Over the past six weeks, the United States has severely escalated its war against the people of Yemen for their resistance against imperialism and their steadfast solidarity with Palestine. U.S. combined naval and air forces have struck Yemen hundreds of times since mid-March. These strikes have mostly targeted civilian infrastructure: dock facilities, fuel silos, grain supplies, residential buildings, and a major sanitation project.
Since the Trump administration escalated the ongoing U.S. bombing campaign against Yemen in March, hundreds of innocent people have been killed. To be clear, U.S. military aggression against Yemen is not a new development. The Biden administration spent the last year pounding Yemen as punishment for its refusal to abandon Gaza and Palestine.
Biden’s strikes killed dozens and threatened to throw Yemen back into famine. And even so, the recent Trump offensive in the Red Sea represents a marked escalation by the U.S. imperialists. Under Trump, the military attack on Yemen has reached a new fever pitch.
Recently, the New York Times reported that the U.S. military has begun a significant buildup of military equipment and personnel across the Middle East. As a part of this buildup, the U.S. Navy has moved a second aircraft carrier into the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen and begun negotiations with Saudi-backed militias to begin a ground offensive against the Ansar Allah movement.
Furthermore, the U.S. moved two Patriot missile batteries and a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to the Middle East. As if this wasn’t enough, a half-dozen B-2 bombers capable of carrying 30,000-pound bombs were dispatched to Diego Garcia, an island base in the Indian Ocean. All of this equipment is being positioned to be used not only against defiant Yemen, but also Iran.
When Trump took office, he swore to be a peacemaker. He swore to destroy the cycle of “endless war.” The current U.S. military buildup in the Middle East and the severe wave of attacks on Yemen again demonstrate that the Republican and Democratic parties are simply two sides of the same imperialist coin. The imperialist objective to destroy Yemen is not that of Biden or Trump alone, but of all the billionaires who rely on Red Sea shipping lanes and U.S. military presence in the region to rake in profit.
Yemen represents a serious problem for the U.S. imperialists in that part of the world. Trump and Netanyahu want to be able to carpet bomb the people of Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria at will. Yemen and Iran have so far made that impossible. All U.S. and Zionist attacks in the region have been met with a response from the Yemeni people. Whether it is missile strikes on Zionist military bases in Gaza or the blockade on Western shipping in the Red Sea, Yemen has stood up and said no more. No more genocide. No more imperialism. No more war.
The working class of the United States must stand up and stand in solidarity with the people of Yemen now more than ever. Yemen may seem distant, but our solidarity must be exactly the opposite. The fact is, every bomb that falls on Yemeni ports or schools or factories falls right here at home. Every cent that goes to murdering working-class sisters and brothers in Yemen is a cent that could have been used to house, feed, and clothe all working-class people.
Our solidarity with Yemen in their fight must never waver.
Lev Koufax is an anti-Zionist Jewish activist.
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