US striking Houthi positions in Yemen. Image Source: U.S. Air Force – Public Domain

On March 24, the country learned that a group of senior Trump administration officials (including the Vice President, Secretary of Defense, and the Director of National Intelligence, among others) accidentally sent classified details of military strikes against Yemen to Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic. Since Goldberg broke the story, there has been a steady stream of commentary about “Signalgate,” most adding little but sound and fury. The public discourse about Signalgate reveals something important about American politics—far more important than the incompetence at the center of the scandal. What has rarely been mentioned during the national conversation is the elephant in the room: the United States’ attacks on Yemen violate international law and contribute to one of the world’s most significant humanitarian crises.

The nightmare of the Washington ruling class is that we might finally open our eyes to the real, documented crimes going on in a country most Americans can’t find on a map. It would be difficult to overstate the degree of brutality and suffering that the United States has foisted upon the people of Yemen. And it is impossible to separate the United States’ strategic approach to Yemen from its support of the genocidal onslaught in Palestine. In the first year of the brutally one-sided terror campaign in the Gaza Strip, the U.S. gave billions in arms and other support to Israel, no questions asked. According to Brown University’s Costs of War project:

U.S. spending on Israel’s military operations and related U.S operations in the region total at least $22.76 billion and counting. This estimate is conservative; while it includes approved security assistance funding since October 7, 2023, supplemental funding for regional operations, and an estimated........

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