What, Are We Stupid?

Today’s Oregonian features an editorial endorsing a really bad idea: humanitarian visas for tens of thousands of Iraqis. Oregon’s scrappy Democrat Peter DeFazio has sponsored a bill in the house calling for a free pass for 50 thousand Iraqis. Oregon Republican Senator Gordon Smith called and raised him 20 thousand.

The reasoning is humane. We created a mess over there and some Iraqis came to our assistance. They were the good guys who now face certain reprisals as our war strategy melts down. We owe them safe transit and haven, just as we did the tens of thousands of Vietnamese who served us as we retreated out of Vietnam in the 70s.

Mary and I sponsored two of those Vietnamese refugees in 1979, so it’s not as though I’m immune to these arguments. But how much damage from the Bush war can we reasonably be expected to mitigate? The Oregonian was in editorial support of “preemptive war” when I thought anyone with half a brain could see what a disaster it was going to be. Perhaps the editors feel guilty.

I feel a lot of things, but guilt isn’t one of them.

We’ve already paid with over 3,500 American deaths, the squander of hundreds of billions of dollars, and the crushing of America’s standing as part of the community of nations. Iraqis have paid much more, and they’ll continue to pay much more. But the mostly foiled bomb plot in Britain last week makes a good case to me that we should be admitting fewer Middle East immigrants, not more, regardless of their skills, education, or level of risk at home.

I’ve never believed the absurd argument that we must defeat the terrorists over there or they will follow us home. On the other hand, I don’t think it’s a particularly good idea to invite them to dinner, and there is simply no way in the world we could adequately vet tens of thousands of displaced Iraqis. Al-Qaeda, get in line! Doctors move to the front of the line! Await further orders when you arrive.

I’m tired of paying for Bush’s mistakes and being told we have a moral responsibility to pay more. If we want to bring 70 thousand Iraqis to the U.S., send them all to Crawford, Texas and let George make barbeque.

More realistically, we should be taking steps to help at-risk Iraqis resettle in parts of the Middle East where at-risk Iraqis are already settling, primarily Lebanon, Syria, and Iran. And we could pressure our good friends the Kuwaitis to open their doors. And Egypt. Saudi Arabia. Whatever.

So, call me racist. I’m happy to have twelve million illegal immigrants who are already here. I wish them well. I’m inclined to agree with those who say next step is to seal the border. It might not be perfect, but when the ship is sinking, you plug the leak, then you start to bail.

But at this time, I believe it makes every reasonable sense in the world to severely restrict immigration from any part of the world where polls show that the majority of popular opinion supports Al-Qaeda and direct terrorist attacks against America.

What, are we stupid?