Imperial Human Sacrifice in Yemen, by Dan Sanchez

From Dan Sanchez at antiwar.com:

Stand-up comic Louis CK recently did this bit where he characterized America as “the world’s worst girlfriend”:

“America is like a terrible girlfriend to the rest of the world. If someone hurts America, she remembers it forever. But if she does anything bad, she’s like: ‘Whaaatt? I didn’t do anything!’ America, why do you keep bombing those people in Yemen? ‘Because nine-eleven, okay. Nine-eleven. So shut up!’”

The bit is really funny and perceptive. But in actuality, the average American would respond with, “We’re bombing Yemen? What’s Yemen?” While the average American foreign policy official wouldn’t cite 9/11, but would feign innocence. “We’re not! That war belongs to Saudi Arabia. Whaaatt? I didn’t do anything!”

These veils of ignorance and deception parted ever so slightly recently, when, after a whole year, the war on Yemen finally received some major coverage in the mainstream media. A March 29 Associated Press “Big Story” exposed mainstream readers to the war’s horrific human toll. The article, titled “An infant’s 5-month life points to hunger’s spread in Yemen,” frames the story by delving into one of the war’s innumerable tragedies.

“The baby was born in war, even as planes blasted his village in Yemen. Five months later, Udai Faisal died from war: His skeletal body broke down under the ravages of malnutrition, his limbs like twigs, his cheeks sunken, his eyes dry.

He vomited yellow fluid from his nose and mouth. Then he stopped breathing.

‘He didn’t cry and there were no tears, just stiff,’ said his mother, Intissar Hezzam. ‘I screamed and fainted.’”

The story also featured a harrowing photo of the emaciated little baby shortly before his death. The picture has not yet gone viral, as the photo of drowned toddler Aylan Kurdi did. If it does, it could cause a breakthrough in public awareness of the Yemen war, just as Aylan’s picture did for the Syrian war and refugee crisis.

To continue reading: Imperial Human Sacrifice in Yemen