West Beats War Drums Over Russian 'Menace', Overlooks Saudi Crimes in Yemen

If US policy makers are really concerned with the foreign aggression issue they should focus more on the Saudi-led invasion of Yemen and Bahrain, instead of pointing the finger at Russia's imaginary "threat," Canadian writer and political activist Stephen Gowans notes.

While the West is accusing Russia of an imaginary "invasion" of Ukraine, the United States, Canada and Europe remain suspiciously silent on Saudi aggression against Yemen and Bahrain, Canadian writer and political activist Stephen Gowans stresses.

"[T]he narrative that Western foreign policy is animated by opposition to foreign aggression is challenged by the arms deals that France and Canada-whose governments profess their opposition to foreign intervention-have struck with Saudi Arabia. The Saudi tyranny has intervened militarily in Bahrain against a movement for a representative political democracy," Gowans noted in his article published on What's Left blog.

"The Saudi tyranny has also launched a blood-soaked intervention into neighboring Yemen, with the ostensible goal of restoring to power a pro-Saudi president [Abd-Rabbu Hadi] who was ousted in an uprising," the Canadian writer added.

Ironically, what is happening now in Yemen is strikingly similar to the February 2014 upheaval in Ukraine, which lead to the ousting former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich in a coup forcing him to leave the country.  

It should be noted that Yanukovich had far more support among Ukrainians than Hadi has in Yemen, Gowans remarked. 

However, in contrast to Saudi Arabia, Russia is not bombing Ukraine, or "enforcing a blockade to starve Ukraine into submission," nor does Moscow seek the restoration of Viktor Yanukovich as the Ukrainian president.

"Yet bombings and blockades are happening in Yemen, and there's only silence in the West," the writer noted.

Embarrassingly, Western countries not only turn a blind eye to the obvious violation of human rights and Saudi war crimes in Yemen, they also provide Saudi Arabia with advanced weapons; American and British warships assist Riyadh in maintaining the blockade; the Pentagon provides the Saudi bombing campaign with logistical and intelligence support.

"The entire affair is a blatant breach of international law, and an assault on authentic democracy and self-determination," Gowans highlighted, adding that Western politicians and commentators continue to beat the Russophobia drums and have nothing to say about brazen Saudi aggression in the Middle East.

"Imagine if Russia was bombing Ukraine and blockading its borders instead of the Saudis doing the same to Yemen. The outcry would be deafening," he added.

"There is much to condemn and oppose: The Saudi interventions in Yemen and Bahrain; Western support for the Arab kleptocracies; the economic and military threats from the US against Russia…; royalist oppression in Saudi Arabia and the Western arms manufacturers and their partners in government who furnish the Saudi kleptocrats with weapons to suppress internal revolts," the Canadian writer emphasized, stressing that the imaginary Russian threat is not among these issues.