Advocates are calling for passage of a privileged resolution introduced in the House that will withdraw US troops from the Saudi Arabia/Yemen conflict
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 26, 2018
Contact: Tihi Hayslett, Demand Progress Campaigner, (347) 756-9084, [email protected]
Washington D.C. — 15 progressive grassroots groups are pressing the House to pass a resolution to end US involvement in Yemen by directing thousands of activists to sign a petition and make phone calls through the website StopTheWar.us. The organizations include Demand Progress Action, CREDO, Daily Kos, Defending Rights & Dissent, About Face: Veterans Against the War, CODEPINK, Common Defense, Just Foreign Policy, MPower Change, RootsAction, The Nation, The Yemen Peace Project, Win Without War, World Beyond War, and Watchdog.net.
Rep. Ro Khanna, along with fellow House Armed Services Committee members, Ranking Member Adam Smith (WA-09), Mark Pocan (WI-02), Jim McGovern (MA-02), Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02), Michael Capuano (MA-07), Yvette Clarke (NY-09), Ted Lieu (CA-33), Barbara Lee (CA-13), and Adriano Espaillat (NY-13) introduced a privileged resolution that would end US involvement in the ongoing military conflict in Yemen. The conflict has already resulted in 22 million people requiring humanitarian assistance, 18 million people without access to food, and has left thousands of civilians dead.
“The conflict in Yemen has caused a global humanitarian crisis, leaving millions of people lacking access to food, and civilians, including children, killed by US-supplied bombs used in Saudi airstrikes. Congress must immediately end our involvement,” said Tihi Hayslett, campaigner at Demand Progress.
“To date, Congress has passed legislation that asks the administration to change Saudi-led coalition behavior and save civilian lives. The administration has shot down these requests, going so far as to certify that the Saudi-led coalition is working to reduce civilian harm, a flagrant lie. There can be no more half-measures, no more conditions, no more requests: Congress must use its constitutional authority to withdraw the US from this terrible war today,” said Eric Eikenberry of the Yemen Peace Project.
“As a result of American support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, millions are facing starvation and the country is battling what may be the worst cholera epidemic in history. American-made bombs have killed civilians — many of them children, all without explicit authorization from Congress. It is crucial that Congress assert its responsibility and vote to end U.S. support for the war in Yemen by supporting the legislation sponsored by Reps. Khanna, Pocan and Smith,” said Kaili Lambe, Organizing Director at CREDO Action.
“As Trump and his war cabinet double down on fueling the world’s largest humanitarian crisis in Yemen, congressional champions are moving to end U.S. support for Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s war crimes once and for all. For far too long the United States has enabled gross human suffering in Yemen and we call on Congress to end the shameful and unauthorized U.S. role in this conflict,” said Kate Kizer of Win Without War.
“We are horrified by our government’s secretive role in fueling the misery of the many thousands of Yemeni civilians who have been killed, made homeless, or are at risk of starvation. It is critical that Congress take action and end American complicity in the Saudi-led war in Yemen,” said Our Revolution President Nina Turner.
“Just Foreign Policy strongly welcomes the bipartisan initiative of Reps. Khanna, Massie, Smith, Jones, and Pocan to invoke the War Powers Resolution to force a floor vote to end unconstitutional U.S. participation in the Saudi regime’s biblically-catastrophic war and blockade in Yemen. The Saudi regime is deliberately causing famine in Yemen and deliberately helping strengthen Al Qaeda in Yemen. These barbaric Saudi policies that are hurting Americans will stop when the United States government stops illegally enabling them. We expect the long-overdue House invocation of its war powers to end this abomination to be a decisive step towards asserting Constitutional war powers to end other unconstitutional wars and towards preventing unconstitutional wars in the future,” said Policy Director Robert Maiman of Just Foreign Policy.
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