Ilhan Omar Must Resign

When Ilhan Omar said that on 9/11, ‘some people did something,’ I blew it off. She was speaking to the Center for American Islamic Relations (CAIR), about the backlash American Muslims got following 9/11, and while all of America was rightfully outraged after 9/11, some people wanted to treat all Muslims as being guilty, and Ilhan Omar was right to point that out. Omar picked her words poorly, but she was right to point out that Muslims should not have been treated as if they were all guilty.

Personally, I’m very suspicious of CAIR. CAIR was setup by the Muslim Brotherhood, and was named by the FBI as a co-conspirator in a plot to bring rampant terrorism to the United States. But be that as it may, in that particular speech, Ilhan Omar had a point. Omar spoke poorly, but I gave her a pass.

I gave Ilhan Omar another pass when she described a terrorism professor she’d had, at North Dakota State University, as being a fan of terrorist organizations. According to Ilhan Omar, this professor would puff his chest in pride when using phrases like, ‘Al Qaeda’. If her professor actually acted the way Ilhan Omar describes, then he is a disgusting human being, and an anti-American bigot, but Ilhan Omar was describing someone other than herself, and was not claiming to share that professor’s views. Even though Ilhan Omar giggled, as if she thought her professor’s views were funny, I gave her a pass.

Ilhan Omar, however, is an anti-Semitic bigot, and I cannot give her a pass for that, and nor can I give Ilhan Omar a pass for suggesting that the Americans who were shot down in the Battle of Mogadishu, as well as the Americans who were ambushed trying to rescue them, were guilty of killing thousands of Somalis.

I was in the Marine Corps in 1992, when US Marines stormed the beaches of Mogadishu, spearheading a multi-national humanitarian mission to restore order to a failed state, run by warlords. I was in the Marine Corps when dead American servicemembers were dragged, naked, though the streets of Mogadishu. I remember it well.

Ilhan Omar might also remember those events. She was born in Mogadishu. Her family had to flee Somalia, just a few years before US Marines went in to restore order.

I was not in Somalia, but I had friends who were. I was very proud of my friends, and of their mission. The people of Somalia were suffering in ways unimaginable to those of us fortunate enough to have grown up in first-world countries, and my brothers in arms were landing on the beaches of Mogadishu to bring humanitarian aid, and to give Somalia a chance to rebuild itself as a legitimate nation.

The Battle of Mogadishu involved a large contingent of special forces (primarily Army Rangers and Navy Seals) traveling into the center of Mogadishu to capture the leaders of the Habr Gidr clan, which was run by Mohamed Farrah Aidid. Aidid was a warlord – he was one of the reasons Somalia was a failed state. Our forces were entering the center of Mogadishu to take down his power base, and if possible, to capture Aidid himself.

The assault force consisted of 19 helicopters, and a 12 vehicle convoy. Aidid’s forces were able to shoot down two helicopters, and the survivors came under heavy fire.

The next day, a combined Malaysian, Pakistani, and American task force was sent in to rescue the survivors of the helicopters that had been shot down. This task force was able to reach one crash site, and rescue the survivors, but the second crash site had been over-run during the night. All told, 18 Americans died in the battle, along with one Pakistani, and one Malaysian soldier. The Habr Gidr clan lost several hundred militiamen.

After the battle, Habr Gidr militiamen stripped dead American soldiers naked, and drug their bodies through the streets of Mogadishu. Video of those American solders being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu made the national news, and every Marine in the country, myself included, wanted revenge. I would have been happy to kill every member of Habr Gidr, as well as every other militiaman under all of the other warlords, throughout Somalia. My blood still boils when I think of the desecration of those American soldiers, whose only crime was in giving their lives to try to make Somalia a better place, rather than leaving it the hellhole Ilhan Omar fled.

The fact that Ilhan Omar has the audacity to further desecrate those brave American servicemembers, who fought and died, trying to help the nation of her birth, disqualifies her, in my book, from ever holding public office, and it is an outrage that she sits in the House of Representatives of a nation she displays such open hatred for. She does not represent me, and she damned well does not represent the eighteen American servicemen who gave their lives trying to help the nation of her birth.

Ilhan Omar represents the Habr Gidr clan, Mohamed Farrah Aidid, and the other warlords and militia clans who turned the nation of her birth into a place her family had to flee.

Other Democrats, such as Bernie Sanders, have said that they will stand beside Ilhan Omar. Fine. Bernie Sanders is unfit for public office as well, as are ANY officials who do not immediately call for Ilhan Omar’s removal from public office.

Ilhan Omar – let me be clear: you are a disgusting human being, and a disgrace to your office. You need to step down, and if you refuse, you need to be removed.

The Democratic Party has become something very dangerous. Many of their members openly denigrate the United States, under the guise of being ‘patriotic.’ To be honest, there is plenty of room to look at things the United States has done in the past with a critical eye. Oppression and suffering have been the norm for all of human existence, and while the United States may be the best nation ever created, as well as being the world’s best chance for a future that is not based on oppression and suffering, there has been plenty of suffering and oppression in the history of the United States, and we absolutely should acknowledge that fact so that we can learn from it.

I am thankful that Democrats are sometimes critical of America’s past, because Republicans sometimes gloss over the worst parts of our past, and we cannot learn from the past if we do not acknowledge it. But acknowledging the past also means accepting all of the things America has gotten right, and Democrats are becoming increasingly incapable of doing so. In the race to see who can be the furthest left, Democrats seem to also be racing to see who can be the most anti-American as well, and today, that race is being won by Ilhan Omar.

Hating everything the United States has ever stood for, or done, is not patriotism. Wanting to radically transform the United States into the kind of place where oppression and suffering are the norm, is not patriotism. Taking the side of Somali warlords, as if one thinks America needs some of that, is not patriotism.

Ilhan Omar has taken the side of one of the Somali warlords her family fled, and has called the militants who killed eighteen American soldiers, and drug their naked bodies through the streets of Mogadishu, ‘victims.’ She has made it very clear where she stands when it comes to the strength and security of the United States, and I demand that either she resign her office, or that our Congress stand up and remove her, along with anyone else in the House or Senate (hello, Bernie Sanders) who supports her.

Democrats want impeachment? Fine. Call your congressperson, and your Senator, and let them know that Ilhan Omar, and those who support her, have crossed a line that cannot be excused. Demand that these people be removed from office.

This may not be the impeachment Democrats are asking for, but it is the impeachment they are going to get.