May 30 2006
Conservatives Losing Focus On GWOT
The obsession to deport illegal immigrants (see post below) is doing what I predicted would happen if we did attempt mass deportations – it is diverting our attention from real threats. Ed Morrissey comments on a story I saw earlier that states large numbers of Al Qaeda are sitting just over our northern border:
Canada’s spy agency says potential terrorists already reside in Canadian cities.The deputy director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service said Monday that there are many people currently living in Canada who fought with al-Qaeda during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
And Jack Hooper says those same people have since trained in al-Qaeda terrorist training camps.
Trained terrorists living in major Canadian cities. Are they all threats? Who knows. I would bet some are. Hiding in plain site is not a bad way to go. And do not think they need to come here to inflict damage. They could stay right where they are and recruit and train people we cannot easily stop – American citizens. So we still need to answer the question of where we want our limited resources to focus. On the South American painter working in Northern Virginia or the Al Qaeda veteran living in Canada?
One university up there seems to have a large number of Islamic Professors even by Canadian population percentages. Also they are in some intresting areas of study mainly.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20031016-110337-4698r.htm
[Comment ID #12165 Will Be Quoted Here]
How does a fence with Mexico address that problem? It doesn’t.
If people were really concerned about the implications of border security for the war on terror, they’d be looking at Canada. Instead, by focusing on Mexico, they’re showing they’re not really serious abour the war, they are simply using it as an excuse to dump on Mexico.
Harlold
What AJ wrote about and I commented on is that there are other items in play BESIDES the immigration issue.
I completely agree here. This is my stance on the immigration issue, as I just posted right off on my reply to the last post on this issue: we lose focus with this issue. We do not have time to focus on this issue. We have severely pressing national defense issues at hand.
I disagree that this should be a focus point, however. I think these conservatives are getting off the mark. There is incredibly pressing business at hand in terms of international terrorism. Look at what Hugo Chavez has been saying. Look at what he has been doing in Bolivia. Look at what has happened in Bolivia. Not that this is necessarily “new”, but the issue is worsening. On top of that… there is the Iranian situation.
These situations, as close to our heart as they may be, are but the tip of the iceberg of the problems we face. Far left extremism is growing increasingly popular around the world — as is Islamism. But, do the problems end here? By no means. Our own nation is deeply divided and being slowly eaten from the inside.
This may not be apparent to the later generations who are not close to the youth… and who saw the 60s radicalism, and have felt that nothing bad came from any of this.
[Comment ID #12173 Will Be Quoted Here]
I wasn’t saying there weren’t.
But it’s real interesting to see all the focus on Mexico, when there seems to be a much more imminent threat of Islamofacist terrorism from the northern border, don’t you think?
NO us conservatives want a wall there too.
It’s George Bush and his friends that are forgetting that.
This is a perfect time to bring back a limited draft to secure the borders. WE do not need crack troops but armed bodies would do just fine.
The focus is on Mexico because that is where they are flowing over the boder like a swarm of Locusts, to the exclusion of just about every other nationality.
Let’s see, we suddenly need not only a wall stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the California coast, to keep the Mexican moochers from “flowing over the border like a swarm of Locusts”; we also need another wall stretching the entire breadth of the continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, to keep the terrorists in Canada from coming into the country.
Ummm, OK, how fast do you think we can build these walls? And how effective do you think the Canadian Wall will be if the terrorists in Canada are training Americans to commit terrorist acts? And why exactly should I believe that these walls won’t turn into expensive, ineffective boondoggles that drain money and manpower, or that there aren’t better ways to deal with (1) the immigrant situation and (2) terrorists residing in Canada?
And I’d also like to point out, just because I haven’t read anything from the no-amnesty-ever crowd, that one of the balls that President Bush is juggling at the moment is the possibility that the Mexicans (the ones still in Mexico) may vote in a Chavez-type socialist as a replacement for Vicente Fox in July if they get too cheesed off at the U.S., so Bush is trying to keep relations cordial to keep that from happening. (I suppose the reaction to that will be that the idea of giving those Mexican blackmailers what they want is repulsive and cowardly. Well, do you want to deal with the immigrant situation with a Chavez clone running the show in Mexico?)
I don’t envy President Bush for the juggling he has to do, and so I cannot blame him for sometimes coming across as a little too pro-immigrant at the moment.
I’d also like to say that sometimes, if you want to get anything done in politics, you have to make deals with people who do not share your principles. That means that maybe we can’t really afford to take all forms of “amnesty” permanently and irrevocably off the table if we want to move forward and do something about our problems with immigration, no matter how repulsive letting the bums get away with coming here illegally may seem to some.
The focus is on Mexico because our liberal MSM is focused on it. It’s too bad they can’t focus on the real problem. That terrorism surrounds us. If Al Qaeda is in Canada, then we are naive to think they are not here as well. This is only a reminder that we need to continue to be vigilant in the war on terror and be supportive of those who are actively fighting to protect us.
I had actually heard something about this a few years back – right after 9/11 when people were much more vigilant on protecting our country from terrorism. I don’t doubt they will do what they can to infiltrate our borders and carry out a mission to kill innocent Americans. I do believe however that we haven’t seen as many of these attacks due to the efforts of our government to thwart their plans. I also believe our success in Iraq and Afghanistan has broken down many of these terrorist cells. But, you are right, we must remember we are never safe and continue doing what it takes to protect our country (on both borders).