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SALT LAKE CITY — Sen. Mike Lee made a fervent plea Wednesday for the Senate to vote on ending U.S. involvement in Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen that he said has claimed the lives of thousands of innocent people.
The Utah Republican said in a Senate floor speech that continuing to support the Saudis, especially in light of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, is "bad diplomacy."
"U.S intervention in Yemen is unauthorized, unconstitutional and immoral, and we must not, we cannot delay voting to end our involvement and our support of Saudi Arabia any further," Lee said.
"If we do, we have only ourselves to blame for our country's lost credibility on the world stage and more importantly our own consciences will bear the blame for the thousand of lives that will surely continue to be lost."
The Senate voted 63-37 to consider a resolution to remove U.S. support of Saudi Arabia-led forces in Yemen, defying a White House memo strongly opposing the measure. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, voted against the bill.
Lee, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., introduced the resolution in February. The U.S. has supported Saudi Arabia in the war against the Houthis, an Islamic sect that seized the Yemeni capital of Sanaa and other parts of the country more than three years ago.
The Senate tabled the resolution in March to allow the Senate Foreign Relations Committee time to study the issue. The committee introduced a bipartisan bill, but has has not taken further action.
"So today, eight months later, the bloodshed continues still abetted by the United States, even amidst further revelations of Saudi depravity," Lee said.
"It is long past overdue that Congress remove U.S. forces from Yemen as recent circumstances only confirm," he said, citing U.S. intelligence reports that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist.
The Trump administration contends the premise of the resolution is flawed because the U.S. military is not engaged in hostilities between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi forces. The U.S. has provided limited support, including intelligence sharing, logistics and, until recently, aerial refueling, according to the White House.
U.S. intervention in Yemen is unauthorized, unconstitutional and immoral, and we must not, we cannot delay voting to end our involvement and our support of Saudi Arabia any further.
–Sen. Mike Lee
Lee said the U.S. is helping Saudi Arabia bomb its adversaries.
"If that doesn’t constitute hostilities, I don’t know what does," he said, becoming animated during his floor speech.
To date, 10,000 civilians have been killed and 40,000 wounded, Lee said, adding that a bomb recently dropped on a school bus killed 40 boys. The war has created refugees, orphans and widows and displaced countless families, he said. Yemen, he said, is in crisis, with millions of people lacking access to food and clean water and facing rampant disease.
"The numbers and inhumanity are staggering," Lee said.
The White House argues that resolution would hurt U.S. efforts to prevent the spread of al-Qaida and ISIS.
Lee said while the Houthis are no friends of the United States, they don't pose a threat to national security.
"In fact, the longer that we fight against them, the more reason we give them to hate America and embrace the opportunists who are our true enemy in the region, Iran," he said.
