Where is Yemen, and why should we care what happens there?
It is a country in the Middle East, a neighbor of Saudi Arabia, involved in a civil war. Right now there is a severe humanitarian crisis, in which over 400,000 children are at risk of dying from starvation. I think we should care from common humanity.
I have seen a great outpouring of concern and help going to Ukraine from the Monadnock area. It is good that we care about their well-publicized war and suffering, but I wonder if we can extend our care a bit further. Surely any hungry children, anywhere, deserve our compassion.
To simplify a long story, Yemen had a civil war in which the neighbors got involved. One of them is Saudi Arabia, a longtime ally of the United States. Our country is now supplying military aid and enforcing a blockade on Yemen. A truce was declared at the start of April for 60 days to let supplies in, but this will end soon. There are still millions who don’t have access to food, clean water and medicine.
What can we do? A group in the House of Representatives has introduced a Yemen War Powers Resolution. We can urge our representatives to support this bill, House Joint Resolution 87. American involvement in Yemen has never been authorized by Congress. A similar resolution was passed in 2019, but vetoed by President Donald Trump.
Join me in asking our elected representatives, Annie Kuster at 202-225-5206 and Chris Pappas at 202-225-5456, to cosponsor and publicly support the Yemen War Powers Resolution (HJR 87). Please do your part to prevent greater suffering for those who don’t have a voice.
Denise Ginzler
Greenville