Rep. Amash Calls Out Dangerous Loopholes in Yemen War Bill and Offers Remedy

By:  Whitney Webb

Though it is similar to H.J. Res 37, Amash’s new bill contains neither dubious loopholes nor implicit expansions of the executive branch’s power to wage war unilaterally without express congressional approval.

While many opponents of the U.S.-backed and Saudi-led war in Yemen celebrated the House’s recent passage of a bill aimed at ending U.S. support for that war, Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) has claimed that the bill – H.J. Res. 37 — had been “sabotaged” in order to expand the controversial 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) that has allowed the U.S. government to wage war without congressional approval under the guise of “fighting terrorism.” In order to remedy the “sabotaged” bill, Rep. Amash has introduced a new bill that would require President Donald Trump to remove all U.S. armed forces from Yemen without any loopholes or the implicit expansion of the 2001 AUMF.

On Wednesday, the House voted in favor of H.J. Res. 37, which had been introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), by a margin of 248-177 and the legislation is likely to pass the Senate, where a similar bill – S.J. Res. 54 – passed last year despite Republican control of the chamber. Many commentators, politicians and media outlets have claimed that the bill “would require President Trump to end U.S. military support” for the war in Yemen.

Currently, the U.S. military has an unknown number of troops stationed in Yemen and provides logistical assistance and shares intelligence with the Saudi-led coalition waging war against its neighbor — a war that many have called genocidal for its targeting of civilians, in terms of both its bombing campaign and its creation of an artificial yet massive famine via a naval and air blockade.

The Trump administration has consistently backed the war and President Trump is likely to veto any piece of legislation that opposes the nearly four-year-long conflict.

Yet, as MintPress reported last year, and as Rep. Amash recently pointed out, both H.J. Res 37 and S.J. Res. 54 would not actually end the war in Yemen because both pieces of legislation contain a major loophole that will allow the majority of U.S. troops in Yemen – if not all – to stay.

This loophole states that the president is required to remove troops “except United States Armed Forces engaged in operations directed at al Qaeda or associated forces.”

As MintPress pointed out this past December, the only U.S. troops “on the ground” in Yemen that are involved in “hostilities” (i.e., combat operations) are those that are allegedly involved in operations targeting al Qaeda — operations that the U.S. frequently conducts jointly with the countries waging war against western Yemen, such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Furthermore, U.S. troops currently stationed in Yemen that target Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) also collaborate with the UAE and Saudi Arabia in “intelligence sharing,” “midair refueling,” and “overhead reconnaissance” for forces involved in counterterrorism operations that the U.S. is leading. This cooperation is what the text of S.J. Res. 54 claims to want to end, but only in regard to the coalition’s war in western Yemen. However, the current text of the bill would allow all of this cooperation to continue, just not in areas where there are no claims of AQAP presence.

In addition, the bill would not end the U.S. drone war in Yemen and could allow U.S. involvement in the coalition’s war in Yemen to continue unchanged if the Saudis — themselves just caught funneling weapons to AQAP — or the Emiratis supplied even dubious “intelligence” that linked Yemen’s resistance movement Ansarullah or the Houthis to AQAP.