David Miliband - America is fueling our age of impunity. Just look at Yemen

By Dilip -
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





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