After US-Backed Bombing Sparks Famine in Yemen, WaPo Editor Insists ‘US Not the Problem’ | FAIR

18.7.17

After US-Backed Bombing Sparks Famine in Yemen, WaPo Editor Insists ‘US Not the Problem’ | FAIR: Diehl framed the topic as something both public and media have ignored, insisting, “No One Is Paying Attention to the Worst Humanitarian Crisis Since World War II” (6/25/17). This is a bold rhetorical gambit, not least because Diehl himself hasn’t made Yemen a topic of an article since the bombing first began in February 2015. “No one’s noticing this thing I just noticed” is a great way to frame oneself as a moral visionary, without the arduous work of ideological coherence.

Not only does Diehl ignore the US’s role in supplying arms, giving logistical supporting and even facilitating torture on behalf of Saudi Arabia and its allies in Yemen (a complicity so deep the US State Department itself warned the US could be liable for war crimes), he actually writes, “the United States is not the problem here.” In fact, he paints the US as a lone moral voice: