Is Congress about to end U.S. support to Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the three-year-old Yemen Civil War? Maybe.

The Senate voted 63-37 on Wednesday afternoon to advance a resolution—introduced in February by Independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and cosponsored by Democrat Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Republican Mike Lee of Utah—that would “direct the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Republic of Yemen that have not been authorized by Congress.” The resolution would exempt those forces “engaged in operations directed at al Qaeda or associated forces.”

Sending the White House a message

The administration has been working to prevent the measure’s passage since March, when it failed on a procedural motion by a vote of 55-44. But senators’ displeasure with the administration’s response to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, including (or perhaps especially) the failure of CIA Director Gina Haspel to appear alongside Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense James Mattis at a Senate briefing Wednesday morning on the Khashoggi affair, has breathed new life into the idea.

Mattis and Pompeo stuck around on the Hill after their briefing to lobby for the administration. In the end, they lost the battle, although the war is far from over.

The vote was not on final passage of the resolution, but to bring it out of the Foreign Relations Committee and onto the Senate floor, where Senators can debate it openly. Lame-duck Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the outgoing chairman of the committee, is among those senators who oppose the resolution itself, but who voted to bring it to the floor for discussion. South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham also voted to move the bill forward. He told reporters he did so to facilitate a discussion on the Khashoggi matter.

“This is BS,” the typically blunt Graham said. “I want the CIA to come brief me. This whole process is BS—that you send the State Department, secretary of defense over to talk about the intel” regarding the murder and whether or not Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was involved. Graham’s displeasure over the administration’s response, however, will not necessarily translate into a vote to cut-off U.S. involvement in Yemen.

Nor should it.

The Yemen War is important

I have long argued that there is too much at stake in Yemen for the U.S. to keep it at arm’s length. Right now, the Saudis are acting as our proxies, fighting against Iran’s proxies, the Houthi government in Sanaa. There is ample evidence that Iran is supplying the Houthi government with sophisticated arms, including the missiles that periodically target Saudi Arabia. We need the kingdom to stop the expansion of Iran’s influence in the region. But the Saudis have been… shall we say, less than skilled at avoiding civilian casualties.

Those casualties are often unavoidable, such as when belligerents use civilians as “human shields,” hoping the presence of noncombatants will allow them to operate without retaliation. And retaking a populated area like the port of Hodeidah will inevitably lead to inadvertent civilian deaths. But the Saudis seem to have been less than rigorous in their targeting practices.

The U.S. has a vested interest not only in pushing back against Iranian expansion, but in ensuring the Saudis get it right. The more assistance we provide in target selection, the better. Human rights activists have long decried the Saudis’ lack of targeting ability. But their reaction to that behavior has been to call for the U.S. to walk away. If they really cared for the welfare of Yemenis, they would be begging the U.S. military to be more involved.

Our own Air Force has admittedly made mistakes in the course of our own operations over the last 17 years; war is a human endeavor and humans are imperfect creatures. I’d still trust the USAF with the targeting decisions more than Saudi officers. The news reports are filled with examples of the differences between how the U.S. and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia approach basic human rights.

As with so many international issues at the moment, the Saudis need us and we need them. Now is not the time to end our support for their efforts in Yemen.

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Tom McCuin is a strategic communication consultant and retired Army Reserve Civil Affairs and Public Affairs officer whose career includes serving with the Malaysian Battle Group in Bosnia, two tours in Afghanistan, and three years in the Office of the Chief of Public Affairs in the Pentagon. When he’s not devouring political news, he enjoys sailboat racing and umpiring Little League games (except the ones his son plays in) in Alexandria, Va. Follow him on Twitter at @tommccuin