DESCRIPTION:
The news that one’s compatriots have brought death to 85,000 darling Yemeni children being hard to stomach, the author wonders how other Americans feel or manage not to feel.
TEXT:
I looked down at the food on my plate, and wished I hadn’t just heard PBS’s News anchor Judy Woodruff report that the war in Yemen had already caused 85,000 children to starve to death. She read the one liner with emphasis on the number, but almost without taking a breath, went on to a local news item, as if the 85,000 dead kids had nothing to do with her American audience. Problem for me is I had already known for years that a murderous, even genocidal bombing by a Saudi Arabian coalition is USA backed, that U.S. military jets refuel those coalition bombers and fighter jets, and US military personnel are involved in running the high tech targeting systems using US missiles and guided bombs sold to the Saudis, who have agreed to buy ever more billions of dollars worth.
I put my fork down, and stared at a framed photo of my four year old great granddaughter on the wall. I thought, most every one of those 85,000 were an adorable child, and had siblings, moms and dads and other family members and friends who loved them.
I remembered reading that cholera had come with the US backed Saudi bombing, and that cholera is a virulent infection which can kill within a few hours time. I recall reading that Saudi aerial bombardment of the national electrical grid had left the Sana’a wastewater plant without power causing untreated wastewater to leak out into irrigation canals and drinking water supplies. In 2017, I had read of a million cases of cholera reported.
But a month ago, that ghastly report of a year and half ago was updated to 85,000 precious Yemeni children dead of starvation or malnutrition. That’s when I first heard it, and when I finally picked up my fork and shoveled in a mouthful of some still warm mashed potatoes, I held it in my mouth before swallowing as I pictured a Yemeni child, the bones of its rib cage sticking out from a taut sunken in belly. I got up from the table. Took a break. Looked out the window at the moon between the clouds.
Then I went to the computer and brought up the article I had written six months earlier as below and read the introduction.
Dead ‘Yemeni Kids? Murdering Children By the Millions For Money and Power Is An American Way of Life
3rd World must demand justice for her kids! Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s, cry “God bless America? No, no, God damn America for her crimes against humanity!” And American film maker Michael Moore’s “sick and twisted violent people that we’ve been for hundreds of years, it’s something that’s just in our craw, just in our DNA. Americans kill people, because that’s what we do. We invade countries. We send drones in to kill civilians.” OpEdNews, August 31, 2018 Minority Perspective, Birmingham, UK, Counter Currents, Kerala, India
It didn’t make me feel any better. I felt I had failed to make any difference.
I ate my now cold dinner while thinking of writing this tract that poses the title’s question: ‘How does one enjoy one’s dinner knowing that fellow Americans are still causing thousands more beautiful Yemeni children to die, blown apart or starved from lack of food and clean water because of the bombing?’
Maybe I’ll get some answers to the title question in comments from my dear readers
Tragedy in Yemen
I’ve been concerned about Yemen for a few years now, as the US is furthering this war with money and arms as well as military “support” such as refueling. It’s an ugly, lopsided war that I don’t understand. For instance, I don’t understand why Saudi Arabia wants to wipe out such an impoverished country unless it’s because they want to control the entire Arabian peninsula, which is certainly possible. As for America’s involvement, is it just quid pro quo support of an ally?
In February of this year, the Senate advanced a bill to halt American military support of this war. As far as I know, nothing more has come of this effort and we’re still helping the Saudis destroy the Yemenis.
I can’t tell you how to enjoy a meal after watching news coverage of the effects of this war on civilian children. I also don’t know why people don’t seem to care that much. More Americans might care if it was reported to them as a bad thing by news media, but if the media just give it passing mentions now and then, it’s easy to ignore. After all, as you quoted Michael Moore above, it’s just what America does. Nothing new about Yemen or any of our other side wars.