UK and the “Moriarty game” in Yemen: We bomb you, we maim you, and we help you

The UK and the “Moriarty game” in Yemen: We bomb you, we maim you, and we help you

Michiyo Tanabe, Nawal Soueif, and Lee Jay Walker

Modern Tokyo Times

The crisis in Yemen is highlighting the utter moral bankruptcy of the United Kingdom (UK) government. This equally applies to other leading Western nations and Sunni Muslim nations that are participating in the Saudi Arabia-led alliance against the Shia Houthis in Yemen. However, with UK humanitarian assistance projects being bombed by the UK backed bombing raids since the early period of the conflict – and continuing in 2019 – then clearly the policy of the government is deplorable.

Since the conflict broke out, then many rich pickings have been found by nations that are heavily involved in supplying military arms. Indeed, for the UK, roughly £4 billion of military sales have been sold to Saudi Arabia. Hence, the proxy war between Iran and the Saudi Arabia Sunni Muslim alliance in Yemen is a boon time for Western military sales. Of course, this boon time is based on untold suffering and the collapse of the already weak infrastructure. Therefore, cholera, malnutrition, children dying because of lack of medicine, and other terrible factors blight Yemen.

The BBC reports, “The fighting and a partial blockade by the coalition has also left 22 million people in need of humanitarian aid, created the world’s largest food security emergency, and led to a cholera outbreak that is thought to have affected a million people.”

However, with constant reports since specifying that UK humanitarian assistance projects are being bombed by UK backed bombing raids, then clearly this policy by the British government is horrendous. On the one hand, humanitarian assistance is helping greatly, but, on the other hand, the same British weapons are being used to kill – and even guided.

Toni Pearce, the advocacy head of Oxfam in government relations, is equally aghast by the current policy of the UK government. She stipulates pointedly, “The UK continues to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, whose coalition bombing campaign in Yemen has cut off vital food supplies, destroyed hospitals and homes, and hit aid programmes funded by British taxpayers.”

It seems that Prime Minister Theresa May is the real version of Professor Moriarty in the fictional Sherlock Holmes film titled, A Game of Shadows. In this film, the unscrupulous Moriarty says, “You see, hidden within the unconscious, there is an insatiable desire for conflict. So, you’re not fighting me, so much as you are the human condition. All I want to do is own the bullets and the bandages.”

The Guardian last year reported, “The UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, Mark Lowcock, said last week that if fighting continues, famine could engulf the country within three months, with 12 to 13 million people at risk of starvation.”

Hence, the madness of May’s policy in supporting military sales to Saudi Arabia and other members of the Sunni Muslim alliance that is bombing Yemen – while helping to fund humanitarian assistance – is morally bankrupt and beggars belief. In other words, “We bomb you, we maim you, and we help you!” Therefore, May needs to be held accountable for this deplorable and callous policy that is based on the bones of innocent Yemenis.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/nov/02/end-war-yemen-children-conflict-escalates-around-hodeidah-hospital

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/yemen-saudi-arabia-oxfam-aid-air-strikes-civilian-casualties-a8615081.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-45964795

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-yemen-security/dozens-killed-including-children-on-a-bus-in-yemen-air-strikes-idUKKBN1KU12Q

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-45128367v

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