As the left and right race to extremes, President Bush has shown some down to earth common sense about how to resolve some troubling issues.
President Bush, whatever else you might say about him, is not afraid of criticism.
He is currently tempting a rebellion in his own party because he believes allowing a United Arab Emirates company to operate a few ports in this country is not a threat to our security. On the contrary, he argues that scuttling the deal will send a signal to our Arab allies that normal economic relationships and transactions are beyond the pale.
That, Bush argues, would be bad for security.
He also continues to take heat for his immigration reforms. For the life of me, I have yet to see a rational argument against Bush’s proposal from either left or right.
Bush’s reasoning is simple and devastatingly on point. If you want to eliminate the problems we face on our southern border with illegal immigration, create a worker’s permit program that allows people to safely and peacefully enter the country to work.
This program would enable the United States security and immigration to better track workers in this country, it would enable us to ensure proper taxes are paid, and it would eliminate a horrific humanitarian problem as desperate workers risk their lives to enter the United States illegally.
I beseech any conservative or liberal to explain to me what is wrong with this idea. Red meat conservatives seem more interested in punishing illegal immigrants than solving the issue. Leftists and liberals seem more interested in punishing Bush than in dealing with the security and economic issues involved.
There are plenty of just criticisms to aim at President Bush. He has not exercised fiscal restraint, the management of Iraq has been suspect, and legitimate border and security issues still need to be addressed in both the United States and Iraq.
But as the left and right race to extremes to shore up their political bases, President Bush has shown some down to earth common sense about how to resolve some troubling issues. He is, God forbid, even try to establish positive ties with Arabs in the war against terror, which policy he has been pursuing for some time despite leftist attacks on his “unilateralism.”
At least one Republican leader gets it — and Bush has found an unlikely ally in John McCain, who dared to suggest that the port issue was being blown out of proportion.
If the hysteria ever dies down, the Congress just might get around to passing constructive immigration reforms and doing due diligence with respect to our economic relationships with Arab allies. Ask questions, by all means, but don’t let emotion run away with our ability to think creatively and critically.
Wow, it’s nice when someone can crystalize the issues. Peircing the half truths
and hyperbole, particularly from the left is exhausting. It’s the reason they can
continue to rant, with little ramifications. (other than not getting elected) The
right need to take heed and stick to the salient points, eventually the Presidents
message will get through. We know that he will hammer at a point endlessly.
Keep up the good work
The sad fact is however, our Prez is dealing with a flawed premise: that ME countries and their citizens can be trusted to deal with us and the west in a civilized and rational manner on a daily international basis but they cannot and will not follow through. Yes the UAE is slightly more civilized than its neighbors but in the end even they are ruled by Islam and its barbaric dictates and its allegience to its muslim partners rather than any desire to live up to civilized norms. Unfortunately our President has been sold a bill of goods that we can somehow deal with the arab world on an equal footing as we have the euros and most asians. He and Blair have repeatedly lied to us about how the Palestinian and ME situations are separate yet expect us to belieive them when it comes to Iraq and Afghanistan. I believe there were/still are WMDs in Iraq but I dont’ believe ‘those’ people can become any more accepting of civilized standards of behavior just because we got rid of one man and a few thugs. Why? Because Bush in all his arrogance refused to accept the problem: it wasn’t just Saddam, it was the average Iraqi who was accepting of the behavior of their neighbors and fellow Iraqis. In fact that is the problem; extremely barbaric behavior is acceptable and applauded by the average muslim whether arab, persian or african. Case in point recent ones: the barbaric and utterly uncivilized response by mass crowds of the socalled average muslim around the world concerning the cartoon caper. Another hopeless case demonstrating the utter hopelessness of muslims: in the Oruzgan province of Afghanistan, we walked into a village, about 100 pop. my first time actually out in the wilds of the country. I was pretty new to the unit but what really amazed me is the stench and minefield of what at first I thought was dog sh#$t, but found out was human feces. Like a large open kennel these people just stopped dropped and let er rip whereever they felt like it. I mean this was not an entirely prehistoric locale, they have barely discovered the wheel but still. In Kandahar the same thing was apparent, stop drop and go. Human feces littered the sidwalks and living areas. It was like this when the Russians took over as well we were informed. When our unit tried to build a rudimentry sewage pond using our interpretors to explain the hygenic advantages and benefits the locals got extremely upset and started to get unruly. They are proud people it was explained to us, too proud to learn to crap in a one place and not all over their living area causing disease and sickness Romans figured out 2000 years ago? I just don’t get it and our President doesn’t either.
If the Bush team could only learn to sell their ideas. He came out with alternative fuel ideas, what three years ago? and they dropped out of sight. Same with immigration, same with Soc Security, same with the current War on Terror, which isn’t for sell but needs to be “sold” even still. Good grief, and the inability to see political disaster strolling toward you from a block away? I support Bush but when you know the media’s strategy to undermine, seems like the Bush team could come up with alternative ways to “present” their ideas and steal the story for themselves, in front of the tide, not behind it.