Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar (D) apparently thinks America is responsible for Venezuela’s woes.
Representative Omar, who is very vocal when it comes to criticizing American intervention in other countries, argued this week that the United States was at least partly to blame for the current devastation in Venezuela.
“A lot of the policies that we have put in place has kind of helped lead the devastation in Venezuela, and we’ve sort of set the stage for where we’re arriving today,” Omar said earlier this week in an interview for the PBS show “Democracy Now!” She added: “This particular bullying and the use of sanctions to eventually intervene and make regime change really does not help the people of countries like Venezuela, and it certainly does not help and is not in the interest of the United States.”
Of course Omar conveniently left out the primary reason for the unspeakable crisis in the country, namely two decades of living under socialist dictators.
Vice President Mike Pence correctly called out Omar in a tweet on 1 May. “As Venezuelans take to the streets to stand for their freedom against an oppressive dictator, Democrat Congresswoman @IlhanMN chooses socialism over freedom. The Trump Administration stands with the freedom-loving people of Venezuela.”
As U.S. policymakers struggle with the difficult issues surrounding possible intervention in Venezuela, it is important to maintain at least a modicum of moral clarity. Representative Omar, who as a child fled the failed state of Somalia due largely to the dysfunction of socialist management, should be the first to speak the truth on this point.
