The U.S. Senate made an admirable if ultimately impotent effort Thursday to reclaim a small measure of America's moral leadership in the world, drawing the line between money and human decency in foreign policy on Saudi Arabia and the civil war in Yemen.

Whether the Senate's votes translate into a meaningful shift in America's transactional approach to international affairs remains to be seen, however. With the lame duck Republican House leadership blocking any vote on Yemen-related resolutions this year, and President Donald Trump adamantly loyal to a murderous Saudi regime that enriches him personally, the United States will, for the time being, continue to aid and abet a war that has killed or injured thousands of children and left millions of them starving and sick.

The nearly four-year-old civil war in Yemen is, of course, about more than a fight between two domestic factions. The rebel Houthis have support from Iran, North Korea and Hezbollah, while a host of other Middle Eastern and African nations, along with the U.S. and France, have joined Saudi Arabia in supporting the government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. The presence of al-Qaida and ISIS further complicate the dynamics.

The war has caused what the United Nations says could be the world's worst famine in 100 years, with 13 million people facing starvation. Estimates are that 22 million people, more than half of them children, are in need of food, health care or other assistance.

Congress had deferred to the president, but the brutal killing of a Saudi-born Washington Post journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, on what U.S. intelligence agencies say was the order of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, appears to have been a tipping point, at least for the Senate. In a bipartisan vote Thursday, it passed both a non-binding resolution to end U.S. participation in hostilities in Yemen and another holding the prince responsible for Mr. Khashoggi's murder. But Mr. Trump — who points to lucrative U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia and makes no effort to hide his appreciation of spending by Saudi elites at his real estate properties — ignores American intelligence and stands staunchly by the Saudi leader.

This is not the kind of leadership Americans expect of their country. Rather than enable a brutal war, the U.S. should have been leading an effort to negotiate or impose a ceasefire and install a peacekeeping force while a settlement is negotiated. It was the UN and other nations, not the U.S., that brought about a limited ceasefire in the port of Hodeidah last week.

It's somewhat encouraging that seven Republican senators joined all 47 Democrats and two independents to support Thursday's war powers resolution, sponsored by Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Mike Lee, R-Utah. But it's unfortunate that House Republicans continue to look the other way, among them Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schylerville, a member of the Armed Services Committee, who has talked of her "partnership with this administration." And it is disappointing that the president's supporters on the religious right, who claim "pro-life" values, refrain from speaking out on Yemen or Saudi Arabia, fretting more about an imaginary war on Christmas than a real one that has claimed so many children, and threatens the lives and futures of millions more.

As we enter what's often called a season of peace, Americans must call on their government to put into practice the values this nation once preached.