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Obama's Wars Murdering Noncombatant Men, Women and Children

by Stephen Lendman
Yemen
Obama's Wars Murder Noncombatant Men, Women and Children

by Stephen Lendman

In the 1960s, Vietnam war protesters chanted "Hey! Hey! LBJ! How many kids did you kill today?"

Obama way exceeds his ruthlessness - murdering and maiming noncombatants in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Donbass, Palestinians complicit with Israel and now Yemen.

Who's next? Everywhere he shows up, mass slaughter and destruction follow. So does horrific human suffering words can't explain.

Make no mistake. Yemen is Obama's war. Months of preparation preceded hostilities. Detailed planning chose targets now terror-bombed.

Saudi-led forces are US proxies, serving American regional interests over the corpses of likely many thousands before conflict ends.

Neocon lunatics in Washington consider it a small price to pay. International law calls it the highest of high crimes.

Conditions in Yemen for many were desperate before fighting began. Now they're catastrophic for many millions.

In more normal times, Oxfam estimates around 16 million Yemenis dependent on humanitarian aid to survive.

About 10 million haven't enough food. Around 13 million have no access to clean drinking water.

Nine million lack basic medical care - greatly exacerbated now because most international aid workers left to avoid danger.

In the last 24 hours alone, reports estimate around 140 killed, many more seriously injured.

After nearly two weeks of terror-bombing, hundreds have been murdered in cold blood, thousands injured. The specter of starvation haunts many as food is increasingly in short supply.

Casualties mount daily. Noncombatant civilians suffer most. On April 6, a UN News Center report said:

"The violence in Yemen continues to wreak havoc upon the country's civilian population and restricts humanitarian access to those most in need amid a spate of aerial attacks and ground incursions."

Residential neighborhoods, hospitals, schools, public areas and vital infrastructure are being deliberately terror-bombed.

The UN reported residential buildings and bridges destroyed in Aden and Ma'ala. Conditions are "rapidly deteriorating" throughout much of the country, it said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported the deaths of healhcare workers. It said hospitals were damaged or destroyed. It voiced concern about "the serious implications of these attacks."

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported increasing numbers child deaths and injuries.

It estimates scores killed so far, many others maimed for life. It calls its estimates "conservative."

UNICEF Yemen representative Julien Harneis said:

"Children are paying an intolerable price for this conflict. They are being killed, maimed and forced to flee their homes, their health threatened and their education interrupted."

"These children should be immediately afforded special respect and protection by all parties to the conflict, in line with international humanitarian law."

"The conflict is exacerbating the already precarious situation for children in one of the region's poorest countries."

Under more normal conditions, many Yemenis face food insecurity. Severe acute malnutrition is widespread among young children.

Growing numbers of Yemenis are being displaced. UN sources estimate at least 100,000 so far. A major refugee crisis looms.

A humanitarian one already exists. All essentials to life are in short supply or unavailable - including food, clean water, medical supplies, healthcare and electricity.

Terror-bombing disrupted, damaged or destroyed southern area drinking water and sanitation facilities.

Raw sewage flows in streets. The risk of widespread illness and disease is huge.

Aden residents reported one or more foreign warships (maybe US ones) shelling coastlines.

Explosions rocked suburban areas. Houthi fighters continue making gains despite intense terror-bombing and ground fighting.

Reuters reported heavy shelling and street fighting in and around Aden for days.

It indicated mounting food, water, medical supplies and electricity shortages throughout much of the country.

Sanaa, the capital, Aden, and surrounding areas are especially hard hit.

Reuters quoted a woman named Fatima walking through near-barren streets with her young children pleading: "How are we supposed to live without water and electricity?"

Desperately needed ICRC aid hasn't arrived. A spokesperson said:

"We are still working on getting the plane to Sanaa. It's a bit difficult with the logistics because there are not that many companies or cargo planes willing to fly into a conflict zone."

The ICRC is trying to get medical supplies in by sea from neighboring Djibouti. Fighting makes it extremely hazardous doing so.

Food is in short supply. Bottled water is no longer available. Water fit to drink is hard to find.

A mother of three said "(f)ood is in short supply, and thousands of children sleep hungry."

"Where are the international aid organizations? There is no support coming to Yemen. Innocent civilians and children are dying in Aden while the world is watching."

Yemen under normal conditions imports about 90% of its food. Saudi-blocked sea and air routes prevents supplies from arriving.

ICRC spokeswoman Maria Claire Feghali said "(t)he most critical part, the biggest challenge is the medical one. The hospitals are exhausted."

Last week, fighting killed three Red Cross workers. Fars News reports Saudi Arabia enlisting Al Qaeda terrorists to battle Houthis on the ground.

Yemeni General Khalid al-Barayem said Houthi fighters intercepted trucks with (likely Saudi-supplied) chemical weapons heading for areas controlled by elements loyal to ousted US-installed illegitimate president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

Substances seized can produce deadly sarin gas, he said. Turkish aircraft are delivering weapons to Hadi loyalists under the cover of humanitarian aid, he added.

As of April 7, Fars News estimates at least 887 Yemenis killed - "including hundreds of women and children."

Saudi-led terror-bombing is deliberately targeting civilian areas and infrastructure, it added.

"There is no question that the US-supported and Saudi-led attack on Yemen is a blatant act of illegal aggression," it stressed.

Civilian victims are dying. Others are maimed for life. Hundreds of thousands are suffering horrendously from humanitarian crisis conditions.

Where is the international community when most needed? Why haven't responsible world leaders acted to stop US-planned/Saudi-led mass slaughter and destruction?

Hey! Hey! Barack! How many Yemeni kids did you kill today?

And Afghans. And Iraqis. And Syrians among many other victims of US direct and proxy aggression!

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen [at] sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.
The anti-fascist fighters of the second world war fought to liberate the world from Militaristic Dictatorship so aggressive war as any nations foreign would be made illegal and war itself just a long distant memory for the coming generations. So says the Nuremberg Trials and the United Nations Charter. Also The Geneva Conventions of war another anti-fascist covenant forbids 1) targeting and killing of civilians, 2) torturing and killing of POW's prisoners of war, 3) collective punishment-- genocide of whole populations for the military crimes of a few with unjust violence. As U.S Imperialism doing siege and genocide of the Arab world to thieve their resources. etc. What the present unjust aggressive war against Yemen means is that U.S. Imperialism in arming and instructing the Saudi proxy forces is committing the worlds most supreme Crime on the planet earth.

The U.S. judge Robert H. Jackson who chaired the Nuremberg Trials wrote into international law that the planning and doing of aggressive war is the 'SUPREME' INTERNATIONAL CRIME ON THE PLANET EARTH.Stephen Lendman's article contains all the facts needed to explain the anti-fascist side. Thanks for journalism with truth rather than military propaganda.
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