Stop Bombing Hospitals in Yemen

The Medical Community Must Speak Out Against This Atrocity

This week, President Trump vetoed bipartisan legislation which would have halted the sale of $8,000,000,000.00 worth of arms to Saudi Arabia. Yet there is overwhelming evidence that US bombs and assistance have been used by the Saudis to destroy hospitals, as they wage a proxy war against Iran through the civil war in Yemen.

In February of 2009, The French medical aid society, Médecins sans Frontières reported that their facilities had been bombed five times by Saudi led coalition airstrikes since March 2015, despite the fact that they were clearly marked, and their GPS coordinates had been shared with the Saudis. Given the current lack of healthcare infrastructure in Yemen, these volunteer physicians and healthcare workers in are all the more critical.

Amir M. Mohareb, M.D., and Louise C. Ivers, M.D., M.P.H., D.T.M.&H. have noted in the New England Journal of Medicine, “Although the human toll of any war is dreadful, the infliction of suffering in Yemen has particularly toxic characteristics that we believe demand attention from health care providers worldwide: the destruction of health care facilities and the spread of disease and hunger as apparent means of waging war.”

US medical leaders ought to speak out with one voice: US arms should be tethered to the requirement that the recipient of such lethal weapons comply with the international law.

While our collective attention is temporarily refocused on the Saudi arm sales, US medical leaders ought to speak out with one voice: US arms (and assistance, including inflight refueling) should be tethered to the requirement that the recipient of such lethal weapons comply with the international law. The intentional bombing of hospitals and healthcare clinics and the interference with medical personnel attending to patients is strictly prohibited under the fourth Geneva Convention. Unless we so insist, we are all morally complicit in Saudi Arabia’s assault on Yemeni healthcare facilities. This is particularly true as the USA is part of the international coalition supporting the Saudis, along with the United Arab Emirates and France.

Utilizing cholera, malnutrition and starvation to achieve military gain is immoral, illegal and cannot be tolerated or assisted by the United States of America.

Due to incredible complexity of the region and the law of unintended consequences, one should acknowledge the limited extent to which we can predict the long term consequences of our actions or inactions in this conflict. Neither side is proposing a Jeffersonian democracy, civil rights and prosperity. Even Nostradamus himself might be unable to prognosticate what the long term effects of any foreign policy decision in the region might be. But one doesn’t need to know the best way to end this horrible war to be absolutely certain that bombing hospitals, preventing healthcare supplies from reaching their intended patients and utilizing cholera, malnutrition and starvation to achieve military gain is immoral, illegal and cannot be tolerated or assisted by the United States of America.

After an entire generation has grown up intermittently hearing about our forever wars in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria and now Yemen and Niger, we have become numb to the horror.

Background:

The Houthi rebels, a long repressed Shiite sect, captured Yemen’s capital Sana, and much of the country in 2015 from the ruling minority, who happen to be Sunnis, and who some viewed as a Saudi puppet regime. Saudi Arabia’s Mohammad bin Salman reacted to the Houthi’s military victory by ordering Saudi Arabia forces into the civil war in Yemen, in 2015, expecting a swift military victory.

While it is been said that Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires, Mohammad bin Salman should have known the same can be said for Yemen. Yemen’s unique geography as well as the fierce independence of its population has kept outside empires from subjugating the country throughout history. In fact the Ottoman Empire was halted at their border.

Bringing about a rapid peaceful negotiated solution in Yemen might be beyond our sphere of influence. What’s within our control is insisting that our weapons are not used in violation of international law.

It should be noted that locals might disagree with the prewar description of Yemen as that of a large Shiite majority being subjected to a small Sunni minority government. Unlike in many other Middle East nations, there is often intermarrying between Sunni and Shiite Yemeni residents. Hence the Yemen civil war often pits family members against each other.

The path forward:

Bringing about a rapid peaceful negotiated solution in Yemen might be beyond our sphere of influence. What’s within our control is insisting that our weapons are not used in violation of international law. We must adhere to our shared moral values and require our allies to adhere to (at a minimum) the Geneva Convention, prior to allowing any more bombs which say, “Made in America,” into this field of conflict.

Mr. President, please insist that any military assistance we offer is predicated on the prohibition of bombing hospitals or impeding the flow of medical care of the citizens of Yemen.

If we don’t take courage in both hands, draw a bright redline and take a firm stand now, the tactic of bombing hospitals whose GPS coordinates have been clearly shared with the opposition (which the Russians have also employed in Syrian) will become the de facto status quo across the globe.

We implore you Mr. President, please insist that US made Saudi weapons and any associated military we assistance we offer are predicated on the prohibition of bombing hospitals or impeding the flow of medical care of the citizens of Yemen.