With his post on terrorists and porous borders (“Open Door Policy for Terrorist”) Groveton has done it again: Tossing rocks at empty pigeon holes.
This time it is not ‘liberals’ and ‘conservatives,’ it is ‘lefties’ and ‘righties.’ That is better but the result is the same.
What Groveton will always get are replies like Peter’s and then pointless back and forths with no progress toward consensus on a plan of action.
Many agree with Groveton that a demonstrably porous border is an invitation to more than just Mexicans and Central Americans seeking a better life or implementing a better drug distribution system.
However, most who give the topic any rational thought will also agree with the points raised by Peter and Larry.
What is the point? Why throw stones? There is NOTHING in those pigeon holes, not even pigeons.
First, terrorists:
The only way to stop terrorism is to eliminate the CAUSES of terrorism.
Second, Illegal Immigration:
There are millions of illegal immigrants not because of soft hearted ‘lefties’ but because of the laws were not enforced as TMT points out in his comment.
The laws were not strengthened, the laws were not enforced and resources were not allocated to enforce the laws because of political pressure from Enterprises and Institutions. Thank you Supremes.
The pressure that resulted in millions of illegals has not come from ‘lefties.’ The pressure has come from those who one would ‘expect’ to find in a ‘righties’ pigeon hole. (As Groveton suggests “ … the righties believe that illegal is illegal and if you are caught doing something illegal you should pay the price (presumably deportation).” Check out the positions of the US Chamber of Commerce, check out Big Ag, etc.
The Wealth Gap has been growing wider since the mid 70s. A major reason is that wages and benefits have not kept up with productivity and profit. One way to be sure there is NOT a Balance of supply and demand is to let cheap labor sneak into the nation-state.
In the last 35 years four Donkey Clan administrations (lefties?) and six Elephant Clan administrations (righties?) have overseen decade after decade of more and more porous borders vis a vis cheap labor (and drugs).
Those who have supported weakening and / or not enforcing immigration laws have made campaign contributions and lobbied for these actions because they wanted cheap labor. They also wanted to prevent a ‘labor shortage’ that would drive up the cost of doing business.
Sealed borders will not stop terrorists. Even if they would, according to Enterprise Media, the majority of the terrorists arrested IN the US of A since 2002 are US citizens.
The widening Wealth Gap in the US of A and aggression that can be spun to seem like it is aimed at a specific religious group (many attribute the actions to a desire to keep the price of oil low) are given as the reasons for radicalization of the Times Square bomber.
Anwar al-Awiaki, the “teacher” of the American born US Army major in the Ft. Hood shooting is also American born.
In the EU, the UAE and elsewhere, tight borders controls, identity cards, profiling and other tools has not prevented the tensions from rising over ‘guest workers.’ To solve a problem one has to go to the root of the problem.
The only way to stop illegal immigration is to help sender nation-states provide a better way of life for citizens.
Intelligent Globalization is co-terminus with Regional sustainability
One Region cannot sustain itself by unfairly obtaining the resources of another Region. The definition of “fair” has to be agreed upon by BOTH Regions.
One Region (or group of Regions in an nation-state) cannot pay less than a fair price for any resource – not oil, not diamonds, not labor. Nation-states and continental / multi-nation-state trading blocks cannot provide ‘international development aid’ that results in the extraction and export of resources from less well to do Regions to more well to do Regions.
On a flat Earth with literate populations, instantaneous communications and weapons of mass destruction, the parameters of what is intelligent must reflect reality.
To protect itself, the US of A should be providing expertise in education and specifically in governance transformation to create equal opportunity for all citizens and population management that reflects the enlightened self-interest of citizens. These are the tools Agencies should be providing to our own population.
EMR