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There is also a cost to this honesty. It risks alienating survivors who hear belief followed by political abandonment. It risks reinforcing the idea that powerful men are ultimately protected when they are useful. Omar did not deny that cost. She exposed it.
Her statement did not ask for forgiveness or approval. It did not demand agreement. It simply laid bare the reality that many political actors navigate quietly: that sometimes the choice is not between right and wrong, but between outcomes that all carry moral injury.
What made the moment powerful was not its resolution, but its refusal to resolve. Omar did not offer closure. She offered clarity — and clarity, in this case, was uncomfortable. It showed that democracy often demands choices that leave no one fully satisfied, only more aware of what they are sacrificing.
Her statement did not weaken the conversation around belief or accountability. It complicated it. And that complication may be the most honest contribution she could have made.