Sen. Lee Calls for End to U.S.-Saudi War in Yemen
WASHINGTON – In light of Saudi Arabia’s admission that they killed Jamal Khashoggi, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) issued the following statement Monday calling for an end to United States involvement in Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen.
“Killing a United States resident is never acceptable behavior, and the repeated failure to be honest about the incident should call into question the extent of our relationship with Saudi Arabia,” Sen. Lee said. “But setting aside the extent of our alliance generally, why should we continue to support Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen when the kingdom is killing our residents and lying about it? It is far past time that the United States Senate had a serious debate regarding our military involvement in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen.”
This February, Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), Bernie Sanders (D-VT), and Chris Murphy (D-CT) introduced a resolution to remove U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities between Saudi Arabia and Houthi forces in Yemen. This March, before the Senate voted to table that resolution, Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-TN) asked fellow senators to “respect the members of the foreign relations committee that deal with this issue” and let the resolution “go back to committee with the commitment that we plan to bring forth legislation to actually deal appropriately with many of the issues relative to Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and ourselves.”
“The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has had six months to study the resolution to end U.S. aid to Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen,” Lee said. “It is time for a vote.”
An online version of this release can be found here.
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WHY DO ONLY SOME LIVES MATTER?
By Robert C. Koehler
911 Words
What would it take for everyone’s life to matter as much as Jamal Khashoggi’s?
I ask this question over at the edge of the news, looking for a doorway into the human conscience.
Consider:
“The U.S. sold a total of $55.6 billion of weapons worldwide in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 — up 33 percent from the previous fiscal year, and a near record. In 2017, the U.S. cleared some $18 billion in new Saudi arms deals.”
This is from CBS News Moneywatch two weeks ago. No big deal, just a look at the U.S. weapons biz, which has been thrust into the national spotlight recently.
“Mr. Trump,” the story continues, “has dismissed the idea of suspending weapons sales to Saudi Arabia to punish its crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman, for any involvement in the alleged murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. ‘I don’t like the concept of stopping an investment of $110 billion into the United States,’ Mr. Trump said this week. . . .”
And under the subhead “Bombs away,” the article informs us: “The current White House has shifted the type of weapons exports the U.S. favors. Prior to this year, aircraft was the largest component of U.S. arms sales, according to the Security Assistance Monitor. Under the first year of the Trump administration, sales of bombs and missiles dominated.”
This is a story about the infrastructure of killing and an economic system that, apparently, depends on doing so on a mass scale globally, which of course is known as waging war. War at a personal, specific level is always horrifying — as shocking and grotesquely wrong as Khashoggi’s murder. Why is it, then, that when you multiply these murders by a hundred or a thousand or a million, they become so much easier to talk about and write about and justify — with the focus on strategy, politics, economics and jobs — than is the murder of one man? Why is there not one word in this Moneywatch story as heart-stopping as “bone saw”?
I ask this in no way to belittle the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, but rather to belittle . . . no, to undo, to rip apart . . . what we call news. If it weren’t for news that normalizes and softens war, that turns it — here in the 21st century — into a spectator sport, the military industrialists and their political supplicants could not sell it to the public with such ease.
The United States had pretty much evolved beyond war by 1975, when its military pulled out of Vietnam. There followed a decade and a half of “Vietnam syndrome” — public disgust and distaste for mass murder, environmental devastation and spiritual suicide, of the sort we’d just been inflicting on Vietnam and on ourselves.
But because of the political and economic influence of the military industrial complex, “Vietnam syndrome” was unacceptable. The U.S. fought proxy wars for a decade and a half, particularly in Nicaragua (go, Contras!) and ended the draft (except for the poverty draft), which disentangled most Americans from a personal stake in future wars. Then — with the Cold War suddenly, unexpectedly over — war’s public relations unit had to find a new, more perfect enemy. It settled on our former ally, Saddam Hussein.
When the six-week-long Gulf War ended in February 1991, George H.W. Bush declared: “By God, we’ve kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all.” And indeed, that first Gulf War set the standard for the wars of the 21st century. They are, to the extent possible, reported as strategic spectacles waged from on high. Bombs away! No blood, no mess, no racism — just classified strategic objectives and a mission (never articulated) to fulfill.
And beyond America’s own wars, we have the Saudis and their allies and the war they are waging in Yemen, with our weapons, assistance and backing:
“The military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in Yemen has killed thousands of civilians in airstrikes, tortured detainees, raped civilians and used child soldiers as young as 8 — actions that may amount to war crimes, United Nations investigators said in a report issued Tuesday.”
So the New York Times reported in August, in advance of a U.N. report on the war.
“The main cause of civilian casualties in the war,” the story continues, “. . . has been airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition. It estimates that there have been 18,000 such strikes in little more than three years, inflicting a level of damage on civilians that ‘certainly contributed to Yemen’s dire economic and humanitarian situation.’
“The report, to be delivered to the United Nations Human Rights Council next month, comes not long after a Saudi-coalition strike this month killed 40 children on a school bus.”
Eventually the story tosses in this little moral grenade:
“A report released by Human Rights Watch last week warned Britain, France and the United States that they risked complicity in unlawful attacks in Yemen by continuing to supply arms to Saudi Arabia.”
But none of this has the shock value of the torture and murder of a man at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, not even the murder of 40 children on a school bus. That public outrage over Khashoggi’s killing won’t go away — that it is disrupting the U.S.-Saudi alliance and possibly even threatening future arms sales — is absolutely appropriate. But I can’t help feeling eaten alive by the question it raises.
Why do only some lives matter?
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Robert Koehler, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a Chicago award-winning journalist and editor. His book, Courage Grows Strong at the Wound is available. Contact him at koehlercw@gmail.com or visit his website at commonwonders.com.
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STAND ATLANTIC
PREMIERE NEW SINGLE "SKINNY DIPPING" ON
BBC RADIO 1 INDIE SHOW WITH JACK SAUNDERS
NEW ALBUM SKINNY DIPPING OUT OCTOBER 26
Photo credit: Brandon Lung
OCTOBER 23, 2018 - Stand Atlantic premiered their new song "Skinny Dipping" on BBC Radio 1's Indie Show With Jack Saunders today during the Midnight Drop segment. The song is available for stream/purchase here. "Skinny Dipping" is the third single off their upcoming album Skinny Dipping, out October 26. Skinny Dipping is the follow up to the Australian pop-rock's trio 2017 EP Sidewinder, and their debut for Hopeless Records.
Speaking to the new song, vocalist/guitarist Bonnie Fraser explained, "Skinny Dipping is about coming to terms with who you are. Sometimes addressing your own truth can be a very daunting thing and feel so isolating. Skinny Dipping is about releasing that fear and accepting yourself completely."
Last month, the band shared the single and music video for "Lavender Bones," which premiered on triple J's Good Nites in Australia. The song has climbed the charts to be the Most Played track on triple J on September 21st. The band also released the single and lyric video for "Lost My Cool." and wrapped up their US tour with Neck Deep this month.
Stand Atlantic, made up of Bonnie Fraser (vocals/guitar), David Potter (guitar), and Jonno Panichi (drums), launched into the international eye following last year's Skinny Dipping. The group's blend of hard-charged rock and soaring pop melodies has earned them a home on international tours with the likes of New Found Glory, Neck Deep and State Champs -and critical accolades like a "Best International Breakthrough Band"nomination at the 2018 Heavy Music Awards and inclusion in Kerrang's highly coveted Hottest Bands of 2018.
Now, Skinny Dipping is poised to build on that success and take them even further. The unfiltered honesty of the album's 10 tracks showcases an emotional maturity beyond Stand Atlantic's collective years, a keen sense of self-awareness and desire to be unconditionally authentic even when -and perhaps especially when -it breaks their hearts.
Awash in '90s vibrancy and bounce, the title track finds Fraser coming to terms with her sexuality, fighting through a haze of self-doubt en route to a celebration of her true identity. "Skinny dipping can be seen as an innocent thing you do for fun,"she explains. "But at the same time, you're naked and vulnerable and exposing yourself to anything in there. There are things in life I sometimes feel are either unimportant or something I shouldn't be talking about. It can be so isolating to be truly honest, but to have people accept you is so freeing."
Skinny Dipping is now available for pre-order. When pre-ordered digitally, fans will receive an instant download of "Skinny Dipping,""Lost My Cool"and "Lavender Bones".
Track Listing
1. Lavender Bones
2. Bullfrog
3. Skinny Dipping
4. Speak Slow
5. Cigarette Kiss
6. Lost My Cool
7. Toothpick
8. Burn In The Afterthought
9. Clay (feat. Hannah Hermione Greenwood)
10. Roses
Upcoming Tour Dates:
UK/EU Tour w/ State Champs, Seaway, WOES
October 22 - Dublin, Ireland @ Academy
October 23 - Glasgow, UK @ SWG3 Studio Warehouse
October 24 - Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK @ Northumbria Institute
October 26 - Manchester, UK @ Manchester Academy
October 27 - London, UK @ Roundhouse
October 29 - Norwich, UK @ The Waterfront
October 30 - Leeds, UK @ O2 Academy Leeds
October 31 - Birmingham, UK @ O2 Institute
November 1 - Bristol, UK @ O2 Academy Bristol
November 3 - Hasselt, BE @ Musiekodroom
November 4 - Haarlem, NL @ Patronaat
November 5 - Hamburg, DE @ Knust
November 6 - Berlin, DE - Bi Nuu
November 8 - Munich, DE - Feierwerk
November 9 - Frankfurt Am Main, DE @ Das Bett
November 10 - Bochum, DE @ Zeche Carl
November 11 - Paris, FR @ Machine Du Moulin Rouge
Australia Tour w/ Neck Deep, Between You & Me, Stateside
November 29 - Perth, AUS @ Capitol
December 1 - Sydney, AUS @ Metro Theatre
December 2 - Brisbane, AUS @ The Triffid
December 4 - Melbourne, AUS @ 170 Russell
UNIFY Gathering (Australia)
January 12 - Gippsland, AUS @ Tarwin Meadows
Australia Headline Tour w/ The Dead Love
January 20 - Wollongong, AUS @ Rad Bar
January 25 - Sydney, AUS @ Landsdowne Hotel
January 27 - Brisbane, AUS @ Crowbar
February 1 - Adelaide, AUS @ Crown & Anchor
February 2 - Melbourne, AUS @ Northcote Social Club
For more information, please visit www.hopelessrecords.com
Follow Stand Atlantic:
Twitter: twitter.com/standatlantic
Facebook: facebook.com/StandAtlantic
Instagram: instagram.com/standatlantic
