After a brief lull in the discussion, Islamic State terrorists in Brussels have reminded everyone including the American people just how explosive, literally, the issue of borders and immigration plus the threat of radical Islam can be in the 2016 presidential cycle.
As America lines up to vote, sometimes for hours as seen recently in Phoenix, Ariz., the issue of assimilation by Muslim communities has once again risen to the fore after a wave of attacks, in Paris, San Bernardino and now Brussels. Other shootings at Chattanooga, Tenn. and Philadelphia, Pa., plus a foiled attempt in Garland, Texas, were all perpetrated by extremist Muslims — all killing or attempting to kill in the name of radical Islam. All in 2015 and 2016 alone.
Although the specter of refugees from the war in Iraq and Syria was raised after the Paris attacks, it is clear looking at the pattern of all the attacks that the West has an even bigger problem on its hands, and that is there appears to neither intelligence on the latest wave of immigrants coming to the U.S. — nor on Muslim communities already residing in the U.S. and other countries.
Our government cannot keep us safe — and the American people know it, and the killers know it, too.
Refugee or no refugee, immigrant or no immigrant, the movement afoot now cuts across Muslim communities. One of the San Bernardino killers was an immigrant on a fiancé visa, but the other was a natural-born citizen. Neither were refugees.
Surely, many fleeing the Middle East right now legitimately want to get away from the war and the death squads and live in peace. And, the killers, able to access the U.S. and other Western countries thanks to lax immigration policy — which allows tens of thousands of visas issued every year from North Africa, the Middle East and Asia, according to data compiled by the U.S. Department of State — can easily infiltrate and hide in those communities. And then there’s those who simply become radicalized within our own borders after having lived here for years.
So what to do?
Apparently, nothing, if the powers that be are to be believed. Just wait for more attacks to happen and clean up the body parts, and conduct aggressive manhunts after the fact, all the while offering meek condolences and supposed solidarity. Issue a statement. Update your Facebook profile picture. Create a Twitter hashtag campaign. And then hope it doesn’t happen again and that the problem will just go away.
The war we fight right now is a politically correct one, which cannot be won.
Call for even a pause in Muslim immigration, as Republican frontrunner for the presidential nomination Donald Trump did, and the GOP conspires to sabotage his campaign or steal the nomination at the convention or run third party if needs be. Support his call, and you’re a racist, a bigot.
But this is beyond presidential politics, even. Whoever wins in November, the threat we face will remain with us, hiding amongst us, waiting to be addressed until it is too late and more attacks happen.
Every elected official in Washington, D.C. who refuses to secure the border and take on immigration should have to answer the question: What do we do? What is the alternative to protecting our borders?
The political ineptitude and paralysis on display in Washington, D.C. by the Obama administration and Congress in the wake of these attacks is plain for all to see. It is cowardice.
Our own elected government refuses to protect this country. Our leaders are too busy watching baseball with Communist dictators in Cuba, or even when there is an effort to do something, pretending the problem is merely isolated to refugees from Syria and Iraq, as Congress did in the wake of the Paris attacks when one of the killers was carrying a refugee passport, only to be contradicted by reality weeks later when the San Bernardino killers did not obey the shiny object refugee template.
Repeat, it’s not just the refugees.
All the while in Washington, D.C., elected leaders and party bosses engage in elite, privileged functions, plotting at cocktail parties about how to disenfranchise millions of voters at the Cleveland convention in July, refusing to do anything meaningful about the threat we face.
In response, many rational Americans are doing the only thing there appears left to do to defend their country. Waiting in line for hours to vote these bums out.
Robert Romano is the senior editor of Americans for Limited Government.
