BRATTLEBORO — On Dec. 7, Sen. Bernie Sanders spoke powerfully to his fellow senators to block a $650 million weapons sale to Saudi Arabia. In Yemen, 230,000 people, many thousands of them children, have been killed by this war, largely because of Saudi Arabia and its partners, enabled by the United States.
Why in the world would the U.S. reward a regime that's caused such pain?
It was commendable that following Bernie's speech, 30 senators voted against the president's arms sale - many of them from his own party. For the present, though, U.S. support for the Saudi coalition's brutal war in Yemen continues, in spite of Biden's earlier commitment to stop our country's complicity.
Bernie's speech clarified and amplified the urgent message: End our six-year involvement, which has killed thousands of Yemeni children.
As a way to pull the enabling U.S. assistance out of this horror show of bombs and a cruel blockade, I and countless fellow Vermonters implore Bernie to reintroduce the Yemen War Powers Resolution, which he introduced in 2018 and 2019.
This resolution is a strong reminder to the administration that the constitutional power to wage war lies with Congress, not the president. The bill passed both houses back then with bipartisan support - an important success in itself, even though it was vetoed by then–President Trump.
With President Biden in office, there's a better chance. We're looking to Bernie to initiate this. Bernie: Remember that now as then there will be thousands of us throughout the state and country helping to get it passed into legislation.