http://www.salon.com/2016/09/02/despite ... di-arabia/
For those not paying attention, it wasn't just Libya that the US destroyed under Obama. Along with endless bombing in Syria, and the escalation of the Afghan war under Obama,
we have the US backed Saudi war crimes going on in Yemen. Virtually all the weaponry, logistics and support for the Saudis has come from the CIA and the US
Despite 10,000 civilian casualties in Yemen — 13 per day — U.S. reaffirms support for Saudi Arabia
A minimum of 10,000 civilians have been killed or wounded in the U.S.-backed war in Yemen, according to the U.N. humanitarian coordinator.
Since the Saudi-led coalition began its bombing campaign in Yemen in March 2015, there has been an average of 13 civilian casualties a day, according to the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. (The U.N. uses the word casualty to refer to both deaths and injuries.)
The U.N. and human rights organizations have thoroughly documented atrocities committed by the Western-backed coalition and have accused it of committing war crimes. Despite these reports, the U.S. continues to reaffirm its close alliance with its repressive Saudi ally and sell it weapons.
About 3,800 Yemeni civilians have been killed and more than 6,000 have been injured in the war, according to the U.N.
In August, the U.N. high commissioner released a report on the situation of human rights in Yemen. It revealed that at least 2.8 million Yemenis, including more than 400,000 families, have been forced to flee their homes because of the violence.
“The prolonged duration of the conflict has strongly heightened the disastrous risk of a systemic collapse of Yemen,” wrote Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the U.N. high commissioner. “The resilience of the Yemeni people has been stretched beyond human limits.”
Before the war Yemen was already the poorest country in the Middle East. The bombing has destroyed significant parts of health infrastructure and exacerbated the already dire humanitarian situation. At least 7.6 million Yemenis, including 3 million women and children, suffer from malnutrition, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has estimated.
Al-Hussein concluded his report stressing, “The international community, in its full range of political, legal and civil forces, has a legal and moral duty to take urgent steps to alleviate the appalling levels of human despair.”
The U.N. report warned that extremist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS have exploited the security vacuum created by the war. It also noted that sectarianism is on the rise among some political and religious leaders.
On Aug. 31, Ismael Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the U.N. special envoy to Yemen, advised the Security Council of the same thing. He said al-Qaeda and ISIS “continue to wreak havoc in significant parts of Yemen.”
Ahmed cautioned, “The absence of the state in many parts of Yemen, in addition to the chaos created by war, will continue to facilitate the expansion of these terrorist groups which represents a real threat to the region.”
Journalist Safa al-Ahmad, reporting for the BBC, said she saw Emirati forces from the Saudi-led coalition fighting alongside al-Qaeda, together battling Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
In April the Pentagon quietly sent U.S. troops into Yemen to fight al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has greatly benefited from the destructive war.
