“Come gather ‘round you workers,
Good news to you I'll tell
Of how the good old union
Has come in here to dwell.”
- Florence Reece, “Which side are you on?”
In deference to the Labor Day holiday, I’m only going to share good news with you today about our campaign to end the Yemen war on the Pentagon contractor funding bill [the so-called “National Defense Authorization Act,” or “NDAA”.]
First of all, the campaign group Avaaz – which claims 51 million members worldwide – sent out a call alert targeting Democratic leaders Jack Reed, Nancy Pelosi, and Adam Smith, demanding that ALL amendments to end the Yemen war that passed the House are included in the “veto proof” NDAA that is sent to Trump, ending Saudi-UAE arms deals AND getting the Pentagon out of unconstitutional direct participation in the war – a reference to the Smith-Khanna-Schiff-Jayapal Yemen War Powers Amendment.
Second: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – which is very influential among Congressional Republicans - sent a letter Friday to Inhofe, Reed, Smith, and Thornberry on the NDAA conference negotiations, urging them to "reject partisan provisions that would reduce the ability of the Department of Defense to support U.S. national security interests while remaining competitive at home and abroad." The good news for ending the Yemen war on NDAA is that the Chamber letter did NOT mention the House-passed amendments to end the Yemen war, thereby conceding that the House-passed amendments to end the Yemen war are NOT “partisan provisions that would reduce the ability of the Department of Defense to support U.S. national security interests while remaining competitive at home and abroad."
Third: Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, sponsor of the Sanders-Lee-Murphy Yemen War Powers Resolution to end the war that Congress passed with every Democrat in Congress voting yes, tweeted: “U.S. bombs, logistical support, and intelligence for the Saudi dictatorship's airstrikes make us complicit in this nightmare. Congress has declared this war unconstitutional. We must now stand up to Trump and defund all U.S. involvement in these horrors.”
It could be claimed that I just reneged on the “only good news” promise because Bernie’s tweet references an AP article in the New York Times about the latest spectacular Saudi regime atrocity in Yemen. But here’s the Viktor Frankl half-full way of looking at it: these U.S.-backed Saudi regime atrocities in Yemen have been commonplace since Obama and Biden unconstitutionally started the war in March 2015. If we prevail in ending the Saudi regime’s war in Yemen on NDAA, this could be the last such U.S.-backed Saudi regime atrocity in Yemen.
Here’s four easy things you can do to help:
1. Share Bernie’s tweet.
2. Urge Nancy Pelosi to end the Yemen war on NDAA by signing our petition at MoveOn.
3. Vote in the poll below.
4. Share this post.