Saturday, November 21, 2015

Could We Get to the Hope and Change Part Soon?

President Obama mocks Republicans who want to make sure that our refugee resettlement program screens out terrorists by accusing them of being afraid of widows and orphans.

Leaving aside the fact that jihadis have used widows and orphans as suicide bombers, please note that in almost the same breath the president assures us that we have the most vigorous review process in place already to screen these refugees.

Apparently, it was prudent to be afraid of widows and orphans even before the Paris slaughter. Could that be right?

Huh.

So Republicans are just late to that realization of potential danger, it seems.

Sadly, the president would rather mock opponents than discuss how to avoid having jihadis slip terrorists into our country via the refugee process while letting those widows and orphans in:

This is not a president who has prioritized human rights in Middle East policy, as evidenced by the cold shoulder given to Iran's Green Revolution protesters in June 2009 and by the long inaction in addressing the problems of Syrian refugees, now flowing into Europe.

All of which makes more grating Obama's denunciation of Americans critical of his call to admit 10,000 refugees here. In Antalya he accused them of closing their hearts to victims of violence and of being "not American" in suggesting prioritization of the Christian refugees who have been singled out for torture and murder.

Is this the "hope" or the "change" part of our new transformational politics?

Now, despite being annoyed at the outrageous charge by liberals despite what the Obama administration is already doing, I wouldn't get too worked up over the refugee problem here. This isn't like Europe where ISIL can slip people into a large flow of migrants going by land and sea to Europe on short notice. There are better ways to slip terrorists into America than through the refugee system. Our southern border comes to mind. Or even our northern border. Or with tourist visas.

But the terrorists could use this route. So what's the harm of sifting the refugees carefully? And asking the administration if their methods are as thorough as they claim?

After all, if the terrorists do slip terrorists in through this refugee flow to America, I imagine that would trigger an end to that flow for good. If you want us to help refugees (if defending us isn't a priority), you should want to effectively screen refugees.