By WILLIAM LAMBERS, Orange County Register
This weekend’s bombings of Saudi Arabian oil facilities, allegedly by Iran, should meet with a strong response. Only not the military kind. We need to escalate Mideast diplomacy by ending the civil war in Yemen between a Saudi led coalition against the Iran backed Houthi rebels. The Yemen war has incredibly destabilized the Mideast, leading to the crisis we face now.
The attack on Saudi Arabia must be condemned. The damage has caused skyrocketing oil prices, which is getting worldwide attention. But there should be far greater outrage about all the children killed by bombings in Yemen’s civil war. Most importantly we must stop the cycle of violence in the region to prevent any more deaths.
President Trump’s tweet saying the U.S. is “locked and loaded” raises fears that the U.S. may strike Iran in response to the Saudi attack. This would be a huge mistake. Bombings and more war is not the answer for the Middle East.
President Dwight Eisenhower’s words from 1956 apply just as well today when he said during the Suez crisis “In all the recent troubles in the Middle East, there have indeed been injustices suffered by all nations involved. But I do not believe that another instrument of injustice–war–is the remedy for these wrongs.”
Eisenhower supported a UN ceasefire to stop a war when Israel, Britain, and France invaded Egypt over control of the Suez Canal. The fighting ended and troops were withdrawn. Canadian diplomat Lester B. Pearson was instrumental in arranging the ceasefire and a UN emergency force to keep the peace. Pearson won a Nobel Prize for his efforts. Eisenhower’s Food for Peace program brought emergency relief to families left hungry and homeless in Egypt after the military action.
Likewise today the Middle East needs more diplomacy and humanitarian aid.
It’s urgent we end the brutal civil war in Yemen. The conflict has placed over 20 million in Yemen in desperate need of food. Save the Children says 85,000 Yemeni kids have died of hunger and disease caused by the fighting.
Malnutrition is slowly killing Yemen’s children and we need to get life-saving food to them. An immediate ceasefire and safe passage of humanitarian aid is crucial.
In Yemen both the Saudi side and the Houthis have committed atrocities. One act of violence leads to more. When does it end? They must realize that more war is not going to resolve anything. The United States must be the voice of reason and peacemaking here. But that starts by example.
The U.S. should withdraw its military support of the Saudi coalition in Yemen and be just the peacemaker and humanitarian. The Trump administration has provided military intelligence and logistical support to the Saudi war effort in Yemen. Then there are the never ending arms sales to the region worth billions of dollars.
Meanwhile, the UN World Food Program and other relief agencies are desperate for more funds to feed Yemen’s hungry.
We need to increase funding for our aid programs, like Food for Peace, to meet this challenge. Food will do much more to build peace in the Middle East than guns.
Middle East diplomacy also took a major hit when Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal. He needs to reinstate that agreement at once.
Retaliatory bombing will not solve anything in the Middle East. Peace talks and humanitarian aid can.
William Lambers is an author who partnered with the UN World Food Program on the book Ending World Hunger. His writings have been published by the USA Today, NY Times, History News Network, the Hill, Newsweek and many other outlets.
