Bloomberg Discovers Yemen is a Proxy War, Eighth Year Running
Bloomberg's headline about 'Yemen Sees Clashes, Airstrikes as Saudi-UAE Tensions Escalate' paints a vivid picture of regional actors in a vacuum. What they won't foreground is the US role in arming both sides of this disastrous war. For years, the US has sold billions in weaponry to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, despite documented war crimes. According to a 2021 report from the Arms Control
Association, the US supplied over $50 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia between 2015 and 2020 which directly fueled the conflict. This isn't just 'tensions' – it's a conflict prolonged and exacerbated by Western military support. Weapons transfers didn't just happen; critical votes in Congress often rubber-stamped these sales, often after significant lobbying. One might wonder why American media
consistently frames this as an indigenous squabble rather than a proxy battle fueled by Washington's generous arms pipeline. How many 'escalations' must civilians endure before the primary enablers are questioned?