In 2011, amid the Arab Spring, the people of Yemen began to protest unemployment, economic conditions, and corruption, as well as against the possibility of the government modifying Yemen’s constitution. This obviously threatened President Abdullah Saleh, who had ruled there for 33 years. In 2014, Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized control of Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, which ultimately led to a civil war with the existing government, which was supported and defended by a Saudi-led coalition.

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To that end, Saudi Arabia set blockades at Yemen’s ports to deny the people of Yemen any humanitarian aid – while bombing them during a severe famine and widespread cholera outbreak. This quickly turned into the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. At the time, Human Rights Watch reported that “roughly 80 percent of Yemen’s population requires humanitarian aid, including over 12 million children. The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) warns that the number of children under the age of 5 who suffer from acute malnutrition could rise to 2.4 million. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reports that 50 percent of Yemeni children are experiencing irreversible stunted growth.  UNICEF warns that 7.8 million children had no access to education following COVID-19-related school closures and nearly 10 million did not have adequate access to water and sanitation.”

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The devastation that Saudi Arabia – together with the United Arab Emirates and others in the region – caused in Yemen was a clear violation of international law, plain and simple.

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But here’s the problem for the United States: We provided many of the weapons used in the war. A report called Day of Judgement revealed that “in 2017, the U.S. administration notified Congress of $17.9 billion of proposed sales of arms and other military support to Saudi Arabia and $2.8 billion to the UAE. In 2016, about $5 billion of sales to each country were proposed.”

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To his credit, President Obama halted the sale of precision-guided military technology to Saudi Arabia in December 2016, but, of course, Donald Trump resumed selling weapons to them just three months later. In April 2019, Donald Trump vetoed legislation supported by a bipartisan congressional majority to end American support for Saudi Arabia’s deadly intervention in Yemen. Then, the very next month, the Trump administration announced it was invoking “emergency authority” to bypass opposition in Congress to finalize twenty-two arms deals with several countries, including one with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that totaled around $8 billion. Never mind this move was 100% illegal because under the Arms Export Control Act, the U.S. Congress has the authority to review weapons sales. Thankfully, in February 2021, President Biden ended all remaining American support for the travesty in Yemen and appointed a new special envoy for the country.

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That’s great and all, but we CANNOT forget the damage our bombs did, because we CANNOT let history repeat itself. One of the most horrifying travesties in the conflict in Yemen took place in August 2018, when a Saudi-led airstrike hit a school bus killing at least 43 people, many of them children. The bomb that hit the bus was reportedly a 500-pound laser-guided MK 82 bomb made by U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin and sold to Saudi Arabia by the United States. ​One eyewitness told CNN: “I saw the bomb hit the bus. It blew it into those shops and threw the bodies clear to the other side of those buildings. We found bodies scattered everywhere, there was a severed head inside the bomb crater. When we found that, that was when I started running. I was so afraid.”

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A similar bomb, also provided by the United States, was used in October 2016 to decimate a funeral hall filled with 155 people. Amid international condemnation, Saudi officials called the strike “a mistake.” That’s some mistake, guys. Plus, earlier that year, an American-sold MK 84 bomb killed 97 people in a market.

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The fact that the United States provided logistical and intelligence support for this atrocity in any way is one of the most disgraceful things this country has ever done – AND CAN NOT BE REPEATED.