US hunt for war criminals should begin at home
Pure hypocrisy as Republicans point the finger at China while the Pentagon has blood on its hands from the slaughter in Yemen and elsewhere
The hypocrisy of some American politicians knows no bounds. But few can rival the Tweedledee and Tweedledum of the Republican Party, Senator Marco Rubio and House of Representatives member Chris Smith, when it comes to China.
I am sure Beijing is not acting nicely in Xinjiang, though China does face multiple terrorist and separatist threats there. The two US politicians want their government to impose sanctions on Chinese officials complicit in human rights abuses in the province.
Maybe those mainland officials do deserve sanctions, but I am certain Rubio and Smith are in no position to judge. If they want to hunt for war criminals, they can just walk across the streets from their offices, to the Pentagon and the White House. Plenty of generals and security officials there would qualify.
Take Yemen, where American allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been conducting a merciless military intervention in the civil war of this poorest of countries. America has been supplying the Saudis with advanced weapons and even special forces in their campaign.
The Trump White House has authorised the sale of half a billion dollars’ worth of smart bombs and other advanced munitions to the Saudis. US special forces have been deployed along the Saudi-Yemeni border to help hunt down Houthi rebels.
A new United Nations report has just come out accusing “all sides” of having committed war crimes. In other words, Washington is actively helping its Middle East allies to commit war crimes.
Spreading freedom and democracy, American style!
What does it all mean? The scale of the human suffering is staggering. More than 10,000 Yemenis have been killed, another 50,000 have died from hunger.
Some 22 million, about 75 per cent of Yemen’s population, are in need of humanitarian aid.
Of these, 8 million are facing famine and 1 million suffering from cholera.
To be sure, Yemen’s is not my war. I have never visited Saudi Arabia or the UAE, and have no beef with them. Still, the suffering of fellow human beings should be a universal concern.
Moreover, if moral pygmies like Rubio and Smith want to interfere in other people’s affairs, it’s inevitable other people will start digging up America’s dirty, and bloodstained, laundry around the world.
Those who live in glasshouses should not throw stones, and there isn’t a bigger one in the world than America’s.
