Monday, October 17, 2016

US Bombs Yemen Direct

After eighteen months of bombing Yemeni rebels indirectly by funding and fueling the Saudi Air Force, and conducting a deadly drone war against the  Houthis, the Pentagon finally got around to "taking the gloves off" last Thursday and launched cruise missiles from a US destroyer off Yemen's coast.  Of course the Pentagon had to have plausible deniability about its latest extension of the global war, so it dug up an excuse it has not used since the Gulf of Tonkin--"our ships were fired upon".  This attack comes just after a Saudi strike killed 140 people gathered for a funeral in Sana.  More than 4000 civilians have been killed in the air war.  The Pentagon's media flacks, when reporting the alleged incident of self-defense, failed to mention the Pentagon's long term support of Saudi operations in Yemen's civil war.  The Houthis categorically deny attacking the USS Mason. [photo, credit Reuters]  It is a sad day for America when extremist rebels have more credibility than the US government.  Iran, which backs the rebels, has sent its own warships to the area after the Mason attacked.