Portside

While the international media has devoted extensive coverage to the barbaric destruction of museums and archaeological sites in Iraq and Syria by the Islamic State, not so with the continuing aerial vandalism perpetrated in Yemen by Saudi Arabia. The same obscurantist ideology by which the Islamic State justifies its destruction of cultural heritage sites appears to be driving the Saudis’ air war against the precious physical evidence of Yemen’s ancient civilizations.

Although the White House has repeatedly said it would not add “boots on the ground” to wars in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, etc., the assurance is bogus. U.S. ground forces have been active in Yemen, and more recently Syria, and the Obama Administration, which has delayed the full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, is now adding 450 U.S. “commandos” to the 3,000 military advisers in Iraq.

In arguably the strongest signal Congress has ever sent in support for Palestinian human rights, 19 members of Congress sent a letter June 20th to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urging the Department of State to make the human rights of Palestinian children a priority in the U.S. bilateral relationship with Israel. The letter was initiated by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), and focuses a Congressional spotlight on Israeli military abuse of Palestinian children.