Goldberg: U.S.-made weapons sold to the Saudis are fueling civilian deaths in Yemen (via latimesopinion)
In December 2016, President Obama restricted the sale of American arms to Saudi Arabia, citing concerns about the widespread killings of civilians in the brutal war in Yemen.
Now even the State Department has acknowledged that our arming of the Saudi coalition is problematic — or at least the agency’s independent inspector general has. In, the inspector general concluded that the U.S. government failed to “fully assess risks and implement mitigation measures to reduce civilian casualties” from American-made precision-guided bombs in Yemen.
How does it happen that U.S.-made weapons are routinely being used to kill civilians on the other side of the world? Simple. American arms manufacturers make and sell the military equipment — including planes, helicopters, bombs, missiles and spare parts of all sorts. The U.S. government approves the sales. The Saudis and their allies fly the planes, pull the triggers and detonate the bombs.
But how can we as a country possibly deny all moral responsibility when the deadly weapons we sell are misused — especially if that misuse is persistent and predictable? Surely it’s possible to bar weapons sales to repeat offenders. Surely when survivors are posting cellphone photos of bomb shards that say “Made in the U.S.A.,” something needs to change.
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