Congress risks “never, ever” being relevant on foreign policy if it stays silent on the civil war in Yemen, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) warned Monday.
“Through it’s refusal to authorize the current operations inside Yemen, we are at risk of never, ever again being relevant, at least in our lifetimes, on matters of war making and foreign policy,” Murphy said. “So I think this is serious and precedential.”
{mosads}Murphy and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) spoke at the Center for the National Interest in support of a resolution that would block the United States’s latest planned arms sale to Saudi Arabia, which is leading the coalition fighting against rebels in Yemen.
The Senate is expected to vote Wednesday on the resolution, which Murphy and Paul introduced with Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah).
The United States supports the Saudi-led fight against Houthi rebels by providing limited intelligence, helping with logistics such as air refueling and selling the Saudis billions of dollars of weapons. The latest such sale, approved by the State Department in August, would provide $1.15 billion in tanks and other equipment.
But U.S. support for the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen has come under increasing scrutiny from lawmakers as the civilian death toll continues to rise.
Still, it’s unclear whether the senators’ resolution can muster enough support to pass.
Paul and Murphy were clear-eyed Monday about the resolution’s likely fate, but said a vote is important to raise awareness of an issue that has thus far gotten little attention.
“We do lose, probably,” Paul said. “But I think we bring attention to the issue. There’s been no debate in our country, almost zero debate in the newspapers, on television, by the presidential candidates whether we should be at war in Yemen. None.”
Murphy said he thinks there’s been some change in Congress on the perspective of the U.S.-Saudi relationship.
“You are seeing more willingness to challenge the nature of the relationship, and I think that’s positive,” he said. “Alliances go both ways. If you’re partner is doing things that aren’t in your interest, then you need to reserve the ability to start questioning your participation in that alliance.”
Both also acknowledged that the issue was wider than just a single arms sale. Murphy suggested that Congress needs to debate an authorization for the use of military force against the Houthis in Yemen, something that Congress has not been able to do for the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Paul, too, said the United States is “intimately” involved in the war in Yemen.
“This isn’t just about selling arms to Saudi Arabia,” Paul said. “We are refueling their planes in the air, and they’re dropping the bombs. To me, and I’m not a military person, but that sounds like we’re intimately involved in the war. We’re selecting the targets and refueling the planes. This isn’t just about selling them tanks and saying please don’t invade your neighboring country.”