As the world awaits Donald Trump's trip to Europe and the American Press is focused on America's Trade War with China, I went over to Ralph Nader's website to see what the 84 year old is up to.
Apparently he's talking about something I hadn't heard about in months. Yemen.
Last time I heard about Yemen, they were lobbing missiles into Saudi Arabia back in March. First of all, where exactly is Yemen?
Yemen is in the clutches of a...a....well, since about 2011, it's been a mess.
Part of the country is controlled by the Iran-backed Houthis and Saleh loyalists. Part of the country is controlled by the Saudi-backed Hadi loyalists. Part of the country is controlled by al-Qaeda and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant-affiliated Ansar al-Sharia. And part of the country is controlled by the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council.
In other words, a poor man's Syria.
We've mentioned here, a few times, that the U.S. Military is in around 150 nations in the world today. Very rarely does it come up whether we are CONSTITUTIONALLY ALLOWED to be in certain countries. This is not a Donald Trump problem, per se, we seem to have been over-extending ourselves for the past few generations now, but he's the guy in charge today. So Ralph Nader wrote Donald Trump a letter and this is a short excerpt:
With an estimated 8 million people on the brink of starvation, with the largest cholera epidemic in the world, Yemen is suffering daily deliberate war crimes affecting civilians, children, homes, schools, hospitals, drinking water installations, food supplies, and other critical infrastructures. These war crimes violate our Constitution, federal statutes, and international treaties, including the Geneva Conventions.
As President, you know full well what is going on and yet you keep getting our country deeper into this deadly quagmire. By any standard of international law, you are a knowing aider and abettor of these war crimes at a level of complicity that approximates being a backroom partner in the broad range of military operations against millions of innocent Yemeni families.- Nader.org
You would think that accusing the sitting President of the United States of war crimes would generate some Press Coverage. Nope. The media covers what it wants to cover. Covering Ralph Nader isn't the popular thing to do anymore. The media today is focused on Russia and NATO. The media doesn't cover the largest cholera epidemic in the world unless some celebrity talks about it on Entertainment Tonight.
Do I advocate being in Yemen? Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no. But Nader makes a case for being there on a humanitarian level.
If you want, you can go on and read the entirety of Nader's letter, it is clear that Nader believes that Donald Trump can do something about the situation in Yemen. Uh, I don't think Yemen is on Trump's radar. Just because no one is covering it, doesn't mean that the Yemen situation isn't one of the worst in the world. I believe that Ralph Nader is trying shine a light on an underreported story. (And Yemen probably got on Nader's radar through the PBS produced Frontline: The Fight for Yemen).
Unfortunately, Nader is right, Yemen is a quagmire. Another unwinnable war in the Middle East.
One of the quirkiest stories I've read about the Middle East is Saudi Arabia to turn Qatar into an Island.
That's how bad Saudi relations are with some of its neighbors. Saudi Arabia is willing to spend a BILLION dollars to build a canal around Qatar, cutting off all land lines between Qatar and everyone.
Maybe canals, and not diplomacy, are the solution to all Middle Eastern relations.