{"id":122685,"date":"2021-04-15T12:28:03","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T12:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=186670"},"modified":"2021-04-15T12:28:03","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T12:28:03","slug":"cut-the-defense-budget-rep-khanna-on-bloated-pentagon-spending-ending-war-in-yemen-uae-arms-deal-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/04\/15\/cut-the-defense-budget-rep-khanna-on-bloated-pentagon-spending-ending-war-in-yemen-uae-arms-deal-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Cut the Defense Budget: Rep. Khanna on Bloated Pentagon Spending, Ending War in Yemen, UAE Arms Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.<\/p>\n
AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> You tweeted Tuesday Congress should reject President Biden\u2019s Pentagon spending hike, at the same time he\u2019s talking about pulling out of Afghanistan. You wrote, \u201cInstead of continuing to increase the bloated Pentagon budgets or defense contractors, we should invest in keeping us safe from pandemics and climate change. We need a 21st century national security strategy.\u201d And you signed, along with 50 House Democrats, a letter<\/a> to Biden from the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus that read in part, \u201cHundreds of billions of dollars now directed to the military would have greater return if invested in diplomacy, humanitarian aid, global public health, sustainability initiatives, and basic research.\u201d So, talk about Biden both announcing he will end this forever war but increasing the Pentagon, and what you think needs to happen.<\/p>\n REP<\/span>. RO KHANNA<\/span>:<\/strong> Amy, the Pentagon increases make no sense. President Biden\u2019s own secretary of treasury describes the federal budget as military spending plus pensions. The military budget is 50% of discretionary spending. We have not seen the breakdown yet, but if you\u2019re ending the forever war in Afghanistan \u2014 as the president pointed out, that should save about $50 billion a year \u2014 then why are we increasing, at the same time, the defense budget?<\/p>\n We need to look at where the numbers are being allocated, and have a strategic reduction and allocate that instead in the threats that the United States faces \u2014 potential pandemics, climate change, cybersecurity. So, I am going to continue to advocate on the Armed Services for a smart defense budget that meets the 21st century needs. One final point, we ought to be returning them to where Obama-Biden had it, which was significantly less, instead of increasing it from where Trump had it.<\/p>\n NERMEEN<\/span> SHAIKH<\/span>:<\/strong> And, Congressmember Khanna, I\u2019d like to turn to another issue now which you\u2019ve also been very active on, and that is the war in Yemen. You joined almost 80 other Democrats urging President Biden to demand an end to the Saudi-led blockade of Yemen, telling The Nation<\/em> magazine, quote, \u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen is that the blockade is really what\u2019s starving Yemeni children and Yemeni civilians. Right now, there is a moral outrage in Congress about what\u2019s going on.\u201d Has President Biden or anyone in his administration responded to what you\u2019ve said? And could you explain also Biden\u2019s promise to end all American support for offensive operations in the war in Yemen, including relevant arms sales? There have been some questions raised about what support, precisely, apart from that, that President Biden has pledged to end.<\/p>\n REP<\/span>. RO KHANNA<\/span>:<\/strong> Well, Nermeen, there\u2019s no doubt in my mind the administration needs to be doing more to stop the Saudi blockade of Yemen. There is food and medicine getting in, but that\u2019s not the point. The fuel is not getting in. Very little fuel is getting in. That is leading to a great difficulty in getting the food transported to people who need them. It\u2019s leading to blackouts at hospitals. And the administration says, \u201cWell, the Houthis are to blame, as well.\u201d Sure, the Houthis are to blame, as well. No one is saying that the Houthis are angelic actors. But David Beasley at the World Food Programme, the United Nations have said that the biggest source right now of the famine is the blockade of the fuel getting in.<\/p>\n I spoke to the Saudi ambassador, and she said, \u201cWell, we\u2019re not engaged in a blockade. We\u2019re just enforcing the U.N. resolution.\u201d Well, enforcing the U.N. resolution to prevent fuel getting in is a de facto<\/em> blockade. So the Saudis shouldn\u2019t be enforcing any resolution. If anything, it should be a third party. The National Security Council now is engaged on this. We are going to be receiving briefings from Lenderking and others. And they know how serious the House and the Senate are about taking further actions if that blockade is not lifted.<\/p>\n NERMEEN<\/span> SHAIKH<\/span>:<\/strong> Congressmember Khanna, even as President Biden has said that he will stop U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia over what\u2019s happening in Yemen, the administration is moving ahead with more than $23 billion in weapons sales to the UAE<\/span>, to the United Arab Emirates. Your response to that, given the UAE\u2019s previous involvement in the war in Yemen, in supporting Saudi Arabia?<\/p>\n REP<\/span>. RO KHANNA<\/span>:<\/strong> I believe it\u2019s a mistake. I don\u2019t know, and there\u2019s no evidence to suggest, that they\u2019re continuing to be involvement militarily in the war or, for that matter, the blockade. But there are reports \u2014 and again, these are reports \u2014 that there is funding from the UAE<\/span>, from the Saudis, and even from Iran, still making its way into Yemen. And one of the issues that Martin Griffiths and others have said is that we have to stop any of the external funding into the Yemen civil war, or the war will never end, if the groups fighting there are continuing to get support from outside. And so, until the UAE<\/span> stops all of that funding and we have verification of that, until their commitment to some form of reparations to Yemen for redevelopment, I don\u2019t believe we should be affirmatively selling them more weapons.<\/p>\n AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> Speaking of reparations, Tulsa is the site of one of the deadliest massacres in iU.S. history. Nearly a century ago, in 1921, a white mob attacked a Black neighborhood in Tulsa, killing as many as 300 African Americans. Over two days, white mobs set fires to homes, businesses, churches in Greenwood, a thriving African American business district known as \u201cBlack Wall Street.\u201d<\/p>\n