Continuing with the cheery topic of catastrophic humanitarian disasters, directly (or indirectly in this specific case) caused by the United States, another muffled war has been occurring for seven years since 2015, when Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally, invaded Yemen in order to prop up the Yemeni president, who was overthrown by the Houthi movement in 2014-15. 

Since 2015, it is estimated that over 300,000 people have been killed, the majority of them civilians, and over 4 million people have fled the country as a result. 2 million children go without schooling, and only 50% of the country’s hospitals remain functional, the rest obliterated. According to Oxfam International, over 19 million people are predicted to suffer from acute food loss by the end of 2022.

One might ask, “What does this have to do with the United States? Saudi Arabia is all the way over there!” The answer is simple. The Biden administration, while recently beginning to halt in February, has sold Saudi Arabia over $1 billion dollars in arms since taking office, after promising in his campaign he would completely halt sales to Saudi Arabia, claiming that “they have enough guns.”

U.S. missiles used by the Saudi’s strike water treatment plants and fuel distilleries, driving up the price of oil in Yemen even higher and inhibit basic needs like food and water from reaching civilians, drawing out the crisis even further.

It is clear that the U.S. is complicit in meddling in the affairs of yet another country in the Middle East in their pursuit of resources and global influences. These stories, while incredibly important, rarely make headlines as Saudi Arabia is a U.S. ally. While the world is distracted by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, a U.S. enemy attacking a U.S. ally, stories like these purposefully slip through the cracks.