President Biden Claims The US Isn’t At War As He Bombs Yemen

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

On Wednesday night, President Biden falsely claimed in an address to the nation that the US was not at war. “I’m the first president in this century to report to the American people that the United States is not at war anywhere in the world,” the president said.

About a half hour before Biden delivered his address, US Central Command announced that it launched new strikes targeting the Houthis in Yemen. Since January, the US has carried out hundreds of strikes in Yemen as part of a new war that has not been authorized by Congress.

US Navy Image

US naval commanders have described the fight against the Houthis in the Red Sea as the largest naval battle the US has been engaged in since World War II. Back in April, US military officials said the munitions used in the Red Sea and other bombings Biden ordered in Iraq and Syria since October 7 had cost the US about $1 billion.

The US has also been involved in combat operations against ISIS remnants in Iraq and Syria. Earlier this month, CENTCOM said it had been involved in 196 partnered operations in both countries in the first half of 2024. US troops deployed in Syria are not welcomed by the government, making it an illegal military occupation.

At the end of 2023 and the beginning of this year, the US was fighting Shia militias based in Iraq that began targeting US bases in response to the US support for the Israeli onslaught in Gaza. In January, three US troops were killed in a drone attack on Tower 22, a secretive base in Jordan near the Syrian border.

The US launched multiple rounds of airstrikes against the Shia militias, which are part of Iraq’s security forces. The bombings enraged the Iraqi government, which asked the US to withdraw, and now the two sides are negotiating the future of the US presence.

The US has also bombed Somalia multiple times this year to support the Mogadishu-based government against al-Shabaab. The US also launched an airstrike that it said targeted ISIS in Somalia back in May.

There is this weird facet of American psychology that we don’t see airstrikes or special ops raids as being “war.” https://t.co/QMU9rJzQiz

— Jack Murphy (@JackMurphyRGR) July 25, 2024

Besides the direct combat, the US is also providing vast amounts of military aid and intelligence support for Ukraine’s war with Russia and Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza. President Biden has brought the US and Russia closer to a direct war than at any time in history and has continued to enable a mass slaughter of Palestinians.