The War President
Are you Conservative…or are you a Republican?
by Glenn R. Jackson
“What a great war-time President” goes the conventional wisdom, and granted after the craven sell-outs by the previous administration we can all thank God for His favor and protection during this time in history. When this nation needs leadership it is nice to know that there are adults once again in charge. However, George Washington this President is not.
On September 11th the first front in the Terror War erupted in this country for the entire world to see and to feel. Shortly thereafter this nation opened a second war front in Afghanistan.
Progress on that second front has been steady, and even at times spectacular. The fall of Kabul was surprising and the vanquishing of the Taliban sudden. Yet honestly with a military designed to take on the former Soviet Union, even in its Clintonized state, and the very public anger of the American people the outcome is not unexpected.
“You cannot defend Freedom abroad by deserting Freedom at home” is a statement attributed to Edward R. Murrow, and defending freedom abroad is what the President claims we are doing in speech after speech. Yet in the United States all along the first front in the Terror War, defense of American freedom remains very much in doubt.
In American airports, U.S. citizens stand in long lines and walk to their departure gates past National Guard troops armed with M-16s or sidearms. Yet on our porous borders with Mexico and Canada the Bush White House resists arming the paltry contingents of National Guardsman dispatched to help at our border crossings.
The reason given was that the White House did not want to “upset” our friendly neighbors with armed border guards. The Pentagon finally relented and will arm only 30% of the National Guard troops, claiming the need to maintain safety…the Pentagon is concerned that arming the troops might lead to someone being accidentally shot. Shot! I wish I had heard that concern before I stood in line for twenty minutes next to that National Guardsman in Sacramento International airport.
Reports continue to pour in regarding the conditions on our southern border. Armed men carrying backpacks continue to make their way over the border and across the farms and ranches of the United States. These men are drug runners…probably, but they are most assuredly smugglers. Anything or anyone can be smuggled if the price is right.
President Vicente Fox of Mexico, our President’s good friend, was on Fox’s Hannity and Colmes pushing for open entry, and denying America’s right to safe and secure borders. Mexico’s President Fox was unable to bring himself to declare that any entry into this nation outside of our national immigration laws was to be considered illegal.
President Bush will be rewarding this kind of thinking by a continued push to grant amnesty to President Fox’s heroic border jumpers.
Who is defending freedom at home?
Not the INS, and certainly not INS Commissioner James Ziglar. Ziglar announces a zero tolerance policy for INS foul-ups only six months after the WTC massacre. With an immigration system so massively broken that WTC massacre mastermind Mohammed Atta and friend were granted visa extensions, and even more recently the 4 Pakistani ship jumpers allowed past the INS, zero tolerance seems an illusion.
What is not an illusion is that after six months and 3000 lives INS Commissioner James Ziglar is still on the job.
Conservatives have held dear the principles of the sovereignty of the United States, individual liberty, and the exercise of government power in defense of these principles. Yet today a Republican President works diligently to welcome lawbreakers into our national fabric.
Worse yet, this Republican President has ignored the absolute collapse of the INS and domestic law enforcement in tracking and removing over 300,000 legally deported aliens, and in finding the 115, 000 Middle Easterners illegally in this country as estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Things are spinning so wildly out of control for the prosecution of the war on this first front of the Terror War it is not even shocking to discover that the INS continues to grant visas to foreign nationals at the pre-September 11th rates. The UPI reported that the INS approved visas for a reported 7,000 from al Qaeda infested nations in October-November 2001 alone.
Are the American people safer today then they were this time last year?
This time last year Atta was here on visa. The INS was backlogged on visa applications, but still handing them out like candy. The porous borders of this nation were unprotected, and 300,000 deportation orders were unenforced.
It is past time that conservatives take a hard honest look at the state of the nation and the home front efforts of this President. Is it sufficient for the defense of the nation and our national self-interest to be held hostage to the notion that a Republican President is equal protection for American freedom and conservative principles?
CFR, also known as the incumbent protection act, the largest spending increase for federal government intrusion in the education of this nation’s children, 245(i) “amnesty” extension for immigration law-breakers, are but a few examples of putting Party politics above principle. Are conservatives better off today then they were one year ago? Is the nation better protected?
Are you really safer?
Glenn R. Jackson is Chairman of the American Reformation Project, former State Chairman for Buchanan Reform and former state Chairman of the Georgia Freedom Party. Glenn also served on the Executive Committee of the Reform Party USA. Glenn holds an MA in Philosophy from Georgia State University in Atlanta.
© Glenn R. Jackson