U.S. Senate sends loud message that Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen must end.
WASHINGTON — Win Without War Policy Director, Kate Kizer issued the following statement regarding today’s vote on S.J.Res 54 a measure seeking to withdraw the U.S. military from assisting the Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen:
Today 44 Senators sent a loud and clear bipartisan message that Saudi Arabia’s deadly war in Yemen must end, and it must end now.
For far too long, without Congressional debate or authorization, the U.S. military has been enabling Saudi Arabia and its regional allies to fight a devastating war in Yemen. That war has, by design, caused the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
Because of the leadership put forth by Sens. Bernie Sanders, Mike Lee, and Chris Murphy — and the tireless advocacy of hundreds of thousands of Americans — the U.S. Senate was today finally forced to confront America’s unauthorized role in Yemen’s deadly civil war.
We commend the 44 Senators who agreed that U.S. military support for the Saudi-led coalition is unconstitutional, counterproductive, and doesn’t serve U.S. national security interests. Today’s vote should serve as a sober reminder to Saudi Arabia that it must immediately move to resolve this conflict diplomatically, and that American support for its war in Yemen is not unlimited.
Today’s vote is also just the beginning of Congress reasserting its Constitutional role to decide when and where America goes to war. Our nation’s founders placed this power in the hands of Congress not because they expected these debates to be easy, but because they wanted these decisions to be hard. As we mark 15 years of the disastrous, failed war in Iraq, this vote on this day is a fitting reminder of the grave costs when our nation goes to war too quickly, without debating or answering the hard questions.
We — and the hundreds of thousands of Americans who took action to demand Congress end U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen — will continue to demand that going forward, Congress finally take serious its responsibility to debate and vote on America’s many, endless wars.
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Win Without War is a diverse network of national organizations working for progressive foreign policy in America.