Somali Independence Day Seeks a 'Greater Somalia'

Behind the five pointed star of the Somali flag lies the dream of war and ethnic cleansing

In some parts of the United States, Somalia’s ‘Independence’ day are eroding the traditional celebrations of America’s indigenous Independence Day. States and cities have issued proclamations commemorating Somali ‘independence’ and the media has been reporting on ‘independence’ celebrations by Somali colonists in Minnesota and other states as if they were harmless ethnic celebrations like St. Patrick’s Day or Columbus Day.

They’re not.

They’re calls for another war, including against Christian countries, for a ‘Greater Somalia’.

To understand why, we have to look back at why there is a sizable Somali settler colonist population in the United States at all. Many of the Somali ‘refugees’ in the United States, like Rep. Ilhan Omar, come from families associated with the murderous regime of Mohammed Siad Barre and the accompanying clan structure. Barre had transformed Somalia into a Marxist-Leninist state backed by extensive military support from the Soviet Union.

But the Soviet-Somali alliance was a ticking time bomb because of the same flag that Somali settler-colonists insist on waving from Portland to Minneapolis to San Diego. The flag’s five pointed star appears generic to most Americans, but it actually represents the five points of ‘Greater Somalia’. Four of those points are either parts of other countries, Ethiopia and Kenya, or are entirely different countries, Djibouti and Somaliland, and have to be conquered.

Somali Jihadists in Ethiopia had formed ‘Nasrallah’ or ‘Sacrifice for Allah’ backed by the Somali regime, but were finally crushed by the Ethiopian Imperial Army which showed none of the liberalism that beset American, European and Israeli operations against Islamic Jihadist groups.

With their Somali Jihadists defeated, the Barre regime exploited a Soviet-backed military coup in Ethiopia to launch an invasion, forcing the USSR to choose between two of its allies, and Moscow decided naturally enough that Ethiopia was far more of an asset than Somalia. Both the Soviets and Castro had warned the Somalis to let go of its dream of a ‘Greater Somalia’.

After the Somalis threw a tantrum and invaded, the USSR sent massive amounts of weapons, Castro sent 15,000 troops and help also arrived from Israel, which had a longstanding relationship with Ethiopia (explaining longstanding Somali hostility to Israel) enabling the African country to throw back the Somali invasion and destroy much of its military regime’s forces.

The conflict had two significant results for the United States. Somalia had broken its relations with the Soviet bloc and the Saudis convinced the Carter administration, always willing to build relationships with Islamic terrorist states, from Iran to Afghanistan, that there was an opportunity here to make up for the loss of Ethiopia by building a new relationship with Somalia.

Jimmy Carter ordered his foreign policy team “to move in every possible way to get Somalia to be our friend.” and dispatched sizable amounts of military and foreign aid to the Barre regime.

The Somalis however demanded $2 billion in aid (approximately $8 billion in today’s money) in exchange for allowing the U.S. to use its bases to protect oil supplies in the Middle East. And even the Carter administration refused to hand out that kind of money or to recognize the claims to a ‘Greater Somalia’ encompassing significant parts of the Horn of Africa.

Instead of being grateful, Somalis resented the United States for not backing its invasion., Meanwhile the humiliating failure of the Barre regime to restore ‘Greater Somalia’ and the destruction of much of its military, led to its downfall and the 1991 civil war during which members of clans tied to the regime falsely convinced senators and members of the first Bush administration was really a case of ‘genocide’, leading to a disastrous American military intervention, the killing of Americans in Mogadishu and the mass migration of Somalis tied to the regime, like Rep. Ilhan Omar’s father, who now live in America and call for a ‘Greater Somalia’.

That original intervention cost 42 American lives and $10 billion, but that was a mere down payment on what happened when Somali clan elites settled in places like Maine and Minnesota, and stole billions, transporting significant amounts of cash back to Somalia, where they sometimes even held political office, while working on their dream of a ‘Greater Somalia’.

The Somali ‘Independence Day’ celebrations are not a harmless commemoration of ancient history, the five-star flags being waved and the calls for ‘independence’ are really a call for continuing the conflict and building a Greater Somalia. That would require the destruction of two independent countries, Djibouti and Somaliland, as well as the renewed invasion of two majority Christian countries, Ethiopia and Kenya, to fulfill the dream of a ‘Greater Somalia’.

When viral videos appear in which Somali politicians praise Rep. Ilhan Omar and other officials for representing Somalia, it’s not simply about domestic fraud, it’s about Greater Somalia. That’s why viral videos involving Omar blasted the independent nation of Somaliland and reportedly had her claiming that “as long as I am in the US Congress, Somalia will never be in danger, in waters will not be stolen by Ethiopia” referring to Ethiopia’s diplomacy with Somaliland.

Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud marked his country’s ‘independence’ by declaring that, “the hope visible in Somalia today is not confined solely to the Republic of Somalia established through union in 1960. It is also shared by the other three missing parts, which look upon it with the same hope and expectation.” The three ‘missing parts’ of Greater Somalia are Djibouti, and parts of Ethiopia and Kenya (much as China claims Taiwan, Somalis claim that Somaliland, despite being an independent country, is already part of Somalia.)

Omar, whose father had served in the invasion of Ethiopia and was forced to flee after the collapse of the Barre Marxist regime, has been almost as obsessed with Ethiopia as she has been with Israel, repeatedly condemning the country, accusing it of human rights violations, and championing terrorists operating against it.

Somali settler colonist associations in the United States continue to promote the conquest of the Ogaden region in Ethiopia, the cause of the 1977 war, and make claims about an ‘Ogaden massacre’ even as Muslim atrocities against Christians in Ogaden, including the burning of churches and the murder of priests by Somali Muslim Jihadists, continue to be ignored.

If Americans don’t want to be dragged into another Muslim terrorist war in Somalia, American states and cities should stop taking part in Somali ‘celebrations’ calling for a ‘Greater Somalia’.

Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center’s Front Page Magazine.

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