What happens to bastards who wage war on civilians and kill 25 children in one strike?

What happens to bastards who wage war on civilians and kill 25 children in one strike?

Nothing - if they are our bastards. Then you might not even hear about it.

via Meg L​

Originally shared by Yonatan Zunger

A report out today indicates that American-made weapons were used in an attack on a market in Yemen three weeks ago which killed at least 97 people, including 25 children. Examination of wreckage found at the scene appears to have identified US-made GBU-31 and GBU-48 bombs as the weapons used. Saudi General Ahmad al-Assiri has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Some source attribution notes and clarifications are needed here, because the players involved are complicated. Yemen has been in the midst of a civil war for several years, and al-Qaeda has been attempting to reestablish itself in the anarchy. To combat this, the US has been both directly attacking Yemen (especially via drone attacks launched from the Horn of Africa) and has been encouraging and assisting factions of the Saudi government who are waging a war, ostensibly against the Houthi rebels. In practice, the Saudis have been remarkably cavalier about mass murder, freely targeting civilians. Everyone in this game is well aware of the fact, but the US has decided that this is worth it and so has been increasing military supplies and rather strongly encouraging increased violence.

This attack happened on March 15th, and struck a crowded marketplace in Mastaba. 97 bodies have been identified, and more were damaged beyond recognition. The Saudis claimed they had attacked a "militia gathering," and that the marketplace was known as a place where people bought and sold qat. (A mild narcotic which is popular, and legal, in the area) The most interesting part about that last bit is that it indicates that al-Assiri was aware that a marketplace was being targeted. Locals confirmed that some Houthi fighters did regularly eat and sleep in a restaurant in that marketplace.

The news item linked below goes with this full report from Human Rights Watch (HRW): https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/04/07/yemen-us-bombs-used-deadliest-market-strike . HRW is an organization whose reports I always read with a certain amount of caution, since they have a strong political orientation and I don't have full confidence in the neutrality of their reporting. However, the facts of the attack on the marketplace and the casualties were confirmed in detail by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF): http://www.msf.org/article/yemen-msf-treats-more-40-wounded-following-deadly-airstrike-marketplace . Them, I trust quite thoroughly, not least because of their multi-decade history of not giving a damn about anything except keeping people alive. 

The facts that nobody appears to be disputing are that Saudis attacked a marketplace in Yemen, killing around 100 people, including ten Houthi fighters. While there has been no chance yet to hear responses to the new report, it also appears unlikely that anyone will dispute the use of American weapons in the attack, or that these weapons were provided to the Saudis through overt channels by the US government. It is also undisputed that this is far from the first such attack by Saudis, in which a large number of civilians were killed to achieve a very questionable military objective.

Perhaps most damning about this story is that, if you live in the US or in Europe, this is most likely the first time you've heard about it. The attack was barely covered in the press, despite being a large-scale attack on innocent civilians which happened only weeks ago. 

This is part of a profoundly dangerous pattern: attacks on Western targets are widely reported, but equally large or larger attacks in the Middle East aren't even mentioned. The reason this is so dangerous is that it gives Americans and Europeans almost no context for what is going on: you might think that things like ISIS and al-Qaeda are happening in a vacuum, created out of some inexplicable hostility factory within the Middle East. In the Arab world, this attack was being reported on as much as the attacks on Brussels a week later was in the West, and in the same sort of language: you would hear about American-supported forces blowing up a marketplace.

A lack of context is a dangerous thing. Not hearing the entire story can leave you vulnerable to surprise.

I'm going to be taking a lot more effort in the near future to bring your attention to news stories like these, so that you can get a picture of what the world is seeing when they get their news from other sources.
https://theintercept.com/2016/04/07/u-s-bombs-were-used-in-saudi-led-attack-on-market-in-yemen-rights-group-finds