Our Response to Rep Ilhan Omar

May 11th, 2020

Dear Representative Omar,

Thank you for taking the time to meet with Meredith Aby-Keirstead this week.  

We understand from Meredith that you are philosophically against all weapons sales and that you do not think that your signature on the Dear Colleague letter in support of this stance should be seen as an endorsement of President Trump’s efforts to attack Iran or as an endorsement of AIPAC’s agenda.

We agree with you on many foreign policy positions, and we have been thrilled to have you represent us in Congress, as you put forth strong positions around peace and justice.  We have been proud to speak up in your support as you took heat for standing up for Palestinian rights,  Venezuelan self-determination,  and many other right-minded positions.  We look forward to continuing to work to support your efforts to end U.S. sanctions on Iran.    

Our position is, and always has been, to oppose all U.S. efforts to wage war.  The letter you signed, which promotes a weapons embargo against Iran without acknowledging the president’s threats against Iran, the assassination of General Soleimani, the U.S. deployment of warships around Iran, or weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, serves an agenda of U.S. imperialism.   The effort by Congress to limit weapons available to Iran while the president is threatening war on Iran is the very definition of U.S. imperialism.  If there are concerns about arms sales, we instead suggest Congress limit the president’s ability to start a war with Iran.

This push for the arms embargo is part of a larger campaign by the Trump administration to force a “snap back” of United Nations sanctions on Iran, as though the US were still party to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal (JCPOA) agreed to under President Obama in 2015. In reality, Trump and Pompeo have made it blindingly clear in word and in deed that the US has unilaterally withdrawn from, and violated the terms of, the JCPOA since 2018.  In other words, the U.S. is trying to impose these sanctions in the framework of the JCPOA without the U.S. itself abiding by the terms of that agreement.  We are aware of your values of “multilateralism and diplomacy” as outlined in your Pathways to Peace platform, but we don’t see targeting Iran in the context of US efforts to destroy the JCPOA and threaten war on Iran as meeting your stated values. 

As Forbes reports, the U.S. is the largest supplier of weapons in the world, and as Americans, we should focus our efforts at home, dealing with our own lethal contributions to the global arms market.  It is hypocritical for the U.S. Congress to tell other countries not to sell weapons, when we are the worst offender in this area.  And it is absurd for the U.S. to call on targeted countries to stop engaging in arms sales with their allies,  when the U.S. threatens to use our own weapons against them and traffics arms to their enemies.  Our focus as the Anti-War Committee is on ending U.S. imperialism, which we consider to be the preeminent barrier to world peace.  We feel it would be better for Congress to focus on ending the commerce of U.S. weapons, including by Minnesota’s own Alliant Tech, instead of trying to wield moral authority it doesn’t have.

We will continue to publicize your anti-war and progressive stances.  We will stand with you and support you when you take principled controversial actions.  And we will let you know when we disagree with your positions.  As your constituents and members of a grass-roots peace movement we will continue to encourage you to stay strong in the face of the political forces pulling you away from your expressed ideals.  

Peace,

the Anti-War Committee Steering Committee including Wyatt Miller, Austin Dewey, Drake Meyer, Thistle Parker-Hartog, Kent Mori, Tracy Molm, Dave Long, Misty Rowan, Cullom McCormick, Christine Hauschildt, Autumn Lake, Carly Dusseau, Austin Jensen and Meredith Aby-Keirstead