Pompeo/Child
© CounterPunch/McNamee/Getty Images/KJNWar is the way to end suffering? 16 million dead Yemenis don't think so!
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday rebuked the senators who oppose U.S. involvement in Yemen's civil war, by implying they don't "truly care" about the suffering caused by the conflict. Pompeo spoke about this week's Senate vote:
"We all want this conflict to end. We all want to improve the dire humanitarian situation. But the Trump administration fundamentally disagrees that curbing our assistance to the Saudi-led coalition is the way to achieve these goals.

"If you truly care about Yemeni lives, you'd support the Saudi-led effort to prevent Yemen from turning into a puppet state of the corrupt, brutish Islamic Republic of Iran," Pompeo told reporters at the State Department.
Pompeo took a defiant posture two days after a bipartisan majority of the Senate called for President Trump to end U.S. involvement in airstrikes launched by the Gulf coalition that has intervened in the war. The resolution of disapproval included a carveout for intelligence-sharing, but Pompeo highlighted the stakes of a fight against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels who seized the country's capital in 2014.
"The senators who voted 'aye' say they want to end the bombing in Yemen and support human rights. But we really need to think about whose human rights," Pompeo said. "The way to alleviate the Yemeni people's suffering isn't to prolong the conflict by handicapping our partners in the fight, but by giving the Saudi-led coalition the support needed to defeat Iranian-backed rebels and ensure a just peace."
The resolution passed 54-46 on Wednesday, and six Republicans voted with Senate Democrats to disapprove of the policy. The Republican defectors hailed from various wings of the party. Utah Sen. Mike Lee, one of the original Tea Party lawmakers, co-sponsored the resolution. Maine Sen. Susan Collins, one of the most prominent moderate Republicans, voted with Lee and the Democrats. The resolution was also backed by Sen. Jerry Moran, who represents Pompeo's home state of Kansas, likewise threw in with the Democrats.

"The civil war in #Yemen has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis w/ nearly 16 million people on the verge of starvation- almost 2.5 times the population of [Indiana]," Sen. Todd Young, another Republican who disapproves of U.S. involvement, tweeted Wednesday.

Young and other lawmakers believe that Saudi Arabia has tried to provoke mass "starvation" in Yemen as the Houthis prove to be stubborn adversaries. President Trump's administration has pressed the Saudis to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches the country. But the Houthis are refusing to implement a recent agreement to end the fighting in a key port city and U.S. officials urge lawmakers to maintain military pressure on the Iran-aligned rebels.