No more excuses – the Saudi-led war in Yemen must end now

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Finally, the Senate is flexing its atrophied muscles by voting to advance a resolution to end military support for the Saudi-led US-backed war in Yemen. This marks the first time in US history that the Senate has resurrected the War Powers Resolution Act (1973), to end the monstrous illegal war in Yemen. This is also a rebuke of President Trump’s handling of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Secretary of state Mike Pompeo and defence secretary Jim Mattis soiled their reputations by urging the senators to vote against the resolution.

Senator Sanders countered Pompeo and Mattis by demanding that the humanitarian crisis in Yemen be addressed, and urged the US to end the “despotic dictatorship in Saudi Arabia, that we will no longer be part of their destructive military adventurism”.

The Saudi-led war in Yemen has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with 14 million of Yemen’s 28 million people on the brink of famine and facing a huge cholera epidemic. A recent report by Save the Children estimated 85,000 children under the age of five have died from acute malnutrition brought on by this genocidal war. Since Mohammed bin Salman assumed power he has been flashing his oil money to attract western allies grovelling for his attention and wealth.

The US and our many European allies have supplied Saudi Arabia with weapons of war and are therefore complicit in their war crimes. This MUST stop.

Jagjit Singh
Los Altos, California

Donald Trump – leader of the western world

Who ever bestowed that accolade on Trump the Chump must be either in the employ of Donald Trump or trying to be humorous.

Surely no one in their right mind actually believes that he could possibly lead anything other than a conga line. It would be an insult to the human race if he were to represent any other country than America.

If only Trump could take Boris Johnson as his vice president and Jacob Rees-Mogg as special adviser – it would relieve Britain of any further political embarrassment. What a team that would make. Ah well, can’t have everything I suppose.

Keith Poole
Basingstoke

Remembering George HW Bush, again

I felt myself agreeing entirely with the letter from Sarah Pegg (Remembering George HW Bush). Since the former president died, I have heard and read numerous plaudits, some very accurate, others wide of the mark; it seems almost self-evident that due to the present incumbent of the White House, all words and deeds from past presidents will now be looked at much more favourably than they truly deserve.

To borrow – and slightly change – a quote from another famous statesman: “We never had it so good!”

We must surely learn from these current dark days.

Robert Boston
Kingshill

Kindness shouldn’t just be reserved for the christmas season

For many, especially the young, the world of Christmas is an exciting time. It is generally a time of family visits, some presents and thoughts about how the world can be better – but not for all.

Sadly there are a number of people who will miss the joy the annual season gives, through poverty, isolation, health issues – both physical and mental – and we should keep them in our thoughts and deeds.

There are also always times of concern, given the enthusiasm of so many to solve their difficulties through violence and conflict, but we all live in the hope that they will reflect on the Christmas season and what it means to so many people.

An example of the problems can be shown through the theft of a wheelchair while a person was using a disabled toilet. A young man left the person stranded for several hours as a result of theft, or a stupid prank, without any regard for the person.

The thief even wore a Santa hat!

Perhaps the message we should take from the special time of Christmas is that it shouldn’t be a special time – we should treat people with kindness throughout the whole year.

Dennis Fitzgerald
Melbourne, Australia

Brexit: Into the valley of death

It was clear long before the referendum to anyone remotely interested in economics that Brexit would leave our economy smaller and our people poorer than if we had remained in the European Union.

Anyone who didn’t realise this and now claims they were lied to by Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson et al is just making themselves look ridiculous.

Those who should expect schadenfreude rather than sympathy are the fishermen, car workers, provincials and xenophobes who voted for this monumental act of national self-harm.

Remainers have used the time since then to settle their affairs in a manner which will allow them to survive. I suggest Leavers now do likewise.

Rev Dr John Cameron
St Andrews

Theresa May is trying and willing to sacrifice the greater good of the country for the sake of her ego/to save face. She’d rather deliver a bad deal and say “it’s what the people wanted”, than admit defeat and have to resign. She literally can’t deliver a good Brexit deal because Brexit isn’t a good idea – forecasting on multiple levels supports this notion. You wouldn’t need to tour the country to persuade people to support it if it was a deal that was going to inherently benefit them.

Name supplied
Oldham