Monday, March 02, 2020

Never Let a Humanitarian Crisis Go to Waste

While Saudi Arabia gets the blame for the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, I've noted that more blame should go on the Houthis who hinder humanitarian aid in order to defend their ability to plunder the aid and smuggle weapons through the aid hubs.

We notice that, too:

USAID said late Monday that it will suspend aid to Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, where most of the country's people live, if the rebels don’t remove impediments obstructing aid operations. ...

Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who control most of northern Yemen, have blocked half of the United Nations’ aid delivery programs in the war-torn country — a strong-arm tactic aimed at forcing the agencies to give them greater control over the humanitarian campaign.

So there you go. The Houthi still have a supply line by stiff-arming the efforts to ensure humanitarian aid is purely humanitarian and reaches those in need rather than being part of the Houthi logistics effort. And now we see that Iranian-backed Houthi have gained control of the strategically located provincial capital Hazm.

The Saudis had been slowly winning this war. I assume Iranian propaganda that has restrained the Saudis is having an effect. Lengthening the civil war is not a compassionate objective. And letting Iran win there is stupid.

As long as Westerners--and our Congress--blame the Saudis rather than the Iran-backed Houthis for the humanitarian crisis, the Houthis have little reason to change their behavior which is helping them fight more effectively.