US, Russia, China, France, and the UK need to work as partners to solve these sorts of problems. The fact that the negotiations with Iran have come farther than anyone would have thought possible shows the wisdom of this approach. There is no military solution to these conflicts; the only solutions are political and economic. And the fact that the US is tacitly getting involved in Yemen could undermine the nuclear negotiations with Iran given that the Iranian leaders could very well decide that we are one of those countries that signs deals and then turns around and does whatever they want to.
Give people work to do, a basic income, and something to live for, and these sorts of conflicts will be prevented. The only time we should get involved is if we, in conjunction with our partners on the Security Council, reach a consensus that there is a clear and present danger to world peace, there is a clear and present danger of our being attacked, or we are actually attacked (such as Pearl Harbor). The lesson that we should have learned from conflicts like Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya is that regime change does not work and that “humanitarian” conflicts of that nature usually create more problems than they solve.
I realize that we have differences with Russia and China. But those are just differences. We have an obligation to humanity, our children, and our grandchildren to put these differences aside to solve conflicts like Yemen, not foment them by taking one side or the other. We should not go to war or even aid either side unless and until we have to, and unless all peaceful means are exhausted. That way, similar to World Wars I and II, when Germany and her allies did not respect our neutrality, we can have public and world opinion on our side and we can mobilize our people to fight willingly.