This is unexpected but very welcome news.
The Associated Press first reported this morning that the Biden administration is rolling back material support for Saudi Arabia's ongoing war in Yemen that has contributed to countless civilian deaths through collateral damage and starvation.
President Joe Biden will announce an end Thursday to U.S. support for a grinding five-year Saudi-led military offensive in Yemen that has deepened humanitarian suffering in the Arabian peninsula’s poorest country, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. [...]
Saudi Arabia began the offensive in 2015 to counter a Yemeni Houthi faction that had seized territory in Yemen and was launching cross-border missiles at Saudi Arabia.
A Saudi-led air campaign since then has killed numerous civilians, and survivors display fragments showing the bombs to be American-made. The conflict has deepened hunger and poverty in Yemen, and international rights experts say both the Gulf countries and Houthis have committed severe rights abuses.
This announcement made me recall that Trump's term in office began with a failed military raid carried out by American special forces inside Yemen that resulted in American causalities and no actionable intelligence. The raid was carried out on a whim while Michael Flynn was still Trump's national security adviser and then it was billed as a success even though it evidently devolved into a shitshow.
Their own failure during that raid prompted the Trump regime to rule out further involvement by American forces and increase material support for the Saudis.
To say the least, our relationship with the Saudis is one that I think brings us shame and that was true even before the Trump family twisted it into something even darker; something more suspicious and transactional. The Saudis tortured and murdered a Washington Post columnist and suffered virtually no consequences for it because Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner is BFFs with the Saudi prince who ordered the murder.
I don't know if today's announcement is just the beginning of a wider rollback of support for the Saudis, but I hope it is. We have plenty of our own sins, but the Saudis are among the worst actors in the world.