Two senators supporting a $1.15 billion sale of U.S.-made tanks and other military equipment to Saudi Arabia, relied on a fantasy map constructed by their own imaginations or perhaps after a trip to an opium den to bolster their argument that their Saudi friends needed more help in bombing the Houthis in Yemen.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., claimed that the Strait of Hormuz would be threatened by the Houthi rebels of Yemen had Saudia Arabia not launched and continued their airstrikes against them since March of last year.
Their fantasy map, however, did not come close to the actual map of the area. The Strait of Hormuz separates Iran and an Omani peninsula hundreds of miles north of Yemen. Their surprising lack of knowledge of an area of the world they are considered relative experts in makes Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson’s Aleppo gaffe look like nothing more than an innocent mental lapse.
At least Johnson was not voting on any major legislation or aid packages in the area when he honestly answered that he was unfamiliar with Aleppo. Senators McCain and Corker, however, were leading advocates of the $1.15 billion Saudi Arabia sale and yet were completely ignorant on something as fundamental as how far away Yemen is from the Strait of Hormuz.
One would think that one of them would have at least taken a look at a map of the area before making their nonsensical argument. But maybe such facts of geography are not important to them. All that matters in their minds is that Iran supports the Houthis and anything Iran supports we must destroy.
Their embarassing demonstration of ignorance on a subject they are responsible for forming foreign policy on would be rather funny if not for the fact that such ignorance is resulting in the deaths thousands of civilians. With casualties now topping 8,100 and nearly 2,800 killed, as the Saudi-led coalition continues their airstrikes, the ignorance of the two senators comes at a high price.
