By attacking Yemen this Thursday, the Biden administration not only violated the US Constitution, but also set fire on two years of its own efforts to establish peace in the Arab country.
It was on this Thursday night that the Biden administration did something whose consequences can affect the political life of the US President for years to come. On that very night, and under the direct order of Joe Biden, the United States and the United Kingdom jointly launched several attacks against sites operated by the Houthis in Yemen, targeting its military infrastructure.
Following the attacks, the US Air Force issued a statement, saying that it had “executed deliberate strikes on over 60 targets at 16 Iranian-backed Houthi militant locations, including command and control nodes, munitions depots, launching systems, production facilities, and air defense radar systems”.
An hour later, Biden said the joint strikes with the United Kingdom were meant to demonstrate that the US and its allies “will not tolerate” the Houthis’ attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. Canada, Australia, Bahrain and the Netherlands, also expressed their full support for the attacks. But how much does a full support of Israel could cost for the Biden administration?
US lawmakers lashed out at Biden, accusing him of violating Constitution
Following the attacks on Yemen, several Democrat and Republican lawmakers strongly rebuked the move, accusing Biden of violating Article 1 of the US Constitution, which has long been understood to be a mechanism for checking and regulating the president’s power to wage war as it requires that war be authorized first by Congress.
“No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay,” article 1 of the US Constitution says.
Blaming Biden for his decision to attack Yemen, Republican Mike Lee shared Ro Khanna said in a tweet on X that “the Constitution matters, regardless of party affiliation.” Republican Texas Congressman Chip Roy also rebuked Biden’s decision and wrote: “I am potentially fine with striking Yemen to defend critical shipping channel & response to aggression” but questioned the lack of congressional approval, asking: “Under what authority was this carried out?”
But it was not just Republican who blamed Biden for his authorization of attacks against Yemen. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal from the Democratic Party said in a tweet on X that the strikes were an “unacceptable violation of the Constitution.”
Other Democrat lawmaker Cori Bush echoed the same view on X and wrote in a tweet that “the people do not want more of our taxpayer dollars going to endless war and the killing of civilians. Stop the bombing and do better by us.”
Thursday’s strikes, a big waste of two years of peace efforts in Yemen
US attacks on Yemen comes after months of efforts by the very Biden administration to establish peace in the war-stricken Yemen. To read between the lines, ending the war in Yemen was one of the first foreign policy initiatives of Joe Biden since he came to power some two years ago.
During this time period, he sent his top negotiators to Saudi Arabia to discuss the fastest way to create a permanent ceasefire in a war that the Saudi-led coalition rages against Yemen since 2015. And now, Joe Biden must wait and see the grave consequences of such a U-turn shift in his foreign policy, especially as the US Presidential election is approaching.
