Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

 

We should take a moment to marvel at the extraordinary political result that occurred in Minnesota this month: the reelection of Ilhan Omar.

It is impossible to conceive of a candidate more loathed, vilified, and attacked than she was. This was the Democratic primary, and she had the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, the entire Mainstream Media, and many powerful political organizations and PACs teaming up against her. And the money they spent trying to beat her- it was like a tsunami.  But, it didn't matter. It didn't work. They could not take her out, not even with their biggest guns. 

This was like David vs. Goliath, and she beat them. 

The biggest claim against her is that she is an anti-Semite. And she certainly has made harsh charges against the Israeli government for their actions and policies towards Palestinians.  But, what has been her motivation? Is it really hatred for Jews? Or is it concern and compassion for Palestinians?

But, despite all the rhetoric against her, there can be no doubt that she is an extremely courageous woman, and one prominent politician with whom she has found alliance is the Jewish-American politician, Senator Bernie Sanders.  They issued a joint resolution together condemning the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. And she went so far as to say that criminal charges should be filed against George W. Bush and members of his administration who lied us into war.

So, here is an article from Newsweek that discusses the collaboration of Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. 

Progressive politicians Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Ilhan Omar have critically highlighted the anniversary of the Iraq War, which was launched on March 20, 2003, or 16 years ago on Wednesday.

Sanders, who is running for the Democratic Party's nomination to take on President Donald Trump in 2020, posted to Twitter to remind his followers that he never supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

"In the 16 years since the Iraq war began, we've lost many thousands of American and Iraqi lives and spent trillions of dollars," Sanders pointed out on Twitter. "I opposed the war and it gives me no pleasure to say that much of what I feared came true. Our foreign policy must focus on diplomacy, not endless war."

Sanders co-sponsored a resolution that passed in the Senate last week rebuking U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. 

RC: One of the first things Trump did as President in 2017 was authorize a Seal raid in Yemen, the Raid on Yakla, which killed 8 women and 7 children. We talk about it in My Stretch of Texas Ground. The movie opens with it. 

Omar reminded her Twitter followers about the death and devastation caused by the Iraq War: "16 years ago, the U.S. illegally invaded Iraq, leaving a trail of destruction and lives lost," Omar wrote. She then shared several statistics about the war's toll, pointing out that "4,496 U.S. troops lost their lives" and "100,000+ Iraqi civilians were killed."

RC: That is a very conservative estimate  of the number of Iraqi civilians killed in the war. And when you consider all the deaths from the secondary factors, like malnutrition, water contamination, loss of infrastructure, etc., the death toll in Iraq is many hundreds of thousands of people, at least. 

Omar also argued that the country should hold former President George W.

Bush and certain members of his administration to account, because they 

"repeatedly lied in the run up to the war."

"In October 2002, President Bush said that Saddam Hussein had a 'massive

stockpile' of biological weapons. It was a lie," the representative pointed out. 

"Former Vice President] Dick Cheney repeatedly cited a nonexistent meeting

between a 9/11 conspirator and Iraqi intelligence. It was a lie," Omar said. 

"In August 2002, Cheney said, 'Simply stated, there's no doubt that Saddam 

Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.' That too was a lie," she said.

"All of these statements were not only false, they were known by intelligence

agencies to be lies at the time. To this day they have not been held 

accountable," 

"The best estimates available suggest that more than 250,000 people have 

died as a result of the decision to invade Iraq. The Bush administration's 

fabrications and outright lies to justify the invasion have also been well 

chronicled and documented. No weapons of mass destruction were ever 

found in Iraq, despite their alleged existence being the primary 

reason the administration used to justify the war."

RC: Now, my question is: the people who tried so hard to unseat her, 

why don't they care about this? Why don't they care about the killing of 

hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi men, women, and children? Why 

don't they care that Brown University researchers determined that since the

"War on Terror"  was launched following 9/11 that over 800,000 people have

been killed in just 3 countries: Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. And those are

just the direct deaths, and does not include the indirect deaths from the

wars which bring the total death toll into the millions. Why don't they credit

her for talking about it? She speaks truth to power about this. And to those 

who trash her without mentioning the fact that she laments the destruction of

human lives by the U.S.government in its terror wars, that it makes you 

something;  It makes you bloodied.