Saudi-led air strike on a hospital in Abs district in the northern province of Hajja, Yemen Aug. 15, 2016
"Of course, we condemn the attack," State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau uncharacteristically asserted.
As per policy for all the humanitarian organization's hospitals, MSF "repeatedly" shared the Abs Hospital's precise GPS coordinates with all parties embroiled in the conflict — including, of course, the Saudi-led coalition.
Why the U.S. chose this particular MSF hospital bombing to step outside its usual deferral of reporters to the Saudi government to answer for egregious and deadly military blunders remains unclear.
Of course, welcome though this rebuke might be, the U.S. continues to supply the coalition with billionsin weapons and supplies, as well as providing refueling for Saudi jets.
As noted by the Intercept, Trudeau again emphasized "U.S. officials regularly engage with Saudi officials" concerning civilian deaths — an apparently fruitless dialogue, given the U.S.-backed coalition's astonishing penchant for bombing civilian homes, schools, markets, factories, and, with alarming frequency, medical facilities.
"We've also encouraged them to do their utmost to protect entities protected by international law, such as hospitals," Trudeau nevertheless reiterated.
"In October," Alex Emmons wrote for the Intercept, "the coalition bombed an MSF-supported hospital in Yemen's Haydan district, destroying the only emergency medical facility serving 200,000 people ... In December, airstrikes destroyed an MSF clinic in Taiz while doctors were treating the wounded from a nearby Saudi airstrike in a park. And in January, the coalition destroyed a hospital in Razeh district, killing five people — and killing an ambulance driver working for MSF later that month."
Emmons duly notes the bombings of MSF-supported health care facilities likely receive greater fury in the media due to the organization's being based in Western-allied France.
But a report from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in November 2015 said the U.S.-backed, Saudi Arabia-led coalition bombed nearly 100 hospitals — only from March through early November — in a harrowing trend it attested "disrespects the neutrality of health facilities."
This August, alone, the coalition obliterated a children's school, killing 10 children and nine adults; a potato chip factory, killing 14; and a critical bridge, which Oxfam called "the main supply route for Sanaa" — leaving swaths of the already starving populace in jeopardy of being unable to attain food.
"We have seen those reports, and if the bridge was deliberately struck by coalition forces, we would find this completely unacceptable," Trudeau continued. "The bridge was critical for the delivery of humanitarian assistance, destruction will further complicate efforts to provide assistance to the people of Yemen."
Clarifying afterward, she said, "The bridge — you saw me condemn that today."
While certainly stronger language than her original phraseology, any condemnation without decisive action or swift consequences backing it will have little, if any, effect on the either criminally reckless or purposefully illegal bombing of civilian sites by the coalition.
A joint U.N. resolution in May authored by 80 nations has apparently proved equally as ineffectual as a verbal condemnation would seem, despite the vehement demand the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and their allies end "impunity for those responsible and respect for international law on the part of all warring parties."
To imagine an actual resolution calling for an end to committing literal war crimes as anything but tellingly absurd would be a grievously dismissing the frequency with which such bombings occur.
Following the near-decimation of the particular hospital the State Department did condemn, MSF emergency program manager for Yemen, Teresa Sancristóval, said in a statement, emphasis added:
"This is the fourth attack against an MSF facility in less than 12 months. Once again, today we witness the tragic consequences of the bombing of a hospital. Once again, a fully functional hospital full of patients and MSF national and international staff members was bombed in a war that has shown no respect for medical facilities or patients.
"Even with a United Nations resolution calling for an end to attacks on medical facilities and with the high-level declarations of commitment to International Humanitarian Law, nothing seems to be done to make parties involved in the conflict in Yemen respect medical staff and patients."
She added, "Without action, these public gestures are meaningless for today's victims. Either intentional or as an act of negligence, this is unacceptable."
Asked whether the State Department condemning the Abs bombing would consequent a reduction in military aid to Saudi Arabia — in other words, whether tangible repercussions would result — Trudeau said dismissively, "I have nothing to preview on that."
is the official policy of the Global Ruling Politburo. It's all just a matter of business, making money and controlling the slaves is what it comes down to. So what if a potato chip factory get blown up. So what if 2/3rds of the people killed so far have been children. This is about helping out another political stooge, keeping a helpful business partner and team player from going down to a bunch of savages, or something like that. Anyways, it's unimportant, these people have been doing this since, well since before Lawrence of Arabia. For a long time and so why not make some money selling them the means to kill each other,and keep them in check as the saying goes, as well as keeping our good friends from losing control to a bunch of illiterate religitarded nutjobs. Anyways we got to keep the oil flowing one way or the other. So a few kids get their arms, legs, and heads blown off. That's what happens when you turn against the self elected; democratically of course.
Anyways, I love how this all works out, but how are we supposed to believe anything with the lies we are constantly being told? So I took the time to look into this little war and, well, who am I to question the official storyline?
Now supposedly, as the story goes...domestically contested Yemeni government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi was threatened by the Houthis, an armed religious-political movement, whom supposedly lead an offensive against the so called provisional capital of Aden. Why it's the provisional capital I have no idea, but this caused wet pants President Hadi to flee Aden and go running off to Saudi Arabia like a little bitch.
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Now here comes the crazy part, and this may explain why we shouldn't be trying to bother interfering with the affairs of other people; just saying ya know. So anyways, the Houthis unexpectedly and suddenly have additional help from forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Now why unexpectedly? Well because President Ali Abdullah Saleh was deposed in the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.
Amazingly though, he somehow like magic switched sides and aligned himself with the Houthi, whom are now labeled officially as revolutionaries. How he did this without losing his head is beyond me, but that's the official version of reality. Anyways, so now we got the disposed leader suddenly leading again, but this time as a scumbag revolutionary. Of all the nerve. I almost wonder if this is really a real guy, but once more who am I to question the official version of reality?
Now supposedly this all began in response to requests for assistance from the internationally recognized but domestically contested Yemeni government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. Evidently the key here is internationally recognized. What that means isn't exactly clear, but it seems like if your unelected leaders in the UN don't approve then you're on the un-approved list and slated for bombing, assassination, or something similar.
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So ya know, it just looks to me like a bunch of manipulated people who are clueless to their position in the official version of reality, and whom are consequently being blow up in potato chip factories by other slaves whom are just as clueless to their place in the official version of reality. All of which seems to me to come down to this idea that the official version of reality is about maintaining rulership by bamboozling the slaves in order to play them off against one another.
I could be wrong of course. It might be all about democracy, and freely elected governments, but if that's the case then why does the Democratic and Republican Parties in the US maintain an exclusive list of whom they will debate on televison? Somehow it just doesn't seem right...ya know what I mean?