re: More good news for Biden: 400,000 children to starve to death in Yemen

and we care why?

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In 2018, the federal poverty level was $25,750 for a family of four. Of course, this number is a minimum. Families making twice that much are still considered low-income by most experts, and many struggle to make ends meet.

How many Americans live in poverty? Over 38 million, or 12% of all Americans, according to 2018 data from the U.S. Census Bureau. 15 million of those were children.

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Fix that first.

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To be fair to Biden, this certainly could have occurred under Trump and I would have blasted him for it as well.

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Why?

Let them kill each other, they've been doing it since the dawn of time. Sell the weapons and keep Americans out of it. Let them have their Sunni/Shieh/Kurd hate fest.

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Fix that first.

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Yes, I would rather focus on Americans here than the adventures of American imperialists abroad. That I don't want Americans involved in these utterly fruitless exercises fits nicely with the focus on Americans.

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Now dudes throwing Kushner in there

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But Kushner played a massive role in Trump's Mideast FP. He had an extremely close relationship with MBS, and his failed Israel/Palestine Peace Plan came about after he read "25 books" on the region.

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Lets just let the Iranians And their proxies do whatever the frick they want.

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Yep not our problem.

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They're good guys.Right??

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Nope their pricks just like the Saudis, but we should have no part in 1000 year old religious wars. Let them fight and stay the hell out of it.

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They're good guys

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They certainly aren't good, but everything from 2015 onwards is just a reaction to the fact that Iran, Russia and Syria effectively won the SCW. Iran was able to expand its reach through its historical sphere of influence, Assad remained in power, and Russia was able to project power into the Mediterranean. There was no stomach for a direct fight with the Iranians, Syrians or Russians in 2012-15, so much of the early part of the SCW was funded through proxies, with money from Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, the KSA, the UAE, the US, the French, and the British. The JCPOA was an acknowledgement of that Iranian victory, and nothing has worked in terms of weakening Iran's sphere of influence, because the rhetoric toward the Shia in the wider Muslim world almost forces them to seek out Iranian protection.

De-escalating that rhetoric would be part of the process to weaken Iran's hold, but the KSA and the Gulf remains ever antagonistic to minorities, which strengthens the resolve of those proxies to continue to work with the Iranians. Even promises of new soccer stadiums and massive investment projects, as MBS promised Muqtada al-Sadr in 2018, could do little to break the Iranian hold on the region.

The people in the region who cannot stand the situation are the KSA and Israel, who feel threatened by Iran's ability to raise proxies far from Iran itself, and who insist on the maximum pressure campaign, to little effect. The better way, in my view, to deal with Iran would be normalization and trade. Though the JCPOA wasn't a great agreement, it reflected the massive Iranian gains made during the course of the SCW. Their position since then has only become more entrenched. The shrewd move would be to build on that agreement, add agreements on missile and drone technology, and come to a balance of power in the region, where economic interests dictate the "price" war would take.

Continually isolating Iran has not worked, and will continue not to work. If the KSA could defeat the Houthi's on their own, they would have, but the involvement of the KSA was the definition of a quagmire. The KSA is in a delicate position, as the hold the family has on the kingdom is always dictated by providing for the subjects with a relatively easy life. There is no stomach nor ability in the KSA armed forces to take on insurgencies, especially insurgencies informed by Soleimani's 'death by a thousand cuts' doctrine.

There aren't any easy choices, and what we've seen play out is geopolitical repositioning to reflect the new realities of the SCW. Regime change through invasion may lead to some results, but I'm skeptical that will work, as an invasion of the Iranian homeland has quagmire written all over it.

What are the chances that Yemen’s having a famine because they use an inordinate amount of their water to grow qat, a drug used by most of the population there?