We have all done bad things in our lives. For most of us, those things do not rise to level of, say, earning the tag “war criminal,” but most of us can at least recall that terrible feeling of anger and fear and frustration that comes with being called out on a bad decision we’ve made. Maybe we lied about something and are caught. Maybe it’s that piece of cake in the refrigerator that wasn’t for you to eat? In the case of Donald Trump’s choice for special envoy to Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, maybe it’s that time you helped run a criminal foreign policy enterprise under President Ronald Reagan, and lied to Congress in order to cover up the massacre of 800-1,000 men, women, and children in 1981 at El Mozote, El Salvador? Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) spoke as calmly and simply as possible during her time questioning Abrams as he sat in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday. After dismissing his attempts at challenging history, she repeatedly circled back to the fact that Elliott Abrams is a goddamned convicted war criminal.
Rep. Omar: In that hearing, you dismissed as communist propaganda a report about the massacre of El Mozote in which more than 800 civilians, including children as young as 2 years old, were brutally murdered by U.S.-trained troops.
After Abrams attempted for the umpteenth time to throw his hands up, whining that his character was being assassinated (by facts, I guess?), Omar asked him the only question that really needed to be asked.
Rep. Omar: Yes or no, would you support an armed faction within Venezuela that engages in war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide, if you believe they were serving U.S. interests, as you did in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua?
Abrams couldn’t answer that question. Instead, he folded his arms and said he thought none of these questions were legitimate.
Omar: Whether you, under your watch, a genocide will take place and you will look the other way because American interests were being upheld, is a fair question, because the American people want to know that anytime we engage a country, that we think about what our actions could be and how we believe our values are being furthered.
I have
followed Ilhan Omar for some time now, and she has not disappointed me or her constituents, not once. Elliott Abrams, on the other hand, is a war criminal. One of the only reasons that a person like Abrams isn’t rotting away in jail is that he was pardoned by George Bush Sr. The long arc of the moral universe may bend toward justice, but the increments in-between are frequently less than satisfying. However, this exchange, facilitated by one of our newest Democratic congresswomen, is
very satisfying.
H/t to community member Lincoln green