Will
Trump Take Neocon Bait and Attack Iran Over Saudi Strike?
The recent attacks on Saudi
oil facilities by Yemeni Houthi forces demonstrate once again that an
aggressive foreign policy often brings unintended consequences and can result
in blowback. In 2015 Saudi Arabia attacked its neighbor, Yemen, because of a coup
in that country ousted the Saudi-backed dictator. Four years later Yemen is in
ruins, with nearly 100,000 Yemenis killed and millions more facing death by
starvation. It has been rightly called the worst humanitarian catastrophe on
the planet.
But rich and powerful Saudi
Arabia did not defeat Yemen. In fact, the Saudis last month asked the Trump
Administration to help facilitate talks with the Houthis in hopes that the war,
which has cost Saudi Arabia tens of billions of dollars, could finally end
without Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman losing too much face. Washington
admitted earlier this month that those talks had begun.
The surprise Houthi attack
on Saturday disrupted half of Saudi Arabia’s oil and gas production and shocked
Washington. Predictably, however, the neocons are using the attack to call for
war with Iran!
Sen. Lindsay Graham, one of
the few people in Washington who makes John Bolton look like a dove, Tweeted
yesterday that, “It is now time for the US to put on the table an attack on
Iranian oil refineries…” Graham is the perfect embodiment of the saying, “when
all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” No matter what the
problem, for Graham the solution is war.
Likewise, Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo – who is supposed to represent US diplomacy – jumped to blame
Iran for the attack on Saudi Arabia, Tweeting that, “Iran has now launched an
unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply.” Of course, he provided no
evidence even as the Houthis themselves took responsibility for the bombing.
What is remarkable is that
all of Washington’s warmongers are ready for war over what is actually a
retaliatory strike by a country that is the victim of Saudi aggression, not the
aggressor itself. Yemen did not attack Saudi Arabia in 2015. It was the other
way around. If you start a war and the other country fights back, you should
not be entitled to complain about how unfair the whole thing is.
The establishment reaction
to the Yemeni oilfield strike reminds me of a hearing in the House Foreign
Affairs Committee just before the US launched the 2003 Iraq war. As I was
arguing against the authorization for that war, I pointed out that Iraq had
never attacked the United States. One of my colleagues stopped me in
mid-sentence, saying, “let me remind the gentleman that the Iraqis have been
shooting at our planes for years.” True, but those planes were bombing Iraq!
The neocons want a US war
on Iran at any cost. They may feel temporarily at a disadvantage with the
departure of their ally in the Trump Administration, John Bolton. However, the
sad truth is that there are plenty more John Boltons in the Administration. And
they have allies in the Lindsay Grahams in Congress.
Yemen has demonstrated that
it can fight back against the Saudi aggression. The only sensible way forward is
for a rapid end to this four-year travesty, and the Saudis would be wise to
wake up to the mess they’ve created for themselves. Whatever the case, US
participation in Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen must end immediately and neocon
lies about Iran’s role in the war must be refuted and resisted.
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