Bomb that killed 40 children in Yemen was supplied by the US

[phands]

But....bombs don't kill people...other people do...

(CNN)The bomb used by the Saudi-led coalition in a devastating attack on a school bus in Yemen was sold as part of a US State Department-sanctioned arms deal with Saudi Arabia, munitions experts told CNN.

Working with local Yemeni journalists and munitions experts, CNN has established that the weapon that left dozens of children dead on August 9 was a 500-pound (227 kilogram) laser-guided MK 82 bomb made by Lockheed Martin, one of the top US defense contractors.
The bomb is very similar to the one that wreaked devastation in an attack on a funeral hall in Yemen in October 2016 in which 155 people were killed and hundreds more wounded. The Saudi coalition blamed "incorrect information" for that strike, admitted it was a mistake and took responsibility.

The schoolboys on a field trip in Yemen were chatting and laughing. Then came the airstrike


In March of that year, a strike on a Yemeni market -- this time reportedly by a US-supplied precision-guided MK 84 bomb -- killed 97 people.
In the aftermath of the funeral hall attack, former US President Barack Obama banned the sale of precision-guided military technology to Saudi Arabia over "human rights concerns."
The ban was overturned by the Trump administration's then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in March 2017.

Note that the ban was overturned by the trumpo regime....

Full article at https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/17/middleeast/us-saudi-yemen-bus-strike-intl/index.html

 

[Cycad]

First trip of your newly elected president was to .....Saudi.
Selling them a few billion USDollar of weaponry.

Supported by US and UK military advisers, the Saudi "coalition" continues unabated the religious and ethnic genocide in Yemen.
The UK is well experienced in Middle east warfare since they brought down several uprisings in Omani mountains.
They learned there is but one way to beat these hill tribes into submission and thats by starving and ultimately genocide.
Not more than one more chapter in the larger Sunni Shia war. Totally ignored by the world.

With massive US oil interests through Aramco, no wonder there is not even a condemnation of Saudi massacres in the US.

 

[Harry Bosch]

I always have thought that it was a mistake to get in the middle of the Sunni/Shia civil war.

 

[phands]

Trumpo is a murderer of children.

 

[Derec]

Note that the ban was overturned by the trumpo regime....

You'd hardly have started the thread otherwise.

US has been active in Yemen for years before Trump was elected and inaugurated. Usually hunting terrorists with drones, but with these strikes mistakes happen too.


KSA has many faults, but I do not think they targeted the kids deliberately. War is hell, and mistakes will happen.

The problem with Yemen is that Iranians are involved too. That makes any sort of peace difficult to achieve anytime soon.

 

[Harry Bosch]

Trumpo is a murderer of children.

Negative. That would be Obama. Trump is the king of peace!!!

 

[Derec]

I always have thought that it was a mistake to get in the middle of the Sunni/Shia civil war.

According to Dr. Zoidberg, our resident Islamophile, Houthis are not quite Sunni nor Shia.
Aside from religion and its franchises, it is certainly not in US strategic interest to allow the Islamic Theocracy of Iran to gain a foothold on the Arabian Peninsula after expanding its influence into Iraq, Syria and Lebanon already.

 

[J842P]

I always have thought that it was a mistake to get in the middle of the Sunni/Shia civil war.

According to Dr. Zoidberg, our resident Islamophile, Houthis are not quite Sunni nor Shia.
Aside from religion and its franchises, it is certainly not in US strategic interest to allow the Islamic Theocracy of Iran to gain a foothold on the Arabian Peninsula after expanding its influence into Iraq, Syria and Lebanon already.

Zoidberg isn't an Islamophile by any stretch, he's merely not an ignoramus.

 

[untermensche]

I always have thought that it was a mistake to get in the middle of the Sunni/Shia civil war.

It has been very profitable.

 

[Cycad]

It has been very profitable.

Indeed it has been.

As such Trump is really delivering. Not yet beating Basil Zaharoff but close.
Within weeks of his election Trump managed to close billion dollar arms deals in Saudi and Qatar.
Two opposing parties.

Selling arms to Irans best friend in the Gulf while maintaining at home that Iran is the boogeyman and (once more) at an inch of producing nuclear weapons.

 

[Cycad]

US has been active in Yemen for years before Trump was elected and inaugurated. Usually hunting terrorists with drones, but with these strikes mistakes happen too

You do understand there is a difference between a (genuine?) error with a drone strike and active military support of operations which can be described as genocide ?

And if houthis are closer to sunni than shia, or vice versa, doesnt matter. They are a deviant sect for hardline Saudis and since they are supported by Iran .... there is no moral objection in starving them into total surrender and destruction.

Once more bad luck for Yemen.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Good ole fashioned Islamic Brotherhood.

 

[Valjean]

It has been very profitable.

Good point. Without fomenting hostilities around the world, or direct hostilities by US forces, what would happen to our "defense" industries?
We can't have bombs just sitting around on the shelves now, can we? We can't have soldiers just sitting around playing pinochle and collecting paychecks.

The US economy has come to depend on war. Without war there's no demand for matériel, without demand there's no production -- think of the jobs!

Keynes proposed the government as the employer of last resort. Roosevelt made it work. Today such liberal, socialist thinking has been buried, and the military has become the employment agency to the down-and-out.

US military bases and industries are carefully scattered through the fifty states, so it's not likely any peacenik legislator is going to risk his state's economy by proposing cutbacks or base closures.

Now let's get off our asses, attack Iran, and make America great again!
USA! USA! USA!

Note to admins: we really need a tongue-in-cheek smiley...

 

[Derec]

You do understand there is a difference between a (genuine?) error with a drone strike and active military support of operations which can be described as genocide ?

I know the difference, but have seen no evidence that the Saudis targeted this bus knowing it was full of children on a field trip.
By the way, who organizes a field trip through a war zone anyway?

And if houthis are closer to sunni than shia, or vice versa, doesnt matter. They are a deviant sect for hardline Saudis and since they are supported by Iran .... there is no moral objection in starving them into total surrender and destruction.

Well Houthis started the war, trying to oust the government and take over. And they have been shooting Iranian-supplied rockets at Riyadh.
Also, read this:
WATCH: Houthi children vow 'Death to America, death to Israel'
They are brainwashing their children with the hateful ideology very similar to the one advocated by Iranian weird-beards.
They have been using Iranian-style chants since at least 2012.
Yemen's 'Death to America' rebels bring calm to northern Yemen

Now signs bearing the group’s slogan, “God is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Damn the Jews, Power to Islam,” pepper the streets alongside tributes to fighters killed during the years of conflict

But to the Left, if they hate Israel and hate America, they must be the good guys, right?

 

[Cycad]

I know the difference, but have seen no evidence that the Saudis targeted this bus knowing it was full of children on a field trip.

Nobody said the Saudis did. They are anyway probably too smart to do this.
Nothing better than a busload of death children to stirr international condemnation. If they dont know that, their US and UK advisors will tell them.
As with previous mass killings of civilians in Yemen, the Saudis just seem not to care enough to investigate properly before ordering a hit.

Well Houthis started the war, trying to oust the government and take over.
And they have been shooting Iranian-supplied rockets at Riyadh.

If you want to know who started what in Yemen, you can go back centuries.
Yeminis are very tribal and isolated in their mountains.
But basically the actual conflict is another chapter in the ongoing sunni/shia war started in 632.
Whoever started what is anyway no reason for Saudi to destroy the country and starve a part of the population into submission.
As for the few missiles shot at Saudi : zero damage and landed in the desert. Thats a score worse than Saddams scud missiles and a godsend for whoever is selling patriot missiles to Saudi.

They are brainwashing their children with the hateful ideology very similar to the one advocated by Iranian weird-beards.

Every religion makes a point to brainwash children. How else can you explain people believing in religious nonsense ? Happens as we speak in the US in your next door sunday school. In a war, propaganda is there to brainwash adults and schools to brainwash children.

But to the Left, if they hate Israel and hate America, they must be the good guys, right?

No Derec, not right and I suspect you know it.

 

[untermensche]

It has been very profitable.

Good point. Without fomenting hostilities around the world, or direct hostilities by US forces, what would happen to our "defense" industries?
We can't have bombs just sitting around on the shelves now, can we? We can't have soldiers just sitting around playing pinochle and collecting paychecks.

The US economy has come to depend on war. Without war there's no demand for matériel, without demand there's no production -- think of the jobs!

Keynes proposed the government as the employer of last resort. Roosevelt made it work. Today such liberal, socialist thinking has been buried, and the military has become the employment agency to the down-and-out.

US military bases and industries are carefully scattered through the fifty states, so it's not likely any peacenik legislator is going to risk his state's economy by proposing cutbacks or base closures.

Now let's get off our asses, attack Iran, and make America great again!
USA! USA! USA!

Note to admins: we really need a tongue-in-cheek smiley...

Not only is the US economy dependent on military spending it is also dependent on the research and development that is a part of military spending.

The cell phone and the ability to transmit calls comes from military spending.

The computer comes from military spending.

Modern air transportation comes from military spending.

The US economy is a command economy in the form of massive spending on the military and military research which sometimes yields civilian products.