Wall is the improvement of investment climates by other means clouds of it's for dummies The Scott Horton show taking out Saddam Hussein turned out to be a pretty good deal.
They hate our freedoms We're dealing with Hitler revisited we couldn't wait for that cold war to be over quickly So we can go and play with our toys in the sand go and play with our toys in the sand No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare Today I authorized the armed forces of the United States in military action in Libya That action has now begun when the president desert that means that it is not illegal All Right y'all introducing Shireen al-adimi.
She is an assistant professor of education at Michigan State University and is a Yemeni American and regular writer on the issue of the crisis of the American Saudi war on Yemen and Here she is at in these times in these times calm How dare Samantha power scrub the Yemen war from her memoir great title.
Welcome back Thanks for having me back.
Very happy to have you here.
So who's Samantha power and how dare she do anything here?so Samantha power was the US ambassador to the UN under Obama's second term of presidency and during that time, of course, she was instrumental in You know being involved in the Syrian war the intervention the US intervention in Syria And then of course Yemen as well, which she does not include in her memoir at all Right now so the background for her is really important that she started out as a journalist and then in the face of allied inaction as she saw it in Bosnia in the early 1990s decided to commit to the idea that America needed to really expand the Definition of their power under the UN Charter where nations are really no longer sovereign instead There's this right to protect a right to intervene by essentially the Security Council powers in internal conflicts within states if they judge that there are human rights abuses going on whatever the cause and of course all detail and and real truth aside the common narrative is that the Genocide in 1994 in Rwanda was caused by nothing that anyone needs to know about But that Bill Clinton could have just sent in the Marine Corps and called a halt to the whole thing at a moment's notice But he chose not to do so And so the lesson from that is that from now on whenever we think there's going to be a massacre somewhere The USA has the right to intervene in the name of protecting that civilian population and she'd written this entire book called a problem from hell and had built this whole reputation and career about Using America as a force for good.
So in other words, I don't know if she would have rejected Bush's weapons of mass destruction argument But she would have accepted his we're gonna create a democracy for the Iraqi people argument as long as it's for their own good Exactly, so there's a presumption here that the u.s.
Has more insight into people's into the intricacies of Countries than those people themselves and that the u.s.
Intervention would be a force for good She calls these humanitarian interventions that whenever the u.s.
Is involved in anything we would mitigate the crisis would make it better and of course that ignores the reality of A century or more of u.s.
Intervention that has done nothing more than exasperate issues in various countries in South America in the Middle East and Creates more bloodshed and you know creates power vacuums that can then be taken up by extremist groups and so on All right now a little bit more background before we get to her role in helping to start the war in Yemen that the reason that she was the UN ambassador as you said Was she had gotten that promotion because of helping to start the war in Libya and as Michael Hastings had reported in Rolling Stone Because she had called Hillary Clinton a monster during the primary campaign season of 2008 she had then been Relegated to National Security Council staff, I guess, you know a somewhat low position engaged in what she called Do-gooder Rinky-dink stuff like get this working on Sunni Shia Reconciliation in Iraq in the time between the end of Iraq war two and the rise of the Islamic State You know things like that She wanted a pat on the head and some attention from the boss and she wanted a promotion and she had decided that Getting a war in Libya was the way to get it.
It was the way to help heal the rift with Hillary Clinton She would convince Susan Rice and then they would go to Hillary Clinton and say come on the three of us we can get this done and Help heal that rift at the expense of the people of Libya and and get and she got the promotion it worked She became the ambassador to the United Nations and then it was in that role that as you say She was there in the room to participate in the argument about whether or not we should take the side of the Saudis Really give them permission and all the aid that they needed to start this war in Yemen Right.
So the Obama administration was instrumental in supporting the Saudis at the onset of the war in Yemen The very same day that the Saudis launched their attack in Yemen the Obama administration released a statement saying that we fully support them we are Going to try to reinstate Hadi president Hadi to power and you know We are fully supporting them militarily with logistics and intelligence and so on.
So had it not been for Obama's intervention You know Maybe Trump wouldn't have had a war to inherit because we know that the Saudis are Completely reliant on the United States and the UK They don't manufacture their own weapons.
They don't train their own soldiers They don't refuel their air their airplanes midair And so the u.s.
Is support is instrumental for them and it's what's allowed them to continue aging this war.
That's now entering its fifth year Yeah now Yeah, it sure is and it's the worst humanitarian crisis in the world and it's about as horrible as it is Uncovered by American media in any real way the New York Times finally did their you know Special report about the starving children and I mean really starving not as a figure of speech starving children last year But then that was about it not too much follow-up the Congress you know, the activists have really pushed to get Congress to try to push against it, but The media won't cover it still to this day in any real way They certainly won't tell that story very well as far as who's bombing who and why and how much responsibility the u.s Has as you describe it quite accurately for what they call the Saudi led coalition's behavior here when every bit of it is with the permission of the United States and with America's material support as well as as you say Training and maintenance and refueling and all the rest of it Exactly so for Yemenis who see these American bombs being dropped on them and they know that American soldiers and advisors are involved in the targeting room and every step of the way essentially they know that this is a war that is jointly led by the u.s. and The Saudis and of course a Marazzi's whereas here in the United States even, you know, four and a half years later The average American barely knows that there's a war going on in Yemen And when they do hear about it, don't really realize that hey, this is our intervention.
This is our war.
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So now let's get back to Samantha power here because she's got this new memoir out so I'm interested in what does she say about Yemen and her role in that and What do we know about her real role in starting this war?
So let me start by her real role in starting this war So the first time Samantha power said anything publicly about Yemen was after she left office But we know that as in her role, she played a critical role and she was in support of the intervention she would have been in support of all of the Negotiations that were happening behind the scenes of the Saudis getting to choose their own the people who Investigate certain crimes that were occurring in Yemen And the Saudis were getting away with so much You know They were able to bomb Yemen with impunity essentially for all these years because at the level of the UN they were saying things like no No, we're not gonna have an independent investigation other countries like the Netherlands were putting forward proposals during that time of sending independent investigators and the u.s.
Was helping Shut down those proposals in favor of the Saudis choosing their own investigators and so that was happening all throughout the Obama administration and that would have been her role in Providing cover for them essentially at the UN Then after she left office she started speaking out against the war and so when she published this memoir I was really interested to see what she would say about this about her time reflecting on it She's admitted in tweets that it was wrong to support the Saudi-led intervention given that they were bombing people and they were starving children to death But I wanted to see how she was gonna deal with that reflectively in her memoir instead.
She does not mention it at all It's as though it didn't happen.
She talks about Syria.
She talks about Libya.
She talks about other things She does not talk about Yemen at all And as we discussed earlier on the show with Ted Carpenter what she says about Libya is well How are we supposed to know it wasn't gonna work out great as though that's you know As though that's a perfectly legitimate excuse for starting a war rather than staying out of one But here she didn't even mention it at all.
Really, huh?
She didn't mention it at all in the case of Syria She was lamenting that Obama didn't intervene earlier in the Syrian civil wars But in the case of Yemen She met Yemen and just mentioned a couple of times in references that have absolutely nothing to do the war So for example in one quote, she says she she's mentioning countries that prosecute People for being gay and she mentions Yemen as one of the countries that has a death penalty against people who are who are gay and you know a reference like that, of course has nothing to do with her time and Well, in a way it does she talking about the hottie so-called government she talking about the Houthis regime She's not talking.
Well, she's just talking about Yemen in general as having that in the penal code code She's not she doesn't mention Houthi.
She doesn't mention Heidi.
She does not mention Yemen in any way But in a sense you could say that's the government that she's supported starting this war in favor of is the hottie regime that had That same law Exactly, so there's no reflection on that at all.
This just mentioned in a parenthetical way Yeah, man, that is really something else and you know, I have to bring this up Did you ever see this article in defense one by Robert Malley?
Who was also a I think at that time it was an NSC staffer when they were deciding on this war It's called Nash.
I'm not sure I did.
Okay, so it's called Yemen cannot afford to wait and It's just I have to read to you this little bit It's just the absurdity the way he recalls how they decided to start this war So he says okay in March of 2015 the Saudis came to us asking us To do this and he says after that and although events took place a mere four years ago memories blur in our Conversations many former US officials found it hard to recall what precisely the Saudis asked for what specific commitments?
The administration made in response and what certain types of assistance started to flow Some including one of us who attended the deliberations recall a deeply ambivalent president who green-lighted US support But insisted it be confined to the defense of Saudi territory and not extend to the war against the Houthis Others don't recall hearing about that instruction and struggle to reconcile it with what the US actually did during the war including refueling coalition sorties and replenishing weapon stocks And so then he changes the subject to the ridiculous motive that Hadi is our great partner in Our anti-terrorism campaign against al-qaeda when that was actually true of the Houthis Much more than it was of Hadi who was allied with the Muslim Brotherhood and at least had a kind of nudge thing with The al-qaeda guys there compared to the Houthis anyway But so I just wanted to bring that up because I mean doesn't that sound to you like a bunch of substitute teachers in The break room just sort of like I don't know.
Should we start a war?
I guess we might I don't know It sounds like you know, even in Libya where Obama was like, hmm It's 51 to 49 whether we should do this or not here They're sort of even denying they really did it even though of course they did but they're kind of going I don't even remember really deciding what to do here.
Do you not not so much?
Yeah, I think substitute teachers would be more prepared than any of these guys it sounds like and there's so much at stake here You know, there's human lives.
There's a country.
That's I mean suffering immensely at the hands of All of this this this coalition that we're a part of that the United States is a part of yet There's no accountability.
There's not even an acknowledgment and in her in her memory, you know, there's not even an acknowledgment that yeah I was wrong or you know had I Had I knowing what I know now I would have done things differently Which is what she seems to be saying in those tweets and in a couple of public appearances But there's no recognition that our actions carry immense weight and that you know, Yemenis are suffering More than any other country in the world as a result of our actions that they seem to have gotten into just so You know haphazardly without even realizing or you know Admitting that there was intention behind it Right and you know, it's been mentioned numerous times already I've read at least twice in different reviews of this book that it's clear that she wants a job in the next Democrat government She can't throw anybody under the bus including herself or any of the real bad decisions that they made other than of course Consensus garbage like we should have done more to overthrow Assad in favor of al-qaeda in Syria or some nonsense Which is well agreed upon in DC but makes no sense and is too late and doesn't matter anyway kind of thing like that but otherwise She has to essentially continue playing her cards, right?
Well, Obama doesn't get remembered for the war in Yemen does you know?
He's relatively unscathed from any criticism about the war many Democrats refused to even engage with the Activists on any of the things that we were asking them to do in Congress until he was no longer in power until it wasn't Obama's war anymore.
So I guess she's learning that yes You can be responsible for so many atrocities and still be seen as the good guy, right?
It's still having a job at the end of the day and continuing to shape public policy Well after all she's tall and telegenic and has strawberry blonde hair and fits Gets along real well with all the TV personalities and all those kinds of people I'm sure they all go to each other's cocktail parties and this kind of thing.
And so But what's this thing about a genocide in some other country?
What does that have to do with what we're talking about at our cocktail party tonight?
Not much and so exactly It's another world away Right, and there's a responsibility here for the press politicians.
They're gonna do whatever they've been always been doing But where is the responsibility of mainstream press to hold them accountable to question them to challenge them to critique them instead?
She gets you know Presented as an idealist and an activist that just at face value without Challenging her on any of these things without challenging her on why she excluded Yemen from her memoir So, you know, we in a sense our press is providing cover for these politicians instead of holding them accountable for their crimes Yeah Well, and of course partisanship has so much to do with it as you say when it comes to Obama and the rest of this and I guess I'll take it right if We're all banned from ever using the word Obama or even power again And we have to somehow blame it all on Trump in order to get the war ended Fine because we can see that Partisanship is the worst thing that we have going for us here is the fact that both Presidents have been involved in this in essentially equal measure the last and the current and so there's this huge Disincentive for either side to even accuse the other guy because they got to admit that their guys just as guilty and so It's a huge obstacle to overcome still haven't overcome it Yeah, I think we need to I mean for for me and for many people in this work.
It's whatever gets it done you know, there's still children starving today and People more people will die and more people are being displaced and being bombed and so whatever gets the job done There will be a time for reckoning.
I hope to avoid things like this in the future, but It at this point.
We're in like urgent mode, you know Like the hashtag Yemen can't wait is what we've been using for so long and really Yemen can't wait, right?
People can't wait around for us to come together in some sort of like kumbaya to figure out like to how to write the wrongs Of our past.
No, we need to end this war now first of all, and then we need to figure out how to prevent it, you know, and I think the We're in the middle of this election, you know Cycle and we need to be very intentional about who are these people that we are?
Electing to office because whatever they do is going to affect the rest of the world You know, are we holding them accountable for what they're going to be involved in have how many questions have there been about Yemen to?
These candidates none, right?
So I think it's really important for us to realize that What we do here matters for the rest of the world and we just can't keep doing whatever we've been doing for so long Yeah, that's so well said and you know It's just it's such an irony the lack of coverage compared to the amount of damage being done here But people have to understand this is as bad as Iraq war two Even though we don't have our third infantry division and Marine Corps on the ground there, you know up to their eyeballs in this fighting There are special operations forces from time to time, of course but the level of devastation for the people of Yemen is no less than a rock war two or the war in Syria or the worst of what we've seen in this century and against a country that never attacked us never threatened us in any way and you know as we've covered time and again on this show the origins of this war just completely corrupt and and Senseless and crazy and and that the war hasn't worked The the battle lines haven't really changed since about what three or four months into the war When the Houthis took Aden and then lost it again, and then that was that's been it, right?
Yeah, there has not been much movement They didn't realize that the Houthis were gonna fight back that there were a lot of people within the country who are gonna resist And here we are just killing people for no reason starving them for no reason continuing to block the country, you know Blocking the airspace and the airports and the ports for no reason other than Essentially supporting the Saudis and the Saudis are completely arrogant, right?
They won't even admit that the drones that just Disabled half of their oil production came from Yemen because it's too embarrassing It's too embarrassing to admit that the country that they've been fighting and spent, you know, four and a half years fighting And you know hundreds of billions of dollars Was able to strike back and disable their Oil production using $15,000 worth of drones, right?
So it's for the Saudis It's a very embarrassing war, but they are continuing to engage in it and for the United States I guess with the idea of Trump is that as long as the Saudis are paying he's happy to continue providing this assistance Hey, I'll check it out.
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The great Ron Paul get it at Libertarian Institute org and amazon.com Well, there was some talk about I don't know a year ago or so about dissent inside Saudi Arabia where this operation Decisive storm hasn't been so decisive and they were mad because it was at that time 29 year old deputy Crown Prince bone saw Mohammed bin Salman who had launched this war for his own political reasons inside the kingdom that You know had maybe you know coincided with Saudi national objectives, but were mostly about himself Yeah, it was a resume war for him for him a resume war I like that yeah for him and Sam power There you go And you know it accomplished what he wanted to get accomplished.
There's a certain unity around around war right and patriotic Sentiments around war unfortunately, but also there's growing dissent and we've seen how he deals with dissent whether it's from his own family Locking them up in the Ritz and shaking them up for money Or you know the activists the female activists who've been Pushing for social change and they're still in prison and they're being tortured So it's not a place where you can actively dissent without getting your head chopped off essentially But we continue to see him as an ally.
We continue to support him.
He hasn't crossed into this Realm of war criminal, you know Although there's been some whispers about his role in Killing Khashoggi, it still hasn't held up to the same standard that it should that this man essentially still our ally Despite all the atrocities that he's directly involved in Yeah, it should be famously Lindsey Graham said when he actually voted for the Senate resolution to invoke the War Powers Act On this thing unbelievably.
He said yeah, I want to be clear My vote has nothing to do with the war against the Houthis I'm just mad that he personally embarrassed me because I said he was cool.
And then he did this bone saw thing And the bone saw thing I guess what angered some politicians is that these politicians were in favor of what's happening in Yemen?
They are working alongside the Saudis on what's happening in Yemen, but he went and did this, you know Atrocious act of murdering and dismembering this journalist without the approval of the United States It seems like which is why they were upset They weren't upset at the act itself Because if they were they'd also be upset about the hundred thousand Yemenis who have been killed by this war I think it was a matter of like how dare he go and do this without our consent or our approval or a corporation Yeah, it was an extra extraordinary rendition and that's over the line.
Yeah Yeah Now so here's another part of the interview where I'm sorry I apologize in advance have to talk at you for a minute because I don't remember if we spoke about this the last time you Were on the show, but it's so important at least to me it seems like everyone ought to take note because it's a little noted fact, but in January of 2015 the very end I'm almost certain it was January 28th 2015 the Wall Street Journal ran a story about how Central Command was working with the Houthis providing them intelligence to use to target and kill al-qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula guys and At the same time.
I only found this out later Barbara Slaven at the Atlantic Council and writing for al-monitor at the time And I'm sorry because sometimes I confuse al-monitor with a couple of the others over there, but I'm pretty sure I'm like 90% It was al-monitor, but anyone can find it.
Anyway is Barbara Slaven and she says guess what?
The deputy Secretary of Defense for intelligence Came to the Atlantic Council and gave a big presentation about how CENTCOM was funneling intelligence to the Houthis to use to kill al-qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and The fate of the previous Hadi regime was not their concern They had guys who were in a defensive way were determined to kill al-qaeda guys as best as they could Because they knew what was coming to them if al-qaeda were to grow in strength in that country and what al-qaeda guys think of Zaydi Shia, and so they had every motive in the world to ally with these guys in the war on terrorism now personally I'm not saying that's great, but I'm just saying just to show who's on whose side here Just two months later after the Wall Street Journal and Barbara Slaven and al-monitor reported this story just two months later Barack Obama stabbed the Houthis in the back and took al-qaeda side against them I think that's really interesting.
I haven't come across the CENTCOM report the Slaven report But it is well documented that the Houthis have been the most successful at getting rid of al-qaeda if you see where extremist groups are currently in Yemen You'll find them in the south former South Yemen which is controlled largely by the Saudi led coalition and not in Houthi controlled areas and I think what people need to understand that Yemenis suffered most from AQAP more than Americans ever have and For the Houthis and you know, they're 40% the the Zaydis are 40% of the population And al-qaeda presents a fundamental threat to them Fundamental threat to them to Shafi Sunnis to any moderate Sunni who's not, you know an extremist Wahhabi and so it's it's you know in the interest of Yemenis to to Essentially get rid of extremist groups and the Houthis have been successful in eliminating these groups from northern Yemen I don't know if it was it with the support of CENTCOM or not, but You know, they're most impacted by them.
And so they have this incentive to combat their ideology You know and and their presence in in Yemen and How the government by contrast, you know hires people as their his governors who are you know members like, you know On list of US terror terrorists.
He doesn't really care about working with people who are classified as terrorists or not Yep.
All right now in the story of this war all of the relationship between Salah and Hadi and then the Houthis and the The Isla faction and of course the Americans and the Saudis in the United Arab Emirates and their role Gets all the coverage and the thing that gets ignored the most is the southern secessionist movement Yeah, which has been allied with the UAE and now The whole alliance as the UAE is somewhat withdrawing their their main force and just leaving mercenaries I gather There's a whole shift in the power structure in South Yemen that has even brought the UAE and the Saudi Puppets if not the government's themselves into battle against each other on the ground and airstrikes back and forth and all this Can you please get into some of that for us?
Yeah, absolutely.
And I actually wrote a piece for in these times last week trying to Delve into some of this this topic a little bit more because it doesn't get too much attention So the the Southerners and I'm actually from South Yemen from Aden and And many people in Aden in the south have kind of been disgruntled since 1994 at least When the unity between north and south failed, so Yemen used to be two separate countries They united in 1990, but that unification was a little bit premature Because Yemen was coming, you know, the two parts of Yemen were coming from very different histories and backgrounds the south was occupied by the British for over a hundred and thirty years and the north was Going through various colonialists as well and a monarchy But when they united in 1990, I think there were some mismatched expectations And so in the south, they thought that they would have equal representation in Parliament when that didn't pan out They only got 18% of the votes in 1993.
They announced a secession from the north well, what's I think unclear to a lot of people that the south although it's Geographically larger it only constitutes about 20% of the population.
So the northerners you know the areas that Houthis control are smaller, but they contain about 80% of the population and So when the south seceded from the north there was a war of 1994 where Saleh essentially just bombed the south into submission and ended up installing Hadi as his vice president as a reward because Hadi was the General who led that war in 1994 against the south and So I guess resentment had been brewing throughout these the last couple of decades and many people in the south feel marginalized by you know Saleh and his policies and in 2017 a faction of us of the secessionists formed the SDC the Southern Transitional Council and Since then they've been kind of tolerated by the Hadi government Which makes no sense because essentially there are they are a rebel group just as the Houthis are rebelling against Hadi but they were tolerated because the UAE began to support them financially and Then when the UAE started saying that they're kind of pulling out or changing their presence in Yemen The STC essentially saw an opportunity to take over either.
And so now there are ongoing clashes between the southern Secessionists who are backed by the UAE and the southern Islah essentially Who are backed by Heidi and his government and who don't want secession from?
The north and who are supported by the Saudis So this is a whole other mess that I think further illustrates why the United States should not be involved in this mess yeah, now if you had to you know gas kind of thumb in the wind kind of deal do you think that the Houthi government could form a coalition with enough people in the south to keep the country together or for that matter on the other side that they could form an alliance at some point with Hadi and the Islam party because at least they're not the Houthis and Reduce the number of sides of this war by one or is this going to just remain a big stalemate now?
I mean Yemenis have been known to come together in really surprising ways For example Nobody, I think ever saw it coming when the Houthis and Saleh began working together given their history of several wars that he waged against them Yet they were able to work together for a time until of course he tried to leave that union and Was killed by the Houthis, but so I don't think that I think if Yemenis were left to themselves They would form alliances and they're they're practical people.
They want I don't think anybody wants to continue waging war It's very costly for everybody involved Unfortunately, none of this can be done or settled when there's so much foreign intervention and foreign foreigners who are dictating kind of their vision for Yemen and not Yemenis deciding for themselves whether Secession is in fact the answer or whether they can form some kind of unity government Well now the southern groups probably I guess more than The Houthis are the ones who now face a real problem with al-qaeda Since the UAE has been back in the southern socialist secessionists and al-qaeda at the same time But I'm pretty sure they don't want anything to do with each other other than maybe to destroy each other Yeah, so the the al-qaeda and ISIS factions are prominent in South Yemen And so and and and to be honest, there's documented Evidence of this that the Saudis and the UAE forces have been working with al-qaeda openly Against the Houthis even CNN showed them driving around in American MRAPs That is the mine resistant vehicles developed in for Iraq war two That were also used in Afghanistan and they weren't stolen like ISIS stole them from bases in Western Iraq They were given to them by the UAE Right, so they've been working together Against the Houthis, I guess they thought any alliance is a good alliance as long as it's against the Houthis, which of course is misguided And the UAE has been reportedly, you know Paying different al-qaeda groups to leave certain areas so that they can declare victory over that area And so there are all these games that are being played and the Southerners are gonna have to concede with the fact that they accepted For an intervention that they supported the Saudi led coalition and now are starting to rebel against, you know The Emiratis for not only their role in supporting the separatists, but also in their role in Operating at least 18 or 19 clandestine sites prisons where they're torturing people sexually and in other horrific ways, so You know again Saudi in the UAE is not in Yemen for the sake of Yemenis.
They're there for imperialist reasons and Unfortunately, it's taken some time, but many Yemenis are starting to realize that this was a bad idea Mm-hmm.
All right now I'm sorry.
I really have to go soon.
But just to wrap up at the very end here I'd like to give you a chance to once again describe the humanitarian situation so that Americans can really realize what we're in the middle of here Yeah, I think it's important to note that no, you know Sometimes people say that this is too confusing to learn about and so they kind of just shut down But I think more importantly than who started what and you know, who are the different factions and all of that?it's important to realize the human cost of all of this and That we are contributing to to making this the world's worst humanitarian crisis where people can't leave their country where people can't You know go safely to their homes or their schools or their mosques or even drive around in a vehicle without getting bombed by the US Saudi led intervention Where they're starving to death because there's either no food in their area or they can't afford whatever foods there This is really a travesty that we haven't seen in modern times Just because it doesn't get coverage doesn't mean that it's not severe It's in fact the most severe of our modern-day crises and our role here as American We can't help at the end of the day.
We can't control the Houthis.
We can't control Hadi We can't control what's happening in Yemen We can only control and influence what we do with our vote and what we demand of our politicians Which should be you know, no intervention in Yemen.
Yeah, and by the way, I mean I think I've referenced this a little bit earlier in the interview.
It's almost miraculous the degree to which the Activists have taken on this issue despite the media blackout and have forced Congress to you know very powerful members of Congress on both side to actually do unprecedented things like pass War Powers Act resolutions demanding an end to this war and Trying they're in the middle of trying very hard to stick these amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act Try to force Trump to veto it if they can force Pelosi to do her part You got Republicans in the Senate who are doing their part Can we get the Democratic Speaker of the House to do her part to force an end to this war which would be world?
Historic heroism and a great victory against their political nemesis Donald Trump force him to end a war and Humiliate him that way there is that personal enough for you make people get people motivated here.
Let's get this thing done.
It can be done It absolutely can be done.
It should be done.
We have the power We just need to prioritize it and really push our elected officials to stop the inaction Yes, we did You know what I was very proud for me to I was very proud to work with all these activists and getting the war powers Resolution passed in Congress over and over until you know, we had It went all the way to the president's desk and of course he vetoed it But Pelosi can challenge that veto on the basis of its legality It is not legal for him to be able to go to war when Congress said that this war is unauthorized he's going against the Constitution to Support the Saudis in this war and it's really up to us to end this war one way or the other either through the NDAA or through bringing lawsuits against Trump, but Pelosi absolutely needs to act and of course an interesting that Surprisingly, I guess there they really are holding impeachment hearings They're beginning an investigation in the House Judiciary Committee to impeach this president And there's just no question that here the worst thing he's doing is also Absolutely completely illegal and the highest level of illegal indirect contravention of article 1 section 8 clause 11 that delegates this power of the US Constitution that Delegates this power to Congress not him.
And so you want to impeach this guy say he's the worst president ever and all these things Well, here's the worst thing he's doing and it happens to be technically against the law too.
So how about impeach him for that?
It's it's the strongest argument for impeachment yet It has not been used because Yemen still gets very little attention Well, and also because it's a crime of state they rather go after him, you know Paying hush money to former girlfriends and this kind of thing.
That's all personal and doesn't you know and leaves the US government blameless Exactly because we'd have to reckon with our history and with our role, you know across Administrations, yeah.
All right.
Well, listen, I got to tell you this is such important work and thank you for these great articles and for all your work on the activism You know in Congress and all of this stuff on this issue, too It is the most important thing right now the worst thing the US government is doing right now the war in Yemen So and thank you so much for continuing to provide really amazing coverage of the story All right, you guys that is Shireen al-adimi.
She is an assistant professor of education at Michigan State University and is A great you many American peace activist and you can find what she writes at in these times calm Including how dare Samantha power scrub the Yemen war from her memoir All right, y'all.
Thanks find me at libertarian institute org at Scott Horton org anti-war calm and reddit.com Slash Scott Horton show.
Oh, yeah and read my book fools errand timed and the war in Afghanistan at fools errand us
