I don't think that we are talking about targeting American citizens here...only troublesome foreigners. I very much doubt that there is anything in the Constitution that says that we must allow the citizens of every nation on earth free access to America, regardless of the national security implications. Did we allow Germans and Japanese to run around the country during WW2? I think not. Did we allow Russians to roam around the country freely during the Cold War? No. So why do we now allow Saudis, Egyptians and other Arabs to enter the US, in the full knowledge that some of them are here to kill Americans? Of course it is unfair on the majority of people from those countries, many of whom are probably ashamed of the terrorists in their midst, but what else is the US to do? How unfair is it really, considering that Saudis (and other Muslims) call us infidels, and most definitely do not allow us anywhere near their holy cities?
Look at the Al-Qaida members who have been arrested. 95% are nationals of a handful of countries in the Middle East. If we deport the citizens of those countries from the US then we have a good chance of ripping up the majority of the US terrorist network, stopping the attacks and defending our Constitutional rights to "life,liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
All the liberal chatter about the Japanese-American internment camps during WW2 misses one critical point. No American of Japanese descent was involved, directly or indirectly, in the attacks on Pearl Harbor. The Pearl Harbor attack was not launched from within the borders of the US. That is one big reason why internment is now thought to be so unfair. Of course, 9/11 is a very different situation. As for the great example of racism in America, the segregation in the South, let us remember that there was never any reason, national security or otherwise, to make black people sit in the back of the bus. That was simply one group of people demonstrating their power over others through humiliation.
Deporting foreign citizens of countries from whom Al-Qaida recruits its operatives is not a return to our racist past...it is simply what needs to be done in order to prevent further acts of terror such as 9/11. If the terrorists have a network of American citizens, then we will have a more difficult problem on our hands, but present evidence suggests that Al-Qaida operatives are mostly foreign. |
