Current Events > Bomb that killed 40 children in Yemen was supplied by US

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https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/17/middleeast/us-saudi-yemen-bus-strike-intl/index.html

The bomb used by the Saudi-led coalition in a devastating attack on a school bus in Yemen was sold as part of a US State Department-sanctioned arms deal with Saudi Arabia, munitions experts told CNN.

Working with local Yemeni journalists and munitions experts, CNN has established that the weapon that left dozens of children dead on August 9 was a 500-pound (227 kilogram) laser-guided MK 82 bomb made by Lockheed Martin, one of the top US defense contractors.

The bomb is very similar to the one that wreaked devastation in an attack on a funeral hall in Yemen in October 2016 in which 155 people were killed and hundreds more wounded. The Saudi coalition blamed "incorrect information" for that strike, admitted it was a mistake and took responsibility.

In March of that year, a strike on a Yemeni market -- this time reportedly by a US-supplied precision-guided MK 84 bomb -- killed 97 people.

In the aftermath of the funeral hall attack, former US President Barack Obama banned the sale of precision-guided military technology to Saudi Arabia over "human rights concerns."

The ban was overturned by the Trump administration's then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in March 2017.

As the US-backed Saudi-led coalition scrambles to investigate the strike on the school bus, questions are growing from observers and rights groups about whether the US bears any moral culpability. The US says it does not make targeting decisions for the coalition, which is fighting a Houthi rebel insurgency in Yemen. But it does support its operations through billions of dollars in arms sales, the refueling of Saudi combat aircraft and some sharing of intelligence.

"I will tell you that we do help them plan what we call, kind of targeting," said US Secretary of Defense James Mattis. "We do not do dynamic targeting for them."

The latest strike has left the community in Yemen's northern Saada governorate reeling.

Zeid Al Homran visits the graveyard where his two little boys are buried every day. On this occasion, he brought their five-year-old brother along. He is all Al Homran has left.

"I was screaming in anger and all around me women were throwing themselves on the ground," he told CNN. "People were screaming out the names of their children. I tried to tell the women it couldn't be true but then a man ran through the crowd shouting that a plane had struck the children's bus."

The bomb's impact as it landed on the bus full of excited schoolchildren on a day trip was devastating.
Of the 51 people who died in the airstrike, 40 were children, Houthi Health Minister Taha al-Mutawakil said last week. He added that of the 79 people wounded, 56 were children.

Eyewitnesses told CNN it was a direct hit in the middle of a busy market.

"I saw the bomb hit the bus," one witness said. "It blew it into those shops and threw the bodies clear to the other side of those buildings. We found bodies scattered everywhere, there was a severed head inside the bomb crater. When we found that, that was when I started running. I was so afraid."

Some of the bodies were so mutilated that identification became impossible. Left behind were scraps of schoolbooks, warped metal and a single backpack.

Images of shrapnel filmed in the immediate aftermath of the attack were sent to CNN by a contact in Saada. Subsequently, a cameraman working for CNN filmed footage of the shrapnel after the cleanup operation had begun.

Munitions experts confirmed that the numbers on it identified Lockheed Martin as its maker and that this particular MK 82 was a Paveway, a laser-guided bomb.

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We sell bombs to lots of people. So what?

If they didn't buy our bombs, they would get them from somewhere else.

This would be like trying to condemn the gun store that sold guns to the <insert shooter here> shooting. The actions of the buyer have nothing to do with the source.
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What? How dare th....

Saudi

Oh.

Oh. I didn't say anything.

Carry on.
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If we're reaching for the stars, I mean straws, then the trade-off would be that Saudi Arabia is supplying fuel to the vehicles of drunk drivers who kill thousands of American adults and children a year.
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Vicious_Dios posted...

If we're reaching for the stars, I mean straws, then the trade-off would be that Saudi Arabia is supplying fuel to the vehicles of drunk drivers who kill thousands of American adults and children a year.

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SauI_Goodman posted...

This would be like trying to condemn the gun store that sold guns to the <insert shooter here> shooting. The actions of the buyer have nothing to do with the source.

Nah, that's like a gun store selling guns to a group of guys wearing Hells Angels jackets.
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More blood on Trump's hand but slurpers will deny it
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Vicious_Dios posted...

If we're reaching for the stars, I mean straws, then the trade-off would be that Saudi Arabia is supplying fuel to the vehicles of drunk drivers who kill thousands of American adults and children a year.

That's a really terrible analogy dude
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SauI_Goodman posted...

This would be like trying to condemn the gun store that sold guns to the <insert shooter here> shooting. The actions of the buyer have nothing to do with the source.

maybe, if the Trump administration hadn't just lifted the ban on selling bombs to Saudi Arabia
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Also, the idea that we're merely dealers with no further responsibility withers under further scrutiny: we refuel the planes that carry out these missions.
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SauI_Goodman posted...

This would be like trying to condemn the gun store that sold guns to the <insert shooter here> shooting. The actions of the buyer have nothing to do with the source.

More like I sold a gun to a known sociopath and feel no remorse when sociopath shoots up a school

Foh
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I see no reason to be particularly outraged by this, when no one in this country gives a damn about the fact that we're still dropping bombs in Afghanistan 17 years later, through three presidential administrations, and hardly anyone make a squeak about it.

KhanJohnny posted...

I see no reason to be particularly outraged by this, when no one in this country gives a damn about the fact that we're still dropping bombs in Afghanistan 17 years later, through three presidential administrations, and hardly anyone make a squeak about it.

Others' apathy is no excuse for you.
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Hexenherz posted...

That's a really terrible analogy dude

Uh huh?

Was there something else that you wished to get off your chest, guy?
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KhanJohnny posted...

We sell bombs to lots of people. So what?

If they didn't buy our bombs, they would get them from somewhere else.

Just because they could theoretically get them from multiple sources doesn't mean it needs to be you or reduces your shittiness for doing it. What a terrible fucking post.
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The Saudis provided the pilot.

The US provided the plane, the bombs, the maintenance, the training, the in air refueling missions and intel on the targets.

Damn those Saudis.
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Trumps America

Antifar posted...

KhanJohnny posted...

I see no reason to be particularly outraged by this, when no one in this country gives a damn about the fact that we're still dropping bombs in Afghanistan 17 years later, through three presidential administrations, and hardly anyone make a squeak about it.

Others' apathy is no excuse for you.

I disagree.

This country doesn't care about foreign policy because it has minimal effect on the population that doesn't volunteer to fight. Wont ever change.

Just another moral compromise from the US.
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no one kills people quite as efficiently as the US
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Vicious_Dios posted...

Hexenherz posted...

That's a really terrible analogy dude

Uh huh?

Was there something else that you wished to get off your chest, guy?

Nope.
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Then we have the nerve to wonder why these people resort to terrorism against western targets. we are literally slaughtering their children.
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Hexenherz posted...

Vicious_Dios posted...

Hexenherz posted...

That's a really terrible analogy dude

Uh huh?

Was there something else that you wished to get off your chest, guy?

Nope.

Wonderful.
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Yup.
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The military industrial complex that has always been super shady and fucked up is involved in something super shady and fucked up? No, that can't be right
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This topic, TC's attempt to get Canada more market shares in weapon and arms sales to the Saudi's.

Nice try, but Canada should be content that they even got 1 billion in their dealings. Stop trying to get more.

FrisbeeDude posted...

Then we have the nerve to wonder why these people resort to terrorism against western targets. we are literally slaughtering their children.

That's a bingo
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slimfizzle2 posted...

FrisbeeDude posted...

Then we have the nerve to wonder why these people resort to terrorism against western targets. we are literally slaughtering their children.

That's a bingo

Yemini-rebels were never our friend. Bringing back the proper, internationally recognized government to power, as they had requested, will mean that terror cells are better contained.

Not to mention that Iran started this by funding and supplying the rebels in the first place.

Truck that mowed down 14 people supplied by GMC
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Sephiroth1288 posted...

Truck that mowed down 14 people supplied by GMC

I thought it was a RAM?
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Trigg3rH4ppy posted...

Sephiroth1288 posted...

Truck that mowed down 14 people supplied by GMC

I thought it was a RAM?

isn't Dodge owned by GMC? Honestly didn't care enough to check
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So this is a direct result of Trump administration policy
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how do they even know? did the Saudi's document it?
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At a recent dsa general meeting for my chapter a woman from yemen came to talk about the situation, it was horrifying.
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catboy0_0 posted...

how do they even know? did the Saudi's document it?

This is explained by the article:

Images of shrapnel filmed in the immediate aftermath of the attack were sent to CNN by a contact in Saada. Subsequently, a cameraman working for CNN filmed footage of the shrapnel after the cleanup operation had begun.

Munitions experts confirmed that the numbers on it identified Lockheed Martin as its maker and that this particular MK 82 was a Paveway, a laser-guided bomb.

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a-c-a-b posted...

The Saudis provided the pilot.

The US provided the plane, the bombs, the maintenance, the training, the in air refueling missions and intel on the targets.

Damn those Saudis.

This needs to be repeated. It's also worth saying that this war has been going on since 2015. I'm shocked that CNN is even bothering on reporting this now.
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antfair posted...

The ban was overturned by the Trump administration's then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in March 2017.

The best people
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Sephiroth1288 posted...

Truck that mowed down 14 people supplied by GMC

Yeah, training a militia and giving them bombs is exactly like someone buying a car. There are so many non-deadly ways to use an army and laser-guided heavy artillery. Maybe they were just collectors and hobbyists.

I imagine people would actually be pissed at a car manufacturer if they personally sold a truck to a terror cell known for vehicular attacks.
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This is why CNN is joke news. Blame the U.S. for the fact that Saudis killed children. Pat yourselves on the back for being so progressive that you're terrified to actually blame the pieces of garbage who carried out the attack.
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The Admiral posted...

This is why CNN is joke news. Blame the U.S. for the fact that Saudis killed children. Pat yourselves on the back for being so progressive that you're terrified to actually blame the pieces of garbage who carried out the attack.

a-c-a-b posted...

The Saudis provided the pilot.

The US provided the plane, the bombs, the maintenance, the training, the in air refueling missions and intel on the targets.

Damn those Saudis.

Very bad decisions on both sides. Comeback performances aren't supposed to be so underwhelming.
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The Admiral posted...

This is why CNN is joke news. Blame the U.S. for the fact that Saudis killed children. Pat yourselves on the back for being so progressive that you're terrified to actually blame the pieces of garbage who carried out the attack.

You seem to be misunderstanding. This article is blaming both sides. Or is that only OK when Trump does it?

The Admiral posted...

This is why CNN is joke news. Blame the U.S. for the fact that Saudis killed children. Pat yourselves on the back for being so progressive that you're terrified to actually blame the pieces of garbage who carried out the attack.

What a fucking stupid post, no one is absolving KSA at all. Those sacks of shit only have access to that bomb as a direct result of a Trump administration policy change.
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When was the bomb made and given to them?
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KhanJohnny posted...

I see no reason to be particularly outraged by this, when no one in this country gives a damn about the fact that we're still dropping bombs in Afghanistan 17 years later, through three presidential administrations, and hardly anyone make a squeak about it.

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"We overturned a ban on selling bombs to the Saudis, we sell them billions in weapons, and we train a coalition led by that terror-sponsoring state to wage war in the Middle East. But we're totally blame free."
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DarkTransient posted...

KhanJohnny posted...

I see no reason to be particularly outraged by this, when no one in this country gives a damn about the fact that we're still dropping bombs in Afghanistan 17 years later, through three presidential administrations, and hardly anyone make a squeak about it.

Yeah, It's weird how literally no one ever criticized America's military presence in the Middle East or our alliance with the Saudis until Trump became President. I was stuck in a cave since the year 2000, but that's the truth, right?
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hockeybub89 posted...

DarkTransient posted...

KhanJohnny posted...

I see no reason to be particularly outraged by this, when no one in this country gives a damn about the fact that we're still dropping bombs in Afghanistan 17 years later, through three presidential administrations, and hardly anyone make a squeak about it.

Yeah, It's weird how literally no one ever criticized America's military presence in the Middle East or our alliance with the Saudis until Trump became President. I was stuck in a cave since the year 2000, but that's the truth, right?

It's weirder that people are blaming it on the current president when it's been going on for three presidencies, across two parties, with times of both parties having majorities in other levels of government.
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antfair posted...

In the aftermath of the funeral hall attack, former US President Barack Obama banned the sale of precision-guided military technology to Saudi Arabia over "human rights concerns."

The ban was overturned by the Trump administration's then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in March 2017.

This IS rather noteworthy

DarkTransient posted...

hockeybub89 posted...

DarkTransient posted...

KhanJohnny posted...

I see no reason to be particularly outraged by this, when no one in this country gives a damn about the fact that we're still dropping bombs in Afghanistan 17 years later, through three presidential administrations, and hardly anyone make a squeak about it.

Yeah, It's weird how literally no one ever criticized America's military presence in the Middle East or our alliance with the Saudis until Trump became President. I was stuck in a cave since the year 2000, but that's the truth, right?

It's weirder that people are blaming it on the current president when it's been going on for three presidencies, across two parties, with times of both parties having majorities in other levels of government.

Tillerson literally overturned a ban on the sale of laser-guided weaponry to KSA though. And then a US laser guided bomb was used by Saudis to kill people. I still don't get why you're acting like no one ever criticized Bush or Obama for our military's actions. Trump is now President, so now it's happening under his leadership. He has the power to stop it and I heard he was supposed to be different. If Obama passed a law ordering the death of every other puppy, the President 20 years from now can't just blame Obama for why he won't overturn our puppy murder policy. If they hate it so bad, then they can fight to change it, not ramp up the efforts.
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