THE WAR ON TERRORISM – STATUS

There are two events that occurred this past week that impact the War on Terrorism.

The first is the damage caused by the collapse of the Dubai Ports deal. I am not taking sides on this, but merely pointing out the impact on the War on Terrorism. This was a victory for the terrorists. An editorial in the Washington Post (Happy Now? – 3/10/06) points out that “Any government in a Muslim-majority country will have to ask itself: Why take the risk of friendship? If governments find no good answer to that question, the fight against radical Islamic terrorism will suffer.” The article is referring to friendship with the United States.

A second article in the editorial section the same day by David Ignatius (Burning Allies) also reinforces the impact of the ports deal and focuses on just how western the UAE really is. He points out how the U.S. does not live up to its rhetoric about free trade and partnerships with its allies. America talks a good story but doesn’t follow through with the Arabs. Mr. Ignatius talks about how the UAE has built a modern economy, and how their people feel they are America’s friends.

The Dubai Ports deal failure may also affect the investments in America by the Arab world at a time when our economy is dependent on foreign capital. Our government now has another issue to work through with the Arab world.

The second event is the securing of our nation’s borders. The passing of H.R. 4437 in the House of Representatives was a successful battle in the war on terrorism, but it still needs to make it through the Senate. This bill, as I pointed out in my March 10th posting, is a good start and needs to be made into law. Our government still needs to swiftly address the issue of the 12 million existing illegal immigrants in the United States. How we transition them into legal immigrants, and extend to them the guaranteed wage and employment rights must be a top priority. Reducing the number of illegal immigrants in our country will help the government identify or isolate potential terrorists. Let’s keep the ball rolling.