David Miliband - America is fueling our age of impunity. Just look at Yemen
The promise by Donald
Trump to veto the bipartisan Congressional War Powers Resolution on Yemen is
significant in and of itself. The decision is rightly drawing significant fire.
The war in Yemen is
a humanitarian disaster and a strategic failure, with precisely the forces the
Administration says it opposes - Iran, jihadists, separatists - gaining ground
on the back of the bankrupt Saudi-led war strategy.
However, there is a
wider, ugly picture, beyond Yemen. It can be summarized as an Age of Impunity:
where war crimes go unpunished and the laws of war become optional. This is not
solely the responsibility of the United States, but the US has the power and
position to set a global standard, and when it fails to do so the effects are
felt worldwide, by innocent civilians feeling the brunt of lawless military
tactics and humanitarian aid workers risking life and limb as they go about
their work.
Individual cases
retain the power to shock. Last week in Yemen, an airstrike hit a gas station
located mere meters from a hospital, killing seven people, including four
children and a health worker.
There is a trend,
however, going beyond isolated cases and beyond the Trump
administration. The overall statistics suggest a terrible new normal:
civilians fair game, humanitarians unfortunate collateral, investigations and
accountability an optional extra. Civilians now account
for 90% of all war casualties. Attacks on hospitals in Syria have actually
increased since 2016 when a UN Security Council resolution called for them to
cease. A recent report has revealed that chemical weapons, expressly forbidden
by international law, were used over 330 times against civilians over the eight
years of the civil war. Last year in Yemen there were nearly 100 civilian
casualties per week and Yemenis are more likely to be killed
at home than in any other structure.
The latest statistics
(from 2017) highlight that more than 300 aid workers were killed, wounded or
kidnapped in the line of duty... read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/05/america-impunity-yemen