Urge RI Senators Reed & Whitehouse to Stop US Involvement in Yemen War

Demand Progress is urging Rhode Island Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, both Democrats, to vote to stop United States involvement in the War in Yemen this week. Back in March both Senators voted against a similar resolution and, “are among a dwindling number of Democrats who have not indicated their support for the resolution.”

Rhode Islanders can call Reed and Whitehouse to ask them to support the resolution by dialing 1-833-STOP-WAR (1-833-786-7927).

Demand Progress, a national organization cofounded by former Rhode Island State Representative David Segal (who also served as a member of the Providence City Council and ran in the 2010 Democratic Primary for Congress in RI CD1) is calling on Reed and Whitehouse to support the resolution and is organizing Rhode Islanders to urge them to do so.

“There is no moral or legal justification for the continued involvement of the United States in the catastrophic Saudi war against the people of Yemen – which has put 14 million people at risk of starvation,” said Segal. “Through their opposition to similar legislation earlier this year, and by refusing to indicate their support for the new Lee-Sanders War Powers Resolution, Senators Reed and Whitehouse are putting themselves strikingly out of step with their Democratic Senate colleagues, the people of Rhode Island, and the moral center.

“We have a chance to effectively end this human tragedy – but as of now, Reed and Whitehouse might be the votes that tilt the outcome towards the wants of the Saudi regime and Trump administration, and against the desire their constituents and the needs of the people of Yemen. We urge Rhode Islanders to call on their senators to do the right thing and support the Lee-Sanders resolution.”

Demand Progress has more than two million members across the United States and more than 10,000 in Rhode Island.

Demand Progress has led a coalition of more than a dozen organizations in support of an end to United States involvement in the War in Yemen at www.StopTheWar.us, through which activists have sent over than 200,000 messages to Congress this year and placed approximately 20,000 phone calls.

Demand Progress released this video in conjunction with actor Mark Ruffalo about the military action in Yemen earlier this year:

End the US-Saudi War on Yemen- Call 1-833-786-7927

MORE ON THE STATUS OF THE MILITARY ACTION IN YEMEN:

On the order of 14 million people in Yemen are at risk of starvation — representing the worst current humanitarian crisis in the world, and the potential for the worst famine in the world in more than a century. (Here is today’s joint statement by several international aid organizations describing the dire situation.)

The United States is providing material support for Saudi Arabia’s war against Yemen, including through mid-air refueling assistance for bombing runs and other logistical support — even though Congress has never authorized military involvement in the conflict, as is required under the United States Constitution.

The Senate voted on a similar resolution in the spring, but a motion to table it succeeded on a 55-44 vote. Both Rhode Island senators joined with a majority of Republicans, and opposed the overwhelming majority of their own Democratic Caucus, by voting to table the resolution. A record of that vote can be found here.

Increased recent attention to the war and humanitarian crisis in Yemen – as well as evidence that the war’s main prosecutor, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, ordered the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi -have made Lee and Sanders optimistic that the resolution will pass this week.