Are Problems of Iraq, Islamofascism and Immigration Too Great?

This morning I am feeling melancholy about the future of our country. I see so many huge problems confronting our children and grandchildren. It’s not so much that I am beginning to think that we cannot solve them, it’s that I am thinking that we may have lost our resolve to do what is necessary to solve them.

The war in Iraq is not going that badly, but the violence continues, and the parties cannot seem to work out political differences. The strategic decisions were wise, but, as Condi Rice said the other day, we have made thousands of tactical errors, and the time and resources it will take for a successful outcome seems not to be within us. It was, and still is, a wise and bold move to remove Saddam and encourage a fledgling democracy in the middle of the huge oil reserves and in the heart of the terrorist movement, but we have greatly underestimated the animosity and capacity for violence between the Shia and the Sunni populations. We have to stay the course, but will we? Unfortunately the Democrats offer nothing but partisan sniping.

The cartoon riots and the attempt to arrest and execute an Afghan citizen for converting from Islam to Christianity have also shaken my belief that Muslim terrorism is confined to a small portion of the 1.5 billion Muslim population around the world. Where are the voices of these ordinary Muslim people in denouncing the violence and pointing out that these acts are contrary to Islam? Even within our own country we see Muslim organizations like CAIR excusing and even tacitly supporting these animals. Our strategy is sound if there are, indeed, peaceful Muslims and moderate Muslim countries, but this war with the Islamofascists is just starting. Do we have the stamina and the will to persevere? Again, with their stupid censure and impeachment talk, the Democrats offer only obstructions to the real work that needs to be done, and we shot ourselves in the foot with the Dubai ports deal fiasco.

The immigration problem also seems beyond our capacity to solve. Obviously we cannot continue to support hordes of illegals entering our country, and we must build a fence, increase our enforcement efforts and fine employers. At the same time, we need these people to harvest our crops and perform menial jobs, and it is foolish to think we might actually round up 12 to 20 million illegals and send them all back. We also need something like the McCain-Kennedy proposal to allow them to earn citizen status by paying fines, and by learning English and American history. We must stop the nonsense of bilingual education. Once again the poison of multiculturalism rears its ugly head. The 500,000 illegal Latinos in the streets of Los Angeles looked alarmingly like the Muslim youths rioting in France. I have little confidence that the Republican Party, my party, has the wisdom and the courage to bring about this combined solution. At least twice before we thought we had solved this problem, but lacked the will to see it through.