"The Lost Somalis from Minnesota" became "The Found Somali Jihadists in Somalia"

Left: The American soldier's body dragged around Mogadishu in 1993
Right: An Ethiopian soldier facing similar fate in 2006

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the Muslim congressman from Minnesota, is recommending that the "Lost Somalis of Minnesota" be retrieved (i.e. rescued from Somalia) and re-integrated into the American culture.

Some background on these "Lost Somalis":

- They are young Somali-Americans who started disappearing from their homes in Minnesota (mostly the Twin Cities), and were later traced back to Somalia pursuing training and fighting as jihadists. There even seems to be a Somali-Canadian connection.

- Some of these men ended up dead, and their bodies were even flown back to the U.S. for burial.

- Their families claim they knew nothing about their plans, although local imams and mosques are suspected at having influenced these men to join these jihadi groups in Somalia.

The writers at the website Refugee Resettlement Watch note:

If the Obama Administration sends even one of our young military people to Somalia, risking their lives to rescue Ellison’s voters, it will create a firestorm of outrage across this country! Excepting the teenaged (and now dead) Burhan Hassan, the majority of these Somalis who rejected the good life to become jihadi fighters are grown men.

They are also not the victims that Keith Ellison wishes to paint them as.

I wonder if Americans have forgotten that awful dragging of the dead American soldier through Mogadishu in 1993 during the Black Hawk Dawn operation? Well they are still doing it, but this time to Ethiopian soldiers who were sent into Mogadishu to fight against the Somali courts takeover in 2006. Both expeditions were done to prevent radicalized Islamic governments from taking over the country (and possibly the region).

Desecration of human bodies cannot be dismissed as simply primitive, barbaric events, performed in a state of delirious euphoria. It is a calculated exercise, aimed at showing the rival group what awaits it if it tries further encroachment into the territory. It is a war signal.

This is the society the "lost" Somali men from Minnesota come from. Rep. Ellison’s proposal to retrieve and re-integrate them is naïve at best. And considering Ellison’s close interaction with the Muslim community, both national and international, one has to wonder what are his ulterior motives.

The best Americans can do is leave those Somali men in Somalia. No retrieval, and certainly no re-integration.