Thomas Massie: U.S. Involvement in Yemen Is ‘Not America First’

[Swordsmyth]

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Wednesday that lame-duck House Speaker Paul Ryan endangers the Farm bill by including a rule that prohibits a vote on America’s involvement with Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen.

One of House Republicans leadership’s final acts of this congressional term includes adding a rule on the Conference Report for the 2018 Farm bill which would block a potential War Powers resolution vote on America’s involvement in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. The House plans to vote on the Farm bill on Wednesday, leaving Massie and other America First foreign policy lawmakers limited time to fight against Ryan’s move to block their Yemen resolution.


The House Rules Committee released a rule on the conference report for the Farm bill, which includes a rule that the War Powers resolution does not apply to Yemen, which would spark a debate on whether the United States should remain engaged in the foreign war in the Middle East.
Massie chastised Speaker Paul Ryan, charging that the House Republican leadership should not jeopardize American farmers just to block a vote on a resolution condemning America’s involvement in Yemen.
“This is definitely not America First. We shouldn’t be spending our blood and treasure in the Middle East, and furthermore on another level, we shouldn’t be jeopardizing the passage of domestic policy and domestic spending with a foreign policy/ war issue,” Massie told Breitbart News. “In other words, if you’re putting America First, why would you jeopardize passage of the Farm bill by sneaking in the War in Yemen through the Farm bill?”
“It’s not America First; it’s not putting America’s farmers first,” Massie added. “I don’t’ think they would be excited find out that Paul Ryan used their bill to pull these shenanigans.”

Does your Congressman know what’s hidden in a procedural vote on the Farm Bill today? Does he or she care? To avoid a debate on whether the US should be involved in a war in Yemen, today our leadership will trick members into suspending the provisions of the War Powers Act. SAD! pic.twitter.com/PVziN9d2lP
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) December 12, 2018

Congressman Ro Khanna (D-CA), who has worked with Massie on advocating for a less interventionist foreign policy, chastised Speaker Ryan’s actions, calling it “unprecedented,” and said that House GOP leadership has blocked Congress’ duty to authorize or de-authorize American involvement overseas.
“Not only are the Republicans turning off the privileged status for H. Con Res 142, breaking the rules of the House, they are turning off the privileged status for all War Powers Resolutions related to Yemen for the rest of this Congress, ” Khanna told Breitbart News. “This is unprecedented. Speaker Ryan is preventing Congress from conducting our constitutional duty and once again, breaking the rules of the House. While this is happening, the United States Senate is debating and voting on this issue.”
Khanna also released a video statement on Twitter on Wednesday, calling on Congress to end American involvement in Saudi Arabia’s “horrific war” with Yemen. “We need to end this war,” charges in the video.

14 million people are on the brink of famine in Yemen. 85k children have already died from cholera and starvation. Our Yemen War Powers Resolution can’t wait until 2019. We must pass it now to save lives. pic.twitter.com/09huQbuw5k
— Rep. Ro Khanna (@RepRoKhanna) December 12, 2018

Jason Pye, the vice president of legislative affairs for FreedomWorks, noted on Twitter on Tuesday night, “Well, one of House Republican leadership’s final acts will be to block a vote on the Yemen war powers resolution. House Republican leaders are determined to have the U.S. own our role this bloody conflict and humanitarian disaster in which we have no business being involved.”
The Kentucky Republican told Breitbart News that this was the second time House leadership blocked a War Powers resolution on Yemen; Ryan blocked a resolution by Massie and Rep. Khanna in November by including language in the Manage Our Wolves Act that would block a vote on America’s involvement in Yemen.
Massie said, “If you think we should be aiding Saudi Arabia in their war in Yemen or not, I don’t know if you can defend putting this in a procedural vote on the Farm bill.”
The Kentucky Republican said that he hopes to separate the Farm bill vote with the Yemen resolution so that they could have a vote on America’s involvement with Saudi Arabia’s war.
“Think of what our leadership is doing, they are taking a $100 billion bill with the shenanigans of the Yemen vote, and I can’t imagine there are too many people who want to see the Farm bill pass and see our leadership screw the Farm bill with this malfeasance,” Massie said.
Further, the Kentucky conservative suggested that America should have no involvement with the Saudia Arabia’s war in Yemen because the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) does not authorize American involvement in the war.

More at: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...america-first/

[RonZeplin]

It's anti-Yemeni farmer too. WTF?

[AZJoe]

[AZJoe]

[AZJoe]

Imagine If Saudi Arabia Was Not A US “Ally”

The US Senate has voted 56 to 41 to sorta-kinda eventually end America’s part in the Saudi-led war in Yemen … The joint resolution still allows US drones to patrol Yemeni airspace and rain death from above … and it is unable to pass in the House this year due to an unbelievably sleazy rider that House Republicans attached to the unrelated Farm Bill. … Trump is expected to veto any Yemen resolutions, and the Senate resolution was not passed with a veto-proof supermajority. Still, it’s … A step in the right direction …

up to 80,000 people have been killed in this war … this number applies to deaths by military violence only, not to the other untold tens of thousands who have died of starvation and cholera as a result of Saudi Arabia’s inhuman blockades on imports and its deliberate targeting of farms, fishing boats, marketplaces, food storage sites and cholera treatment centers with airstrikes. Just for children under the age of five, the death toll due to starvation alone is believed to be around 85,000. …

If Saudi Arabia were not an ally of the United States, this matter would be treated very, very differently. In May of last year, then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was given a memo by his assistant, virulent Iran hawk Brian Hook. … Hook said human rights issues are something the US government presses its enemies on but not its allies, naming China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran as examples of US enemies who violate human rights, and naming Egypt, the Philippines, and Saudi Arabia as examples of US allies who violate human rights. “In the case of US allies such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Philippines, the Administration is fully justified in emphasizing good relations for a variety of important reasons, including counter-terrorism, and in honestly facing up to the difficult tradeoffs with regard to human rights,” Hook wrote. …

And indeed this is exactly the sort of behavior we see from the US government … Just look at the France protests, which have seen mass arrests and protesters getting eyes shot out and hands blown off by brutal police responses while receiving nary a whisper of commentary from the plutocrat-owned talking heads, yet if this were happening in Russia we all know it would be forced into viral trends and pushed into public consciousness at every opportunity.

If Saudi Arabia existed in the “enemies” column instead of the “allies”, we’d have been seeing constant mass media coverage of its butchery in Yemen for almost four years now. … starving children of Yemen would be on the forefront of western consciousness instead of the back burner, and demands to make it stop would be screaming from coast to coast.

That’s seriously it. That one stupid, silly shift from the “allies” column to the “enemies” column would make the difference between night and day in the western world’s response to the slaughter in Yemen. The Saudi royals would be vilified … CIA covert ops would be implemented to sow discord, and starvation sanctions would target Saudi civilians to help stoke the flames of discontent. Regime change … staged coup ...

There’s a lot more evidence for Saudi collusion than there is for Russia collusion. The all-you-can-eat nothingburger of Russiagate would have been replaced by far more concrete and straightforward stories about direct financial ties to the Saudi government, an emissary for a Saudi prince who wanted to help Trump win the 2016 election, and remarks by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is “in his pocket”. Trump’s creepy glowing orb picture alone would have mainstream Saudi-gate conspiracy theorists in intractable hysterics. …

But Saudi Arabia’s … petrodollar deal, its prime strategic location and its ability to move vast amounts of wealth around … in the facilitation of sociopathic agendas has made it a priceless asset in the US-centralized empire’s relentless quest for global domination. This remains true in spite of whatever particular quibbles that empire might happen to have with MBS, and in spite of any journalists’ unfortunate encounters with any bone saws. …

elite … they’re going to do everything they can not to let a few piles of dead children interfere with an important alliance. The butchery in Yemen is the single worst thing that is happening in the world today …