The Biden administration will undo one of the few good things it has ever done:
The Biden administration plans to put the Houthi rebel group back on one of its lists of terrorist organizations, days after the U.S. launched strikes on its facilities in Yemen in retaliation for months of attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea, officials said.
The placement as a specially designated global terrorist group, which the U.S. plans to formally announce on Wednesday, reverses a decision made early in President Biden’s term to remove the Houthis from the list over concerns it hurt prospects for peace talks and further crippled the economy of an impoverished nation at risk of famine. The Trump administration first put the Houthis on the list.
The original designation under the Trump administration was a destructive move taken at the tail end of Trump’s presidency. It was one of Pompeo’s last-minute actions designed to handcuff the next administration. The decision was widely condemned by humanitarian relief organizations, because they understood that the sanctions that went along with the designation would make it impossible to provide aid to people in desperate need of it. Scott Paul of Oxfam said at the time that it was a “counterproductive and dangerous policy that will put innocent lives at risk.”
To their great credit back then, the Biden administration quickly reversed the designation in 2021 because they understood that it was more important to stave off a massive famine than it was to take a symbolic swipe at the Houthis. Now they are going to revive the Trump administration’s terrible policy in another foolish attempt to be seen as “doing something” about the Houthis. Their policies throughout the region are failing, and now they are taking out their frustrations on the people of Yemen.
Read the rest of the article at Eunomia
Daniel Larison is a contributing editor for Antiwar.com and maintains his own site at Eunomia. He is former senior editor at The American Conservative. He has been published in the New York Times Book Review, Dallas Morning News, World Politics Review, Politico Magazine, Orthodox Life, Front Porch Republic, The American Scene, and Culture11, and was a columnist for The Week. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Chicago, and resides in Lancaster, PA. Follow him on Twitter.
The original designation under the Trump administration was a destructive move taken at the tail end of Trump’s presidency. It was one of Pompeo’s last-minute actions designed to handcuff the next administration. The decision was widely condemned by humanitarian relief organizations, because they understood that the sanctions that went along with the designation would make it impossible to provide aid to people in desperate need of it. Scott Paul of Oxfam said at the time that it was a “counterproductive and dangerous policy that will put innocent lives at risk.”
And what better way than to starve a few thousand children. But remember, Pompeo had an open bible in his office (Somebody will have to tell me the significance of why they always describe it as open). And believe me, Biden wouldn’t have undone what Trump did other than for the reason that it was Trump that did it. Biden doesn’t care an iota about human life. His actions regarding Israel’s ongoing attempt at genocide in Gaza makes that obvious.
Pompeo violated the part of the Bible that says “Thou Shalt Not Kill”.